Practice ammo brass: .357, .38 spl, or .38 spl Short?

[Bill M.]

I bought a thousand .357 cases and that is what I load. Light or heavy, same case. Probably cheaper than buying smaller quantities of 2 different cases.

 

[Shivahasagun]

Have you found place that actually has any .38 Short, Long or Special brass in stock?

Can back order .38 Colt Short. Have .38 spl, (1k or so) have small amount of .357 (about 400 total) but want to save new cases for defense loads.

I'd either order more .357 or .38 S. Colt or just use the .38 spl.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

I actually load a lot of 38 Short Colt cases with .38 Special bullets. I’ve never pushed them to .357 magnum pressures, but if you load them with .38 S&W (not special) load data you get a really nice shooting cartridge.

 

[cfullgraf]

There can be only one power, full power - highlander.

Maybe.

These days, my main targets are paper or aluminum cans. Mid-range 357 Magnum ammunition is more than adequate for the "kill".

 

[Riomouse911]

You can load them both and tailor your loads to the cases and intended uses. I have both .38 and .357 loads concocted for paper punching, for steel plates, for hunting, for my rifle and for defense.

All it takes are a few twists of the dies and a change in the powder charge and you can go from .38 Spl. to .357 Mag. and vice-versa, so there really isn’t much extra effort involved.

But, if you want to shoot only one cartridge length you certainly could do that, too. Just be sure to mark them with a sharpie, or use brass for target and nickel for full power (etc.), so you can tell the different loads apart.

Stay safe.

 

[KY DAN]

Do I need to worry about trimming .357 cases?

Because if I do I definitely would rather use shorter cases and skip trimming.

Only if you care about uniformity and it's affect on distance shooting. At 7 yards you will never notice the difference BUT at 100 or 200 yards there is a big decenerable difference.

 

[Shivahasagun]

You can load them both and tailor your loads to the cases and intended uses. I have both .38 and .357 loads concocted for paper punching, for steel plates, for hunting, for my rifle and for defense.

All it takes are a few twists of the dies and a change in the powder charge and you can go from .38 Spl. to .357 Mag. and vice-versa, so there really isn’t much extra effort involved.

But, if you want to shoot only one cartridge length you certainly could do that, too. Just be sure to mark them with a sharpie, or use brass for target and nickel for full power (etc.), so you can tell the different loads apart.

Stay safe.

I'm leaning towards using .357 mag cases for all loads.

That will mean practicing reloading the gun with the cases I'll carry, which is good.

I'll tell them apart by using jacketed bullets for .357 pressure and lead bullets for .38 pressure. And of course mark the packaging I'll put them in as well.

 

[Shivahasagun]

Only if you care about uniformity and it's affect on distance shooting. At 7 yards you will never notice the difference BUT at 100 or 200 yards there is a big decenerable difference.

Thanks!

I commonly shoot from 1 to 25 yds and occasionally (I should more often) take is back to 50 yds.

 

[mdi]

I'm just getting back into 357 Mag. reloading as I have a new 2" Taurus 357 Mag coming. I was going over my records and noticed my 357 reloads were fairly mid-level and many with 160 gr. Lachmilller SWCs. I have been using JHPs in some of my 38 Special loads and am going to try some 125 XTPs in my 357, but I'm not going "Full Magnum" right away. Old age and it's been a long time since I've fired any "real Magnums". But for many years, like many others, have fired 38 Specials in my 4" 357 Mag. with no problems (I clean my guns thoroughly after each range session.)...

But when I first started reloading 44 Magnums I had a full blown casw of "Magnumitis". Most reloads were at or near max with 240, 265, and 300 gr bullets. I guess enjoyed the wrist breaking recoil and rafter shaking muzzle blast...