[Terry Koupe]

Gonna start reloading a .357 180gr. Saeco Keith-style for a T/C G2 10in. barrel, 1 MOA Red Dot. Will use H110, CCI 550 primers, Starline brass. Crimp, no crimp, Ill just experiment, seat bullet just before grooves. Myquestion is, any helpful hints before I start? I don't have a chrony...yet(!). I'm kinda hoping there is someone who has done this before, and they have some helpful hints. Thanks, Terry

 

[unclenick]

As bullets get very heavy they get long and leave less powder space under them. It looks to me with that bullet that if you fill the space under the bullet 100% with H110, QuickLOAD (not infallible with straight wall cases) thinks you will only get to about 22,000 psi, about like a +P 45 ACP. The problem is the expansion ratio for that small amount of case volume under the bullet (I don't have your bullet dimensions, but it is probably somewhere around 12 grains of H110 to fill it) is getting high if you are using the SAAMI 1.590" maximum COL. That means the bullet doesn't have to move very far before the volume the powder is burning is will double, so the powder has to be faster to keep up making of gas with that rapid rate of increase in volume.

I ran the powder table in QuickLOAD and it looks like Ramshot Enforcer and Alliant 2400 are near the top of the list and will get you over 150 fps more than H110.

 

[MikeG]

If you're using the T/C, the thought I have is to seat the bullet to just contact the throat (if possible) and see if that is an improvement over using the standard crimp groove, or any other arbitrary length.

There is an interesting thread with some of the members getting impressive velocities with Blue Dot, as compared to H110. This using 180gr. bullets in the .357 Mag.

Good luck.

 

[Terry Koupe]

Nose-to-crimp on these bullets is .330. I was hoping that I could seat them out far enough so that case capacity would not be adverely affected. I do not want to compress H110, sounds like a bad thing, iffy at best. I was hoping best accuracy could be obtained in 14-16gr. range, to get around 1500fps. A deer round, at best 60-70yrds. Thanks so much for your info. Still want to work with H110, as I have that on hand. Seems like a good deer bullet, whatever grain/velocity combo gives best accuracy. Will report back. Crimp? No crimp? Got an idea? Terry

 

[MikeG]

Crimp. Definitely. Do everything you can to make it burn!

 

[Terry Koupe]

Roger that, dude!

 

[crossfire]

Interesting read on Contender .357 Magnum/Maximum chambers:
http://bellmtcs.com/store/index.php?cid=120
If the article is correct, you won't be able to seat the bullets out far enough to be "just short of the rifling". (The photos show a 180gr Remington SJHP. That bullet has a crimp groove to nose length of .335", I believe.) If that's the case, you'll be forced to crimp no matter what powder or bullet you use.
I have the .pdf of a 1994 Handloader article on the Contender 10" Magnum/Maximum, including load data, if you'll like. PM me.

 

[Terry Koupe]

Thanks for all input. The article from Bellm is enlightening to say the least. Crossfire I have PM'ed you for the other article. With previous bullets, a BTB 185gr. WFNGC, I shot about 2in. at 50yrds. I'm just trying to do better.

 

[Terry Koupe]

To Crossfire: I got the article, and read it last night. Very interesting!! Thank you again for sending it. I don't think I want to re-chamber, at least at this point. I'll just experiment and see what groups I get.