[olevern]

Well, wasn't planning on traveling to S. Texas for another several months, but trip got pushed up by a crisis in my little buddy's life (his folks have broken up). Will be going out in three weeks and need to hastily put together booku reloads, as the little guy loves to shoot. We will be staying three or four weeks (can be flexible now that I am retired).Will be hunting wild boar with him and his dad on their private ranch, but in general, just shooting a lot at jack rabbits, coyotes, and any targets of opportunity presenting (including targets and random chunks of wood), this boy likes to shoot! I've got the .223 covered with two cases of factory loads, also taking the .50 Desert Eagle, the .454 Raging Bull, .22-250, several .22 cal rifles and pistols, my LW Browning 1886, a Browning 71, a Siamese Mauser .45-70, and my Win. Big Bore .375 all of which are no problem - I've got plenty of ammo already loaded. Problem is i want to take my new Rossi lever action .38-.357 and I have a scarcity of .357 empties to reload, but several thousand .38 spl. casings. Only 38 bullet in stock is 1,000 cast 200 gn. Keith type plain base semi wadcutters that I picked up at a show on an impulse and never found appropriate loading data for. I will load up the one hundred or so .357 mag. casings I have on hand and possibly (time permitting) the balance in .38 spl. casings. What would be a good (fairly heavy +P+) load in the .38 spl. casings I could shoot in the Rossi and in my .357 mag S&W Mod. 686?
Any suggestions for the .357 casings? I'm not even sure that this long bullet will feed thru the Rossi in .357 casings, but it should in the .38 spl. cases. If the longer casings are a problem with the Rossi, I can shoot them up in the pistol. If I had more time before leaving, I could order out some 162 gn. Keith bullets, and some more .357 casings, but time will not allow. Powders on hand in large enough quantities are AA#5 and 7, H4227, WW 452 AA, 800X, AA5744 (before XMR), IMR 4227, 2400, Unique and Red Dot. Can probably pick up any other suggested powder at the local gun shop (wish they carried hard cast bullets and new empty .357 casings) Any suggestions?

 

[MikeG]

Hi, don't have any reference information in front of me, but hopefully will have some time tonight to go through all the loading books and see what I can find for 200gr. bullets in the .38. I know loads are out there, as this bullet weight has been used in the past, just can't recall anything off the top of my head.

 

[MikeG]

Per Hodgdon #26:

.38 Special data w/200gr. cast bullets (OAL and bullet style not specified):

Start load: Max load: Max pressure:

(no start load) H4227 8.5gr 15,900 CUP
HS6 4.5gr. HS6 5.0gr. 15,900 CUP
Trap 100 2.6gr. Trap 100 2.8gr. 15,000 CUP
HP38 2.8gr. HP38 3.2gr 14,900 CUP

Note: Trap 100 commonly thought to be same as WW452AA, and HP38 commonly thought to be same as WW231, save for usual lot to lot variations. Substitute at your own risk!!!

.357 Mag data, same comments as above:

Start load: Max load: Max pressure:
H4227 10.5gr H4227 12gr 31,800 CUP
H110 9.5gr H110 11.5gr 31,200 CUP
HS7 7.5gr HS7 8.5gr 29,600 CUP
HS6 5.2gr HS6 6.8gr 30,600 CUP
Trap 100 3.4gr Trap 100 4.2gr 28,800 CUP
HP38 3.4gr HP38 4.2gr 28,100 CUP

Hope this helps, and I'd advise you to double-check this data against the published Hodgdon manuals before using any of it.

 

[olevern]

Thanks for the data.
Have already prepped the cases, now on to some test runs.
vern