opinion on .38

[RichardKCMo]

Are their many ideas on what size bullets work best in .38/.357 .357 or.358 dia. cast bullets

 

[hydraulicman]

I use .358's in my .38 special

 

[ReloaderFred]

I load several thousand .38 lead bullets about every six months or so, and they're all .358" diameter.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[HuntAndFish]

Seriously Rich, .001" isn't going to matter. There will be that much variance in a single lot of bullets. Either of those are fine for use in a .38 special unless you are shooting in competition or something like that.

 

[armoredman]

.358 for me, works great. 124gr cast Lee mould LLA lube.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

ditto armoredman. I shoot a 'light' load about 1000 fps with the 158 gr in my .357

 

[joneb]

For me it depends on the gun, I've had .38spl and .357mag cylinder mouths measure .3575 thru .359". I think the bullet base makes a difference be it hollow base, flat base or bevel base, and I had the most leading with very beveled base bullets.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

It's common belief and practice to use a .358" bullet when loading lead bullets and .357" bullets when loading jacketed bullets. I've been going by that guideline since I started reloading and it's worked well for me. BUT, IMO the only time you will have a problem if you use a .357" lead bullet is if the revolver is already slightly over sized and you load the smaller bullet and that problem only entails inaccuracy, nothing dangerous. If you come across a good deal on .357" 38/357 bullets and they shoot well in your revolver use them.

 

[PO2Hammer]

I only shoot .358" Hornady swaged bullets in my .357's. (good up to 1,100 fps)

 

[243winxb]

.3575" This is what they measure coming out of my Lyman sizer die marked 357. The same die can produce larger or smaller diameters, measured in the .0001" 's depending on the alloy used. Spring back happens with lead bullets. Normal is .358" for store bought.

 

[jfh]

I'll agree with the comments above saying it doesn't make much difference--kind of.

What I've found is that .358 bullets work best when combined with the right BHN for the velocity they are shot at. My "replica reload" rounds--850-970 fps from a 2" barrel cleaned up noticably when I started shooting .358 bullets in which the hardness ranged from about 11-14.

Jim H.