Hey all,
I've been boogered up the past couple weekends and so I haven't been to the range.
Opportunity presented itself this morning and I took it.
-all groups were fired at 50 yards, kneeling-
I'd like to thank
@AJC1 again for donating some home cast & coated bullets to me for testing, very kind and gave me a wider variety for my testing.
This test will continue as I fine tune the best load for optimum performance from rifle & revolver.
The gun: ruger 77/357 with cheap-o bushnell 3-9x scope, factory rings, threaded muzzle with factory thread protector . bought new march, 2020.
The bullets used for this test:
Ckb 158 grain rnfp coated, plain base.
MBC 158 grain grooveless hi-tek coated swc, plain base.
MBC 180 grain hi-tek coated wfn, plain base.
&
@AJC1 's 158 grain blue coated swc , plain base.
- no picture! I used them all.
Here's how it went, all are 10 shot groups.
- THE MBC grooveless 158 swc over 13.5 grains of 2400 (a last minute addition to this test, only one charge weight of 2400 was tested). Not an excellent group but better than the laser cast 158 swc load that made a 10" group at 50 yards. It did ok.
The blue AJC1 swc bullets did pretty well, by suggestion I tried a load of 7 grains of unique which printed low and was pleasant. A more typical charge (for me) of , again - 13.5 grains 2400 brought the group closer to my 50 yard zero and tightened up the group nicely.
The 158 grain CKB coated rn bullet over 13.5 grains of 2400 made a decent group and over 15 grains h110 it made what I consider an excellent group- the one flyer was my fault, I knew it was off at the trigger break.
I also tried the same CKB bullet over a lighter charges, 12.5 grains of 2400 & 14.5 grains of h110. Again, the one loaded with h110 made a tighter group.
--the best performing bullet tested was the MBC 180 grain hi-tek coated wfn.
13.5 & 14 grains of h110 and 11.5 & 12 grains of 2400 were tested. The rounds were tight in the chamber but no excessive effort was required to close the bolt but it did take a little more force to turn the bolt handle upon chambering, looking back I should have ejected a chambered round to check where the rubbing was- didn't think of it. I think 12 grains of 2400 made the best group of the day followed closely by the 14 grains of h110.
That's more like it, I'd imagine if bench rested and seated I could get 1.5" group at 100 yards or maybe a little bigger, I'll take it . I'll focus my testing to the 180 grain wfn, seems to be what the gun likes best.
SWC bullet profile isn't the most accurate profile in carbine length barrels.
Seems to be the case here.
I've since moved to the coated180 WFN over H110
Glad I had some to test!
I AM a big fan of the 180grn cast FN bullet in the .357, they were some of the most accurate loads I ever worked up in the .357
That's my experience now, too.
I would bet all the h110 loads will shoot well. As long as you used mag primer.
Hit the nail on the head. I used small rifle primers for the h110 loads, down to 200 spm . using the smp I may get slightly better accuracy, I'll use some for further testing.
Thankyou to everyone for the input, now that I know that rifle is capable of good accuracy with cast loads my confidence in it is back and I can stop thinking I'd be stuck with jacketed bullets for 357 rifle use. Those laser cast swc shoot so well in my revolver I just never thought they'd shoot so poorly from a longer barrel, I've shot thousands of them and thought they were great. Needless to say, once I use up my last 800 or so, I won't buy them again.
---I'll update this thread as I move along, unless it gets closed in the meantime, then I'll start a new one to post results.
Have a good day!
