bullseye308
Member
I have loaded thousands of rounds of my favorite 357 load over the years. I only make one load for it, I only have one 357, a 6” stainless GP-100. The load is 5.0 grains of bullseye under a Lee 158SWC wheel weight bullet tumble lubed with a light crimp. No chronograph available to me so I’m not sure of the numbers, but I had it out and for some testing to show some kids what it would do and why it should be respected, I shot a 2x4 screwed to a 4x4 and the 4x4 itself also.
At 10’ the bullet blew through the 2x4 easily and split the 4x4 but didn’t fully penetrate. Shooting just the 4x4 i has 2 of the 4 bullets poking out the back, the other 2 were within a 1/4” from going through. What was really interesting was there was almost no deformities to the bullet except the rifling, and I’m going to load them again and see how they compare to the first time.
What I’m thinking of is mixing the remaining wheel weights 50/50 with pure to stretch my stock and the dilemma is they shoot great as is, don’t lead the barrel(haven’t cleaned the barrel in almost 8k rounds), and do I need something this hard for punching paper?
Any thoughts, especially the bullet not deforming doing through 3.5” of treated lumber?
At 10’ the bullet blew through the 2x4 easily and split the 4x4 but didn’t fully penetrate. Shooting just the 4x4 i has 2 of the 4 bullets poking out the back, the other 2 were within a 1/4” from going through. What was really interesting was there was almost no deformities to the bullet except the rifling, and I’m going to load them again and see how they compare to the first time.
What I’m thinking of is mixing the remaining wheel weights 50/50 with pure to stretch my stock and the dilemma is they shoot great as is, don’t lead the barrel(haven’t cleaned the barrel in almost 8k rounds), and do I need something this hard for punching paper?
Any thoughts, especially the bullet not deforming doing through 3.5” of treated lumber?