357 Mag Pumpkin Buster Loads?

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targetshooter22

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Hello fellow reloaders,

Question for the community: does anyone have a particular bullet/powder combo for a 357 that is high velocity and relatively speaking, frangible?

There is a specific application: every year, in early November, I try to attend an annual pumpkin shoot (happens after Halloween, when the fresh pumpkin market collapses), sometimes known as The Day We Defend Earth From The Pumpkin Overlords.

So far, the best er performers have been high velocity (>3100 fps) light weight (<90 grains) 243's and some HP 44 mags. 223 are good too, as is the 308. But now I have a new gun, and am looking for something to make the pumpkins go pop.

Any suggestions/experiences from the community?

TS22
 
If you are going to use a .357 Magnum you will want to get the velocity up like with the .223 but I'm guessing I'm not telling you anything you don't know. I would suggest using the lightest bullet you can find and push it as hard as it will allow.

The Hornady XTP bullet is very accurate but from what I can tell it's only in 110gr when sized to .357". They sell 90gr XTP's in .355" but I doubt you will be able to make them accurate.

Maybe you can find a .356" bullet @90gr that will be accurate enough but I'm really thinking you will need to be as light as 90gr to get the results you're looking for unless you shoot the .357 Magnum rounds from a Carbine. I have built 125gr .357 Magnum loads that exceed 2,200 fps from a Carbine.
 
I would suggest using the lightest bullet you can find and push it as hard as it will allow.
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Yep, light weight bullet designed to fragment easily, and then drive it as fast as safely possible.
 
Yup, light and fast is what I was thinking. No need to worry about excessive for me, I stick to current published data only. I was wondering if anyone had any known good loads for a 6"at barreled revolver.

Thanks again, you people are great!
 
If you can still find them, Speer made a 110gn Uni-cor hollowpoint that was able to handle .357mag pressures where the 110gn Gold Dot was only good in the .38spl because the hollowpoint was so deep that the high pressure would just blow the bottom out of it leaving the rest of the bullet in the bore somewhere.

Sierra also has loads in the 1550fps range for their 110gn Blitz. The Blitz series are designed for very rapid expansion and should dump their energy nicely into Mr. Punkin.
 
Cheat!
Cut a hole in the top and fill them with water??

That will really make them pop!!

rc
 
Not sure if they're still made or how they would hold up to the speed, but Win did make a 90 or 95gr semi-jacketed HP at one time that's sized for .38's. I used them to get the wife started with some light .38 loads.
 
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