.357 Powder Test

[joneb]

Accurate #9 with a 158gr jacketed bullet is the bee's knees for my 2.75 Ruger security six, it works well.

 

[buck460XVR]

A little off topic but high es's are not a good thing.

Just something to think about, everything starts with consistent ignition & low es's.

^^^This.

The brass is all same-batch Starline. It's been loaded a few times, but it's far from worn out. Lengths are consistent, but not to 1 thou.

Then I go back to my original thought that it's the plated bullets.

For my revolver hunting loads, that I want as accurate as I can get, I trim my brass so it's all the same length. This gives me consistent crimps which helps me with accuracy. For range use I generally don't bother, but do sort by headstamp and length. Accuracy from a known accurate load combo does not go down that much, so I'd guess it's not your brass giving the extreme ES. Some guns just don't like some bullets, some powders, some powder charges and some powder/bullet combos. In your test you have changed powders, powder charges and powder/bullet combos. Only thing consistent with all of your loadings is the bullets. Unless you have something else going on with the gun(like inconsistent chamber/throat size), it just seems they are the culprit. Did you do any type of accuracy testing with the loads? Is the gun fairly accurate with factory loads or jacketed bullets?

Over all your tests pretty much mirror most of what we see in manuals, with slow burning powders giving better velocities. Exception is N105. IMHO, in a small case like .357 and standard for caliber bullets, N110 works much better. Vihtavuori's own reloading data shows this also. I have had good luck with N105 in my .460 and 300 gr and heavier bullets, but not so much in my lesser calibers like .357 and .44 with standard for caliber bullets. Similar to IMR4227. Like N105 it likes big cases full of powder, stuffed with a heavy bullet and it prefers a long pipe.

 

[gonoles_1980]

I prefer a little lighter loads, I use 7.8gr of PowerPistol with a standard primer in my 5.5" SA Bisley Valquero .357. I was thinking of trying HS-6 with mag primers in the .357, not a real fan of PowerPistol. I use BE-86 in my 44 mag.