357mag primers

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reloadn

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I have been reloading 9mm, 45acp and 38spl for a while now and now decided to load some 357mag. My question is will small pistol primers work or do I need small pistol mag.
 
Unless you are using heavy charges of ball powder like H110 or WW296 or something, regular Sm Pistol primers are fine.

rc
 
What I said.

Only the slow burning ball powders require a mag primer.

Bullseye is neither slow burning or a ball powder.

But neither is it a good .357 Mag powder if you want full power & velocity.
It's as far removed from WW296 as you can get for magnum loads.

rc
 
It all depends on what book you are reading. some say no and some say yes to magnums. i have used both with no problems. I shoot 158 gr swc in the middle of charge weights. however i would be careful if you are at the max and go with magnums. lee 2nd edition says standard primers and Lyman 49 th says magnums. Hodgdon web site also says to use magnums. ?????
 
Consider if you will that the .357 Magnum was loaded for the first 40 years or so of it's existence with standard primers & 2400 powder because Magnum primers had not been invented yet.

Mag primers are not needed, and may in fact give erratic results with easily ignited flake type powders like 2400.

rc
 
Mag primers for W296/H110 in .357, but no other powder needs them as far as I know.
 
I agree with the advice give by "rcmodel" and "Walkalong" is mostly correct except I think Lil'Gun delivers better results with a Magnum primer too. I also use a Magnum primer with HS-6 but it's also a ball powder that's hard to ignite.
 
except I think Lil'Gun delivers better results with a Magnum primer too
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I'll have to keep that in mind when I try Lil' Gun in .44 Mag. Only used it in .22 Hornet thus far.
 
AC, I'm not 100% sure but I am close to 99% sure Lil'Gun is a ball powder. I have been using only Magnum primers when loading .357 Magnum rounds and a 180gr bullet.
 
In 357 mag I use...
Bullseye - reg primer
2400 - reg primer
H110 - mag primer
lil-gun - mag primer

The bullseye is loaded med/light for plinking. The 2400 is loaded medium for plinking and longer range target. H110 is nice for a variaty of size jacketed bullets high speed uses. Lil-gun is the all time 180 grain heavy hitter and very fun to blast water filled milk jugs.
I never used a smaller bullet with Lil-gun but I'm waiting to see a post from ArchAngelCD as he mentioned he may try a 158 grain with it sometime.:D He has a good grip on 357 mag with alot of good info.
 
I am close to 99% sure Lil' Gun is a ball powder
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I'm 99.99% sure it is. Not as fine grained as H110/W296 or AA # 9. I have been quite happy with AA # 9 and lead or jacketed bullets over the years, but am intrigued by Lil' Guns ability to achieve the same velocities with less pressure in some applications. It has to be good for case life with those fragile Hornet cases, and it couldn't hurt in .44 Mag. It may prove especially good with the Speer 270 Gr Gold Dot, which I currently load with W296. I am almost out of it though. I don't load any top end .357, but some experimentation with Lil' Gun and really heavy bullets in .357 might make a good project someday.
 
I never used a smaller bullet with Lil-gun but I'm waiting to see a post from ArchAngelCD as he mentioned he may try a 158 grain with it sometime.
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Sorry 4$bill, I haven't tried that yet but I promise I'll post a range report when I do, chrono data and all.
Also, thanks for the complement but there are others here with just as good and better information that I have. I do appreciate the kind words...
 
I'll often size and prime brass long before I use it. With that in mind all my .357 brass is primed with spm primers. That way I can use H110, Unique, W231 or anything else and don't have to segregate primed brass. I stay away from max loads with the fast powder. If I want magnum performance I use the slower powders.
 
Sport45,
I don't do that because I get poor results and erratic performance with Magnum primers when using W231, 2400 and a few other easy to ignite powders.
 
Bullseye is a fine powder for .357 cast bullet loads. (Herco is better, and I really like AA#7.) Use regular SP primers with any of them -- unless all you have is magnum primers or small rifle. 296 is good only if you follow the recipe exactly and use hot primers and a good bullet crimp (if you can do that, it gives outstanding performance)
 
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