Cleaner .38spl HBWC light load to use in .357 mag gun?

[ric426]

I'm wondering what I could change with my standard indoor PPC load to make it shoot cleaner in a 4" 686. I'm using Zero 148gr HBWC over 2.3gr of Winchester Super Target (yes, it's a bunny fart load) that works very well in my 6" PPC gun (clean, accurate, not very smokey), but leaves a lot of really hard to clean carbon rings in .357 chambers when I shoot them in my 4" 686 for service class.
I've tried all the standard cleaning approaches for the carbon rings and some work better than others, but if I can minimize the formation of the rings in the first place it'd be better. Different powder, different charge of WST? I don't mind changing my standard load if it works well for both guns, or using a different for the 686 if it's cleaner and still low power.

 

[GP100man]

Crude rings

There a pain for shore but an easy way to clean em is chamfer a 357 case until it`s sharp then flair it until ya can barely get it into the cyl , push it forward & scrape the crude away .

Ya can soak it with ya favorite solvent to soften it a bit which helps.

Cheap repairable/repeatable as needed.

This is why I load regular wadcutters (not hollow) in 357 cases.

Heard of some seating out the case of 38 brass .135' so the front end is barely in the throats to curb the crude build up a bit , but never tried it .

 

[kimbernut]

.357 cylinder

Best way to solve that problem is shoot all .357mag. cases. I have shot 148gr.HBWC WITH 3.1gr. Titegroup for years and have some friends that shoot 2.9- 3.0 Bullseye. Works great.

 

[ric426]

After reading some other threads here I'm wondering if I'm off base assuming that the carbon rings are caused by the powder. It sounds like they're as likely to be from burned bullet lube, in which case I'll just have to deal with it since I'm sitting on 4000 Zero HBWC's. When I can afford to buy some, I may experiment with some plated wadcutters to see if they leave the.357 chambers cleaner.

GP100man - I made a tool like you describe and went a little further by threading a handle into the primer pocket and cutting some fine teeth in the flared and chamfered case mouth. It removes the worst of the buildup, but it takes a lot of elbow grease with copper scrub pad strips wrapped around a chamber brush to get most of it.

I only have a couple dozen .357 cases to experiment with at this point. I'll get more eventually, but unemployment and high health insurance premiums are going to put stuff like that on hold for now.

 

[ljnowell]

I dont care much for HBWC, but I do load a decent amount of cast DEWC(Missouri Bullet PPC#2). I have found my most accurate and cleanest load to be 2.9-3.0gr of AA#2. I shoot in a Bullseye league and this load is smoking accurate and clean burning. I routinely go a looooong time without cleaning my gun. In fact, I havent ran a brush through it in probably 12 weeks, and I shoot a match once a week and practice twice a week. I generally shoot 200 rounds in practice and 30 rounds in match weekly. Thats how clean this load runs.

 

[[email protected]]

For my Cowboy Action Shooting, I shoot .45 Colt but my wife shoots .38/.357! I use 2.8g of Clays (not Universal Clays) behind soft lead RNFP bootits 158g, and after 100 rounds from a match, her guns are easy to clean with a single swipe of Hoppes 9 and a clean patch and done! She shoots 5 1/2" Taurus Gouchos and a Marlin '94 Carbine also chambered in .38/.357! As for accuracy, about 2" at 10 yds in speed shooting and 1/2" slow fired from the revolvers, and 3" at 25 yds with the rifle speed shooting 1" slow fired. Even at 50 yds it stays at about 2" open sited.
Needless to say, shes better then me!

 

[steelerdude99]

I'm wondering what I could change with my standard indoor PPC load to make it shoot cleaner in a 4" 686. ...

Have you tried a plated wadcutter? Berry's has a 148G wadcutter that is plated and burns cleanly (i.e. no lube burn off). Using 38 special brass, I have loaded this bullet using 4 grains of HP38. The Berrys page below says don't load w/ less than 800 fps lead loads. They mean it!!! I loaded these at 3.0g of HP38 (a few years ago before the warning on the page) and they either did not make the target or got stuck in the barrel. ... a few e-mails to them ... "load faster than 800fps for the 148G wadcutter" was their response. Other than that they need to be loaded at "higher than lead velocities", they work great and are very clean.

http://www.berrysmfg.com/product-i14487-c13-g8-b0-p0-.38_Cal_148gr_HBWC.aspx

The last time I ordered from them directly, Berry's covers postage w/ orders greater than $50.00. Powder valley also has them at better than direct Berry's price, but postage may eat up the difference. If clean is what you want, they are worth a try.

chuck