Loading 357 copper plated bullets

[gonoles_1980]

Am I loading too light? I have xtreme 158gr copper plated 357 bullets, using 6.2gr of HP-38, which is the low end of a jacketed bullet. Xtreme says use mid-to high range of jacketed, which would mean 6.5gr. I'd like to start off low and work up. Any reason I shouldn't use the 6.2 load?

 

[rcmodel]

Nope.

No reason at all.

6.2 is the starting load shown by Hodgdon for 158 grain Hornady XTP.

rc

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Any reason I shouldn't use the 6.2 load?

None what so ever. You should have no problems at all with that starting load. The jackets on jacketed bullets are much harder than the plating on plated bullets so if the data says the minimum is safe for jacketed it is certainly safe for plated.

 

[gonoles_1980]

I mis-read the xtreme

they said mid range jacketed to high end lead. Arggh, which they had done low to high. But that tells me the range for the plated would be 5.0 to 6.5 for the plated, so I'm still in the range.

Thanks guys.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

With plated bullets you need to follow the mfg's speed limit for the bullet. This varies from mfg to mfg.

Load Info:
- Our Copper Plated Bullets can be run at mid-range jacketed velocities or higher end lead velocities. We do not recommend velocities over 1500 FPS (Feet Per Second) and only a light taper crimp.
Any velocities over 1200 FPS we recommend either our Heavy Plate Concave Base or Hollow Point products for superior accuracy. We do not recommend velocities over 1500 FPS (Feet Per Second) and only a light taper crimp.
- All of our Hard Cast Lead Bullets are approximately 18 on Brinell, our Cowboy lead bullets are approximately 15 on Brinell.

From Xtreme's web site.

Did you buy thick plate or their standard. You can load their standard plated bullets to 1200fps. That's how you know where to stop with your maximum.

Their thick plate plate is good for up to 1500fps and only with a taper crimp which leave out the slow burning pressure building powders like 2400 and H110 and so on. They need a good heavy roll crimp to get the pressure building so the powder will burn correctly.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Hodgdon's reloading data for HP-38 is maxed out at 1220 at 6.9gr so you really don't have much to worry about at using even maximum load for any bullet you want to use, lead, plated, or jacketed.