So I inherited a wheelgun... (.357 questions inside)

[RiverwinoIA]

and im becoming very interested in it.

Was given a Ruger Security Six (6" bbl) recently. Blue finish, 154- series. I kind of neglected it for awhile, and just shot my 9mm pistol (cheaper to feed, and im still a newbie to handguns in general) Last time out to the range, i brought the ruger along, with a box of 50 Rem. UMC 125gr. JSP. Now im hooked. I thought the recoil/noise would be bothersome... wrong, its very fun. Im not that bad of shot with it either.

Now, i need to know what to feed this beast. i dont reload. mail order is ok.

-what is the cheapest 38 spc load out there? i want something that i can shoot a lot of, to work on trigger control.

-what is a good economical HOT 357 load? I have heard win. winclean 125gr. jsp are good, and CCI blazers. Any others? this round is for practice/plinking only.

- What is the absolute meanest 357 load available? Price doesnt matter, just want to punish myself/show my buddies a good time (looks like buffalo bore, from what ive read so far)

and finally, what is YOUR .357 self-defense load?

 

[Brian Williams]

My cheapest 38 load is handloaded 128gr wadcutters and a few grains of 231.
Economical hot 357 load,I handload rem 158JSP and a bunch of 2400.
Meanest load is either Buffalo Bore or Corbons
My load is 165Gr LSWCGC and 18gr of Lil'gun for my Marlin and 15gr for my Kframes.

 

[Ichiro]

Remington UMC 125-grain .357 magnum is a very good buy (natchezss.com).

I'm not terribly adventurous about hot loads, but the 125-grains offer noticeably more experience per shot than other factory loads, including the 165-grain and 180-grain hunting loads I've tried.

In my experience with my 4" GP-100, all .38s feel about the same. I wouldn't spend an extra cent to get +P or anything else with use in this particular gun because I just don't notice any difference between the different rounds. In fact, I don't shoot .38s in this gun anymore. 125-grain .357 magnum all the way. It's more expensivel than 9mm, but the satisfaction per round is much, much higher.

I would practice trigger control by dry-firing at home. For range use, I'd load with the aforementioned awesome .357 magnum round.

 

[Ichiro]

My GP is loaded with Federal Personal Protection 125-grain .357. From my (i.e., the shooter's) perspective, it's the same as the cheap UMC round mentioned above. Big flame. Hefty recoil, and fun.

I've fired this from my SP-101, but it is punishing, so I load it with 135-grain Speer SB ammo.

 

[dogngun]

Remington UMC is also available at WalMart, good ammo, reliable, consistant, cheap, in .38 spl as well as .357 mag.

BTW, the Security Six is one of Rugers best, many think THE best. They are very reliable, accurate shooters, built like a dump truck. They start getting very smooth after 20 years of use. An excellent revolver.

Mark

 

[MCgunner]

Get some 180 grain Buffalo Bore to test your macho-ness.

I cast my own and reload my own, so I'm not much up on "cheap" factory ammo. I even reload what I would use for self defense if I used .357 for such. I load 18.0 grains 2400 behind a 125 grain JHP for about 1500 fps in a 4" gun, 1620 fps in a 6 1/2" Ruger or 17 grains of 2400 behind a Speer 140 JHP for 1560 fps out of the 6 1/2" Ruger and 1345 fps from a 4" gun. When I carry a .357, though, it's usually outdoors on my hip and 9 time out of ten stoked with a 158 grain gas check Lee SWC I cast myself with 14.5 grains 2400 for 1470 fps from the Ruger. This is my general purpose outdoor thumper and the one I normally practice with since the bullets cost me about ten bucks a thousand (price of the gas checks).

My .38 wadcutter load is the time honored 2.6 grains bullseye behind a cast 148 grain plain base wadcutter from a Lee mold.

Ammo, reloading equipment, about everything shooting that I don't buy local I order from http://www.midwayusa.com . They have a good variety of factory loads, cheap and expensive.

I notice this one's loaded kinda light, but sure is cheap. 158 grain and 1150 fps it says (click on technical specs.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=355524