What did you do at your reloading bench today?

[Rifletom]

Those hot loads can do it!^^^ That's why I migrated to mild upland loads for empty cans and dirt clods out in the desert with occasional clays in there.
Those waterfowl loads are sporty!

[runnin n gunnin]

"SPORTY" is a great description RT, Back in the day I rented a house with two buddies, we didn't have a pot to pee in or a cupboard to keep it. We couldn't afford a lot of red meat and hunted upland game to stock up the freezer. Young in dumb, the bigger the bang the better. I am old and refined now !

[DsGrouse]

a few rounds of 357 sig.
500 rounds of 125 grain pellets of fun.

[Hatchdog]

Those Sig cartridges sure are cool looking.

[DsGrouse]

My lee powder drop decided to spring a leak yesterday. I know v3n37 is a pretty fine powder, but it seemed like it was leaking a spare cartridge every few throws. I spent most of the day working on it, and getting it cleaned up, polished and smoothed out. Are there any places that make better parts for it? As such, I was only able to get about 150 rounds of 357sig made up.

[Hatchdog]

Finished up some 9mm I started a couple of years ago. I used to have a PSA AR-9 that pretty much didn’t have a feed ramp. It wouldn’t chamber my Hornady XTP or my Berrys plated loads at all. It would chamber factory ball ammo just fine. So I bought a box of Speer 115 TMJ RN to try with it. I loaded 10 for a trial and they chambered just fine.

After a while I decided I really didn’t like the AR-9 so I sold it. I still had the remaining 90 Speer bullets sitting around so I finally decided to turn them into ammo. So I prepped, primed and charged 90 cases and when I was done seating bullets there was one extra of course. Since this was my only box of this bullet I took the time and trouble to prep and load one more case.

Loved the price tags on the bullets ($17.99) and the Power Pistol ($23.99). Obviously purchased prior to the 2020 panics…..

D2C35084-4EFE-4D77-A39D-3E2FE1EE1302.jpeg (370.33 KiB) Viewed 1566 times

[DsGrouse]

Sized and deprimed my small and large primer 45 acp. I broke open my 40sw dies and ran a crap ton of that through as well.

[JVogler]

Using a Lee turret press in single stage I Deprimed and flared about 300 she!is in 38 special. Use a small Craftsman screwdriver to clean out primer pockets as well.

[Cofisher]

Hey Big AL. I was loading some 357, using 296. You warned me about using low power loads. My ancestors being from Missouri, I had to see for myself. What do you know...
I had a very quick hang fire. Thanks for the heads up. Will not try that again. That 1/4 second between hammer drop and bang was an eye opener. Lol

[Rifletom]

Hey Big AL. I was loading some 357, using 296. You warned me about using low power loads. My ancestors being from Missouri, I had to see for myself. What do you know...
I had a very quick hang fire. Thanks for the heads up. Will not try that again. That 1/4 second between hammer drop and bang was an eye opener. Lol

Never cared much for 296. tried some in .357 and couldn't load it like I wanted. Gave it to a bud who used it for his .44 mag. Got better results with 2400. Much better load range.

[Cofisher]

Yeah, it was available. I know better now.

[Hatchdog]

Using a Lee turret press in single stage I Deprimed and flared about 300 she!is in 38 special. Use a small Craftsman screwdriver to clean out primer pockets as well.

Lol, I did the exact same thing for the 9mm ammo shown above. My 9mm dies are mounted on a Lee four hole turret and I didn’t want to break it down. As I had only 91 of this bullet I also didn’t want to take the time and trouble to set up the powder measure and primer feed. So I just used the Lee press in single stage for the die work, charged with my measure and primed with my hand primer. Worked great.

[BigAl52]

Hey Big AL. I was loading some 357, using 296. You warned me about using low power loads. My ancestors being from Missouri, I had to see for myself. What do you know...
I had a very quick hang fire. Thanks for the heads up. Will not try that again. That 1/4 second between hammer drop and bang was an eye opener. Lol

Like Tom I have never had any luck with it. Lots of folks here like H-110 which is the same. Im just a 2400 guy if you load it down it seems to work fine. It works in more than just 357 also 41 mag and 44 mag. Do you have any 2400?

[Cofisher]

An ounce or two. Will be looking. Have had good luck with it in the past.

Will be traveling soon. Want to take loaded rounds, not loading equipment. Planning on a small 5th wheel.

[Headhog]

Well I still have a good supply of small pistol primers, but large pistol primers are getting real low. So this morning I spent time going through my 45 ACP brass looking for small pistol primed brass. Came up with about 300 rounds. I'll load the small primer 45 ACP up so I can at least plink some. I'm saving my remaining large pistol primers for my 45 Colt loads.

Paul

[Rifletom]

Well I still have a good supply of small pistol primers, but large pistol primers are getting real low. So this morning I spent time going through my 45 ACP brass looking for small pistol primed brass. Came up with about 300 rounds. I'll load the small primer 45 ACP up so I can at least plink some. I'm saving my remaining large pistol primers for my 45 Colt loads.

Paul

Paul, you won't see any noticeable difference with the small primers in your .45 acp. With my load of 5.5gr Universal, I couldn't tell them apart. Even over the chronograph. You'll be fine with them.

[Headhog]

Well I still have a good supply of small pistol primers, but large pistol primers are getting real low. So this morning I spent time going through my 45 ACP brass looking for small pistol primed brass. Came up with about 300 rounds. I'll load the small primer 45 ACP up so I can at least plink some. I'm saving my remaining large pistol primers for my 45 Colt loads.

Paul

Paul, you won't see any noticeable difference with the small primers in your .45 acp. With my load of 5.5gr Universal, I couldn't tell them apart. Even over the chronograph. You'll be fine with them.

Tom - thanks. This is good to know. I really didn't want to test another load.

Paul

[DsGrouse]

yesterday i sized and primed 500+ 38 special. 3.7 grns of w244. Today, I loaded 250 in 158 grn lswc and around 300 148 grn double ended wadcutters. 2.7 grns of w244

[Travlin]

A bit of primer trivia, the original .357 magnum loads used large primers and of course since the N frame S&W's were the only ones they were loaded a lot hotter than today's factory .357 ammo. In Elmer Keith's early writing about the .357 he was using 16 grains of 2400 with the 158 grain slugs.

[runnin n gunnin]

A bit of more trivia. Law Enforcement was sorely outgunned by organized crime in the 1920's and 30's running from town to town robbing banks and other crimes. Smith wanted to level the playing field for LE and in the mid 20's started experimenting with the .38/44 cartridge and heavy duty revolver.

In 1935 they released the .357 Mag "The most powerful handgun in the world" using a cartridge developed by Remington with a 158-grain semi-wadcutter around 1,500 fps with a longer case so it could not be loaded into a .38 revolver.

The first Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver was presented to J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI later bought a substantial number of .357 Mags with 3.5-, 4- and 5-inch barrels, and many FBI agents purchased their own revolvers (at $60 when they were making an average of $100 per month). Perhaps the most famous FBI user of the pre-war magnum was Walter Walsh, an FBI and USMC legend. About 10 per cent of Smiths .357 production was purchased by LE agencies nationally including, the largest orders being the FBI and Kansas City PD, but also included agencies such as sheriffs, Border Patrolmen, Texas Rangers and more.

Ironically, despite its overwhelming popularity in LE as well as private gun owners who could have their revolvers custom made and adorned, Smith stopped making the .357 in December 1940 and re-geared for wartime production. General George Patton was also a big fan and purchased a 6.5 inch .357 in 1935.

Anyway, I have always been a big fan of the .357. Love working my Pythons, 686's Blackhawk and Big Boy at the range.