.357 NM BH, and Big Bullets

[steve b]

My FIL has one. I load for it. Been loading up a bunch of .38 plinking loads, time for serious stuff, because his son has expressed an interest in deer hunting with it. Myself, I went from .22's right up to .44's, so this is new ground for me. Got a box of 180gr LBT and a box of 180gr XTP's. As the gun has low mileage and is stainless steel, want to run the jacketed thru it first. Want to use the lower crimp cannelure and I have 2400 for powder. Am guestimating, at this time, that I may find "max" to be around 14grs ? Will of course start lower. Have experience working up a load in .44 with the 300gr XTP seated out, so not operating completely in the dark here. Just hoping one of ya's has scouted this path before me ! Your thoughts and opinions ? steve b

 

[sixshot]

Steve, the 2 bullets you mention are both excellent performers in the 357 maggie Ruger Blackhawk. You mention starting lower & working towards 14 grs of 2400 with the bullet in the lower crimp groove, sounds like you are headed in the right direction. The 357 is fine for deer as long as bullet placement is correct (heart/lungs) not a lot of room for error with the 357.
Because you are hunting eastern whitetails I think the XTP bullet will work best for you but the LBT is fantastic, thats what I use. Good luck!

Dick

 

[RUFFBIRD]

I loaded these for my Marlin 1894c. They get to a 100 yd target real quick.
Never hunted or fired these in a hangun, but on deer I would feel confident they would do the job!

The Jacketed heavy bullets with other magnum powders would be a good choice too....

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I have been using Accurate #9 and H-110 in my 357mags with the 180gr XTP bullets. Very accurate. Consider (and I'm just throwing this out there) that seating that XTP bullet at the second groove gives you about 20% more case capacity. With the AA#9 I have gone from 12.0gr Max to 13.0gr, an 8% increase in powder, without problems. With a chronograph it would be easier to trim the load, but I am happy with the performance for now. :shock: :D

...Jimbo

 

[contender]

Listen to sixshot,,,! While you are hunting eastern whitetails in Ohio,,, they are close in size to an average mulie. Either bullet will be a good choise,, but I'd lean towards the LBT's as well.
Lok at your experiments as an excellent time to get more trigger time learning the gun. Make your BIL do the shooting,,,!

 

[steve b]

I understand the need for the BIL to shoot and set the sights. I've put a couple dozen deer down by various means, 2 with my SBH. When I was loading the 300gr XTP in .44, I was using a Redhawk and 110 powder. Was just hoping that someone was ahead a me on the same project ! Thanks guys ! steve b

 

[steve b]

Oh, our adult deer average 25-50lbs heavier than the deer in the Penn hills, at camp. Its very common for our bucks to be above 200lbs after dressing. steve b

 

[tailwind]

I noticed these at my LGS. Im gonna pick up a box of these in the 200gr weight, and load them up for my Smith airweight 637 .38+P.
That would be a great load for hiking when I don't wanna lug around the Redhawk. :lol:
The 637 is only 15oz. You don't even know it is there. I bet I will know when I touch one of those 200 grainers off! :o

 

[Bucks Owin]

My pick would be the fat fronted LBT bullet. Some folks have good results on game with the XTP, I can't say since I've never shot a deer with one. I have shot the 158 gr pretty extensively in testing expansion and think they are kinda sensitive in regard to impact velocity. Three things happen, they either A: expand beautifully, B: shed the jacket about 20% of the time (too fast) or C: plug nose and don't expand at all (too slow). This was in oiled sawdust or a combination of water filled jugs and sawdust. Apparently in hide/bone/meat they perform fine...Accuracy is pretty good. (Personally, I like the Speer JSP better than the XTP from my less than perfect testing method) I'm not convinced that any jacketed bullet beats a cast lead with a decent sized meplat..

Propellent wise, have tried H-2400, LilGun, and W-296 with the 296 giving me the highest velocity and smallest SD/ES...

Test vehicle was a 6" M19 and is JMOFWIW
Your mileage may vary.... :wink: