Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Along with my 22s I''ve been loading and testing some 357 mags through my 6" Dan Wesson and now my new old 2.75" Security 6 and my H&R 16" bbl rifle.

I've tested 4 different 158 gr loads and 2 125 gr loads.

The 357 loads I shot through my Security Six all worked fine. the 125 gr averaged 1273 FPS out the the 2.75" bbl. I have to admit that my hand was a bit sore the next day after shooting the Ruger.

The 158 gr averaged 1227 but the heavier "bear loads" averaged 1285 FPS. That same load averaged 1733 FPS out of the 16" rifle barrel.

The 158 gr load did 1305 fps out of the 6" Dan Wesson and the 125 gr load was really hot, averaging 1497 FPS out of the 6" bbl.

I'm not surprised it made your hand sore, those a pretty warm loads. What bullet are you using for your bear load? And 1700+ is screaming out of the rifle. I'm assuming that's a solid bullet so it should whack stuff pretty darn hard. That's 1054 fpe from the rifle.

Not sure what the hardness rating is on the hard cast bear loads. They were 158 gr Semi Wad Cutters. I also have some 125 grs are made from the same stuff as well as the 240 gr 44 mag bullets. They were made by a friend of mine back in the day and he gave me a couple hundred of each when he gave up reloading.

BTW I loaded some 240gr HC SWCs that were doing over 1550 FPS out of my 5.5" Redhawk. They were pretty stiff. Probably overloaded a tad. The were test loads, not sure if I have any left to run through my 44 mag rifles.

Penetration with those shouldn’t be an issue I would think. Either revolver or rifle. Nice matched pair.

If you play with the load you can get 158s over 2000fps and 125s even faster. 357 is a whole different cartridge out of a long barrel. I'm still looking for a 77/357 to play with.

Ronin.45 wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 9:16 am If you play with the load you can get 158s over 2000fps and 125s even faster. 357 is a whole different cartridge out of a long barrel. I'm still looking for a 77/357 to play with.

The H&R barrel is really thick and heavy. Even the heaviest loads don't recoil very much so I'm sure I could do some rifle only loads that would get 2000 FPS. If you have any specific loads I'd appreciate it.

Nothing specific, but the hot stuff I've seen has been H110 and lil' Gun.

Probably a better choice out of a rifle would be the 350 Legend. It's basically a .356 bullet in a straight walled rimless case that works in an AR. Factory loads are 150, 170 & 180 gr bullets at 2385, 2200 & 1762 fps and 1800, 1827 and 2200 FPE respectively. I can attest to the fact that it will kill deer and recoil out of an AR is very light.

there is a video of a guy on Glocktalk shooting a Ruger Ranch Rifle in 350 Legend at 320 yards. His groups were sub MOA.

All my hunting 357 magnum and 44 magnum loads were loaded using H110.
Shooting out of my Ruger Blackhawk revolver I've gotten 158gr jacked bullets to 1,400+ fps and 180 gr FWN-GC cast bullets to 1,300+ fps using H110.
I know people who hunt with Ruger 77/357 and 77/44 rifles and they both complain that the magazine is limited to factory cartridge length and bullet shape as they start having problems with WFN type profile bullets.