Reloading Data for 92 .357

[donhuff]

AK,
I didn't mean to take the insert slap out, just clip the tip off until it will cycle through the gun. That is a big hole! I'm with you on the concern that the sharp edges of the jacket might line up just right with a primer, especially since the rounds don't lay flat when in the tube.

[donhuff]

KH,

Those die's will be fine. They all do the same thing no matter who makes them. I own several different brands of dies. The advantage of the Lees, is they are usually cheaper than the rest and you can get a set with a 4th taper crimp or factory crimp die included. I always use the roll crimp of the standard seating die, unless I'm using a special bullet that requires a taper crimp. Or if I'm loading for an auto pistol, which ALWAYS gets the taper crimp.

Like Archer is recommending. Start low and work your way up. I'll load 5 rounds at the suggested starting load, and 5 more in half grain increments until I start to see pressure signs, and then back off to the last weaker load, or until I reach a level of power that satisfies me. That load I listed is ok in my guns but not necessarily so in yours. That FTX bullet has an unusually long section that goes down into the powder reducing case volume, which drives the pressure up very quickly. For instance. Last week I loaded some 45acp rounds with a lead truncated cone bullet. I seated some at an OAL of 1.215 but the full diameter section of the bullet was causing trouble with cycling. So I loaded some more up, but seated the slugs just .030" deeper @ 1.185. Those rounds averaged 55 fps faster, indicating a pretty good pressure rise.

" I hope you can find something stable as this is starting to do my head in."
Welcome to reloading!!!!!!!!!

LeverEvolution powder is meant for bottleneck cartridges, and is way too slow for the straight wall pistol cases. According to Hodgdons burn rate chart, it fits between BL-C2 and H380.

[Kiwi-Hunter]

Hi Don
Yes I was going to start lower just like the bigger cartridges I use.
These we ones ???
I have some already loaded for a pistol .357 in a hunting load he told me.
How will they go in the rifle 16" ?
On powder again I saw he had win 296 which runs in all of Nick Harvey's loads ,only thing is they are not FTX prod's don't know if this would make to much of a difference.
3.25am here, off to the Mai Mai soon.
I haven't nor will I be able to own a pistol in this Country and its to late to come State side.
So all reloading will centre around the .38 but mainly .357.
Having said that, someone who brought the .38 cases off me said he will take me to the Pistol club here.
So I will get to have a play. It's hard to own a pistol in this country and it can only be taken to the club range for use, no where else.
So what's the point of shooting paper, can't eat that.
Back to your load, they run in you rifle they will more than likely run in mine. Thanks Don
KH

[akuser47]

I know Don I was just curious how deep it was and I am surprized. It could be trimmed back a decent amount almost in effect becoming a round nose bullet if trimmed correctly.

[Archer]

As Don states the LeverEvolution powder is designed for bottlenecked rifle rounds like the .30-30. It would not be suitable for the .357.

Winchester 296 is another magnum pistol powder which would work with the .357 Magnum or .44 Magnum and certain low volume rifle rounds like .30 Carbine.
It is very similar to Hodgdon H110. You may get a little more velocity out of those powders compared to 2400 but they are a little tighter on getting the powder charge correct and may require a magnum primer for good ignition.

Unless you are seeing a particularly good deal on the Win296 powder I would recommend going with the Alliant 2400 and concentrating on getting a good load with that. You have something like 900+ rounds worth of that powder showing up at the charge levels we are talking about. I've used 2400 for a couple thousand rounds of .44 Mag with no complaints.

If I read your order correctly you did get the seating stem for the FTX bullets. That should prevent damage to the bullets during seating that my buddy got initially when he was using standard dies. As Don said most of the dies pretty much do the same thing. There are some cosmetic and textural differences like whether the adjustments require a wrench or are knurled for fingers but mostly it is a matter of availability and cost. IF you hadn't picked up the seating stem I'd suggest you use a lightly wadded ball of aluminum foil in the seating die to form to the bullet and help prevent deformation / damage to the bullet tip.

As Don said the load he is talking about is safe for his gun. While it might be for yours, it IS a maximum load and changing anything about it may change the pressure enough to cause problems. In particular changing the bullet from lead to a jacketed bullet with a different bearing surface and a different seating depth changes both the amount of volume in the case for initial combustion and the amount of friction required to engrave the bullet and move it down the barrel. Since you will also be using a different rifle there is the chance that the barrels are going to have different amounts of friction anyway caused by the condition of the tooling at the time the barrels were created AND the amount of wear on the barrels since then from shooting and from cleaning and any operations that might have been done specifically done to smooth the barrels. Those are the reasons for backing off and building back up gradually.

The pressure limits for .357 Magnum are the same for rifles as they are for handguns. Essentially the ammunition is/or should be exactly the same. The one thing to look out for particularly with rifles is that the OAL of the round MUST be compatible with the feeding system on the gun. That is to say that for some revolvers you may have a slightly longer cylinder that may allow seating the bullet a little long. If you try that with the lever action rifles that round may be to long to feed through the magazine. The second thing to avoid is data specifically designed around the TC Contender/Ruger Super Blackhawk. Such data may exceed the standard operating pressures for the round. While the 92 action might be strong enough for that data I will not recommend it. That said the data I posted above was from the rifle section of the Lyman manual. (And it was basically a direct repeat of the same data from the handgun section, only tested in a Winchester 94AE.)

What, by the way, is a roll of gun cloth?

[donhuff]

KH,
If those pistol rounds will cycle through your gun, give em a try. You never know what might work in YOUR gun.
I bet they GO pretty well. You can usually expect to gain 200 to 400 FPS when using the longer barrels.

296/H110 (same thing) is a really good magnum pistol powder. Until LilGun cam along, it was the King of magnum powders.

I assume that you mean they are not "flex tip" or soft tip, correct? If they are hollow point or soft point or round nose, they are ok in your rossi. Just don't use pointy bullets.

"back to your load"....... I know. If you were using the same bullet as me, I would have told you to just go shoot the damn things. But since you have a totally different projectile, I held back a little. The bullet I use measures .390 from crimp groove to the bottom, so it is a long bullet also. But being a cast bullet, it has a lot less drag the your jacketed one. Again, too much difference to just say shoot it. If you start a grain or two under, and load only 5 of each. You will find the max real quick.

[donhuff]

I know Don I was just curious how deep it was and I am surprized. It could be trimmed back a decent amount almost in effect becoming a round nose bullet if trimmed correctly.

That thing is not a hole or a cavity.......it's a well!!! I bet if you holler into it, you'll get an echo

[akuser47]

Yes it is a crater point lol I think I will shoot it into some water and see what it does maybe my next fun round depending on what it does. Only use it like this in my revolver though.

[Kiwi-Hunter]

Well it is a great day, bag limit before 12pm so came home early not needing to shoot tonight.
Found the rifle had arrived.
Went straight out and let one of those .357 go. The rifle runs well, the load I think is hot.

Case sep.jpg

The .38 went well the rifle is not to bad in the action my 30.30 was a beast not smooth at all.
As far as the rounds go they all cycled well, get some of these well projectiles loaded and see what it does on paper.
KH

[Kiwi-Hunter]

A roll of gun cloth.

Roll of gun cloth.jpg

Now I know that most including myself use bore snakes< I just rip it for patches and wiping or applying
cleaners etc.
Any way that said .
Here is the projectile I shot. hope that helps.
KH