Rossi Rifleman

Hi folks, looking for a bit of advice, I have just ordered a new Rossi 92 in .357 mag. Planning to shoot some .38special as well as .357mag.

I have bought some hard cast bullets here in Australia made by Hawkesbury River Bullett Company. They are coated and apparently #16 on the Brinell Hardness Scale, also they said they have a dry lubrication on the coating of all their projectiles.

I have never loaded any type of handgun rounds in the past, all my reloading has been for .223, .308 and 6.5Creedmoor up until now.

Do I need gas checks before reloading, is there any more lubing required while making these up ? Anything else I should know about reloading hard cast bullets?

Appreciate any help in advance.
Marksman75

From your description, it sounds as though they are ready to use.

Welcome to the forum!

Ranch Dog wrote:From your description, it sounds as though they are ready to use.

Welcome to the forum!

Most if not all powder or poly coated bullets are ready to shoot out of the box. Up to a point the coating replaces a gas check. Does the maker suggest a max velocity or pressure?

Welcome aboard
Make smoke,

Coated bullets (powder coating, Hi-Tek, etc.) need no lube. I have used them quite successfully in all my handguns and a few in my 7.62x54. I used lead bullet data to start and lead bullet methods (size, case prep and seating/crimp). On a few of my handgun loads I did work up to high lead bullet data, not max., but found no need, so I dropped down to my nekkid lead load equivalents..

My 357 92 is quite sensitive to COAL (Cartridge OverAll Length). Be aware of this before spending three or four days at the loading bench.

Thank you all for the info, really appreciate it, I'm just back from the local Gun Shop and bought 1.5kg of Trailboss and some small pistol primers so will probably start on them this afternoon

Hi there. I bought 158gr lead round nose and truncated one at the start, but have ended up using 125gr truncated cone, which don't seem to need to be driven as fast as the 158s to give a single ragged hole at 50 yards.
Like all the cast lead bullets I've seen they have a band of hard lube and I have gained nothing by coating in Lee Alox so I don't bother.
If it's of any interest, they have a Brinell Hardness No. of 15.4, and a suggested max pressure of 19,100psi.
www.shellhousebulletcompany.co.uk
I would really like to know what MV equates to 19,100psi using N320/Unique/Bullseye. Mine are running at less than 1100fps with no sign of leading.
Good luck!

I load 158 gr, H&G #51, no gas check, to 14 gr. 2400 with no problems. I have used unique at 6.5 gr. As well
FWIW
JOHN

Loaded and crimped 100 rounds to try out, hot weekend this weekend so will most likely be next weekend before I can try it out. Thank you all once again for the help.

My personal experience...

I use "Supercoat" coated bullets from Cheycastbullets.com and TrailBoss almost exclusively in my Rossi 357 magnum. I don't think that TrailBoss can push a bullet fast enough to need a gas check. The coated bullets seem to be slightly larger diameter than naked lead. This makes sense as the coating MUST add some material to the bullet. I have to bell the case mouth a little more, and then I run all of my loads through a factory crimp die. The crimp die sizes them down so they slide in and out of my rossi and my revolver smoothly.

I did a series of loads when I initially started using TrailBoss, and I saw a significant difference in group size between charge weights. I have since found that I get the most consistently small groups when I load by volume rather than by weight. I use a Lee autodisk, and I still weigh every 10th round or so just as a quality control measure to make sure I am staying within desired parameters.

Let us know how it goes when you try them out.