Advice greatly received for reloading .38 Special

[mrbeech]

Hello there, I have recently purchased Lee Precision single stage reloading equipment and about to embark on the world of reloading.

I was hoping that the wealth of knowledge and experience of the Full-bore community might impart invaluable recommendations and tips for me please.

I have a Ruger 77/357 and a Rossi M92 underlever which I use presently use at varying distances from 25 – 100 yards.

I’m particularly interested in bullet, powder and primer selection.
Should I use lead RN-FP or jacketed ? What weight – 158gr or less ?
Should I use Alliant Unique or Bullseye or a n other manufacture ?
Which small pistol primers should I use - CCI 500 or Federal 100 ?

It is my intention to move onto reloading .357 Magnum at some point too.

Many thanks in advance for your replies and advice.
Best regards.

[dromia]

Moved to correct forum.

Future mis-posts will be removed .

Familiarise your self with the forum headers and if in doubt ask.

Regarding loads the first step is to acquire a good handloading manual that has pressure tested its data and not just copied and pasted other peoples data and added in errors of their own, like the Lee manual. I would recommend the Lyman latest edition.

Powder manufacturers data is also a must go to source as it has been pressure tested, it is only when you have this pressure tested context that internet "recipes" will make any safety sense.

Also using the search function will give you much of what you want as this has been covered extensively on numerous occasions.

[redcat]

Ask at your club - someone there must be reloading this calibre. Perhaps you will find a member who will give you some "hands on" tuition.

Redcat

[mrbeech]

Hi all,

Sorry for the mis-post.

Thanks for the advice received.

Thanks for the PM with from CraigH but I can't PM you back at this time due to my lack of posts, sorry.

Best regards.

[Peter Leigh]

I think I have tried all the different combinations at some point that you have mentioned but what I tend to return to for my Uberti 357 is for 38S is RN-FP 158gr loaded with N120 Vihtavuori powder( i find it easier to clean up afterwards) to give 800fps, I only use jack in 357 (N330 powder) where you want to up the speed above 1300fps.Also I only use cci primers.

[mag41uk]

I think I have tried all the different combinations at some point that you have mentioned but what I tend to return to for my Uberti 357 is for 38S is RN-FP 158gr loaded with N120 Vihtavuori powder( i find it easier to clean up afterwards) to give 800fps, I only use jack in 357 (N330 powder) where you want to up the speed above 1300fps.Also I only use cci primers.

Are you sure about the N120? Sounds very wrong to me!

[FredB]

it is wrong. Should be N320, which is in the "Unique" region. I loaded tens of thousands of 357 rounds back in the pistol days and eventually settled on 5 grains of Unique behind a 158 grn round nosed cast bullet. ( cast in 25:1 lead to tin.
Fred

[Andy632]

I just use 6.5 grns Unique in a 357 case with cci500 primers and a 158 rnfp lead bullet. LBR & Win 94.

[Alpha1]

158grain cast round nose flat point bullet 3.2 grains of bullseye. Any make of primers whatever is cheapest.

[dromia]

Confusion already, this a classic example of why casual internet and forum posting of load data should be avoided like the plague and not sought.