wwillson Posted April 26, 2010 Report Share Posted April 26, 2010 All,I went to the range yesterday with one of my shooting buddies. He pulled out a Dan Wesson .357 that I didn't even know he owned. This thing is a beautiful firearm with custom engraving and four barrels all with engraving as well. He offered the gun to me for a few shot at the target. Of course, I obliged and shot two cylinders at a my target from 25'. I don't have much experience shooting the .357 and my first impression was the WOW these are HOT HOT loads. Everyone in the range stopped and watched while I was shooting. The gap and muzzle flash were large and bright! The recoil was sharp, but nothing like the .44 Mag I shoot on occasion. I looked at the load data on his reloads and saw that they were loaded in 1982 and had 15.0g Blue Dot under 125g jacketed bullets. I thought nothing of the load at the time other than the fact it was HOT.When I got home I looked on Alliant's site for recipes for the .357, 125g jacketed, and Blue Dot combination. Much to my suprise I found this warning. This got my attention quickly.I went to my Lee Reloading Second Edition and found a .357 recipe for Blue Dot and 125g bullets. The max load was 14.5g and it's a compressed load. I think from the warning on Alliant's website that this load probably caused excessive pressure in some conditions. I have no idea what the pressures were in these loads. I can say that we had a very hard time getting the empty brass out of the cylinder. I'm going to suggest to my friend that he use his bullet puller on the rest of these loads.The trigger on this .357 was the best trigger I've ever pulled on a revolver. The first shot was a bit high so I lowered my aim point a bit for the rest. If ever a gun made me squeeeeeze so I didn't flinch, this was the gun.Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill_in_Utah Posted April 26, 2010 Report Share Posted April 26, 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill_in_Utah Posted April 26, 2010 Report Share Posted April 26, 2010 Yeah his loads are on the "warm" side. Even in my Blackhawk or GP100 I'd not shoot those. Anytime you have the brass that hard to extract things are not good. How were the primers? My hot .357 loads are either 2400 or 296/H110. Bluedot is what I'm using with the .357sig. NICE SHOOTING! Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steves Posted April 26, 2010 Report Share Posted April 26, 2010 Great shooting!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwillson Posted April 27, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2010 I didn't think to look at the primers, but will ask him to take a look for any signs of over pressure.Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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