148 Grain Wadcutter .357 Magnum?

august1410 · Jan 28, 2018

Has anyone else used 148 grain DEWC in a .357 Magnum load? I have a ton of these things and I just ran out of 158 grain projectiles. There is some info on the interwebs, but I'd rather ask people I actually know.

These will be used in a 6" S&W 586. The powders I have are H110, Titegroup and Bullseye.

Thoughts?

BUFF7MM · Jan 28, 2018

august1410 said:
Has anyone else used 148 grain DEWC in a .357 Magnum load? I have a ton of these things and I just ran out of 158 grain projectiles. There is some info on the interwebs, but I'd rather ask people I actually know.

These will be used in a 6" S&W 586. The powders I have are H110, Titegroup and Bullseye.

Thoughts?

No help here Joe, but I’m sure J8084 should be along with some info. I’m pretty sure he’s loaded the 148’s before.

Shazam · Jan 28, 2018

Ive loaded DEWC in a hot 38 special load for use in a snuby. But that's well short of 357 magnum. I think that at magnum velocity any soft lead projectile will tend to lead up the barrel. A jacketed bullet or use of a hard cast lead with a gas check would be a better choice. Tightgroup and Bullseye are too fast for magnum loads.

august1410 · Jan 28, 2018

Shazam said:
Ive loaded DEWC in a hot 38 special load for use in a snuby. But that's well short of 357 magnum. I think that at magnum velocity any soft lead projectile will tend to lead up the barrel. A jacketed bullet or use of a hard cast lead with a gas check would be a better choice. Tightgroup and Bullseye are too fast for magnum loads.

I found online where someone was using 16 grains of H110 with a 148 gr DEWC in a .357 Magnum case.

I don't have a specific purpose for the loads. I'm not looking to take out a rhino in Walmart or anything. I just have a few hundred wadcutters I acquired and I'm looking for something new and different to do.

gwchem · Jan 28, 2018

The rhinos in my local walmart might call for a bigger caliber than .357. Good lord. Put the fork down, America.

Trekker · Jan 28, 2018

If you are just looking to use the 148gr DEWC out of .357mag cases, then you could use either the titegroup or bullseye to make rounds like a .38spl, just longer in overall length. I have frequently read that H110 wants to have the case near full, but I expect that a full charge of H110 will lead to a fair bit of leading from the DEWC.

Biggfoot44 · Jan 28, 2018

So , are you looking for mild wadcutter loads that happened to be loaded in .357 cases ? Wadcutters loaded to full boogie magum levels ? Or inbetween to +P .38 equiv , or a hair hotter ?

Anything other than first , begs the question . Are those swaged or hard cast Wadcutters ?

august1410 · Jan 28, 2018

I’d like to work up a full blown magnum load using these

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DutchV · Jan 28, 2018

Is there any load data from the manufacturer ?

august1410 · Jan 28, 2018

DutchV said:
Is there any load data from the manufacturer ?

Plenty for .38 Special. I've made a few hundred of these as .38 Special loads.

Biggfoot44 · Jan 28, 2018

It can sorta be done .

You can hypothetically load up to that pressure level . But due to the decreased powder capacity of the inherently deeply seated bullet , less potential vels . And the prodigious bearing surface of DEWC's will also be a factor .

I know that 900fps plus from .38 cases is a real thing ( if not quite meeting new wave psi standards ) . So off top of head , I would predict 1200 plus fps for this .

I Have to ( do important things) followed by ( important nap ) . So I'll try to find actual data later tonight .

j8064 · Jan 28, 2018

I'm not a lot of help, Joe. I load 140 gr SWC's in my 38 Spl and 158 gr SWC's with gas checks in my 357's. Since those are hard cast bullets I'd be comfortable testing some loads at the low end of a 141 gr DEWC published load. Lyman has published recipes. I agree I'd start with a powder like Bullseye where you'd have lower velocity and lower pressure.
Good luck.

Biggfoot44 · Jan 28, 2018

No , if Joe wants magnum vels on purpose, those fast burning powders will max out on pressure long before his targeted velocities .

For mild loads with fast powder , would be about 0.2gr more than .38spl loads . But even .38 start loads probably wouldn't stick a bullet in the bore , unless you had a really , really rough bore .

For mild , use .38 start loads for Bullseye or Tightgroup , and work up for tightest groups.

For magnum loads , I'll probably find more data for Unique and 2400 , but I'll see what I can come up with .

John from MD · Jan 28, 2018

august1410 said:
I found online where someone was using 16 grains of H110 with a 148 gr DEWC in a .357 Magnum case.

I don't have a specific purpose for the loads. I'm not looking to take out a rhino in Walmart or anything. I just have a few hundred wadcutters I acquired and I'm looking for something new and different to do.

This load will lead up your gun! :sad20:

John from MD · Jan 28, 2018

If you just want to shoot the 148 grain bullets, 3.5 grains of Bullseye will give you a nice plinking load. These bullets will give poor accuracy if shot too fast.

august1410 · Jan 28, 2018

John from MD said:
This load will lead up your gun!

Yeah....I think I just might make up some more .38 SPL wadcutters and stop trying to be creative. This is what happens when I get bored.

Biggfoot44 · Jan 28, 2018

Be slightly creative, go for "full power WC" vs the usual "midrange WC " .

Seek a vel of +/- 900fps . This used to be a .38spl factory load back in the day , so duplicating in a .357 is no sweat.

************

Getting back on loads .

That H110 load above would be Way too much , IF the bullet in question was actually a WC ( ie mostly flush seated in case ) vs some SWC or FP of same weight.

Don't consider this a recomendation at this time , but a H110 @ top SAAMI pressures would be in neighborhood of 12gr.

Meanwhile , Bullseye loaded to similar pressures, with 5.8gr , with arbitrary starting of 5.1 .

Reality of my recommendations- With Bullseye , start with 3.5gr , workup . When you find acceptable accuracy at at least 900fps , declare victory !

John from MD · Jan 28, 2018

I shoot them all the time out of my 1851 Colt with a .38 spl conversion cylinder on it. I have to push them a little faster than normal as the skirt has to expand from .358 to .379, my bore size. 3.5 of Bullseye works great and I can actually get 1 inch groups at 16yards from the bench.

Magnumite · Jan 29, 2018

Joe, I used a whole bunch of those way back in my action pistol shooting days using a 6" Security Six revolver. I didn't care for using the short 38 cases in the longer chambers. I used between 3.3 and 3.5 grains of Bulleye (whatever the powder measure was throwing from that cavity that day), standard small pistol primer and cast 148 grain DEWC. I seated and roll crimped to the front groove of the most tapered end of the bullet to help using the speed loaders. These loads were accurate, reliable and chrono data indicated very consistent ballistics (not like the popular too low pressure loads so popular in 38 Special cases). They easily met the required 120 minimum power factor even on cold days. IIRC, I was running around 825-850 fps.

I used Unique for a spell but it didn't provide any benefits. Also tried Green Dot but it was too slow for that pressure load. Not sure where you Titegroup is on the burn ratings. I personally see no need for an H110 driven DEWC... better bullets are available for the big snorting loads.

Biggfoot44 · Jan 29, 2018

Tightgroup is listed adjacent to Bullseye .

148 Grain Wadcutter .357 Magnum?

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