Joined
·
365 Posts
As I haven’t reloaded .357 for a while, thought I would get back into it as I had a couple of hundred brass laying around and with some time on my hands. But I was short on bullets, having some 158 gr. SWC on hand but not many. So, I recently bought some .38/.357 (sized .358) SWC bullets from Oregon Trail.
The bullet profile looks similar to what I had on hand from Hunter’s Supply but upon closer inspection, it was longer above the crimp groove (top crimp groove to top of bullet) by about 0.030. Width of the lst drive band above the crimp groove looks to be about the same at around 0.100.
When trying to calculate a cartridge OAL with these bullets using their crimp groove, the cartridge would be longer than the recommended max OAL of 1.590 in my Lyman Reloading Handbook. I calculated with these bullets crimped in the crimp groove would be closer to 1.630. I went so far as to make up a dummy round and it measured 1.628. The brass was Winchester with an OAL length of 1.284
I don’t feel comfortable about this OAL, as the cartridge almost comes clear to the end of the cylinder in my model 28. It has the shortest cylinder out of the other .357s I own. However, the length from the top for the driving band to the base is likely no different than what I had in the past.
Has anybody else had any experience with the bullet? Longer than recommended OAL? Suggestions?
The bullet profile looks similar to what I had on hand from Hunter’s Supply but upon closer inspection, it was longer above the crimp groove (top crimp groove to top of bullet) by about 0.030. Width of the lst drive band above the crimp groove looks to be about the same at around 0.100.
When trying to calculate a cartridge OAL with these bullets using their crimp groove, the cartridge would be longer than the recommended max OAL of 1.590 in my Lyman Reloading Handbook. I calculated with these bullets crimped in the crimp groove would be closer to 1.630. I went so far as to make up a dummy round and it measured 1.628. The brass was Winchester with an OAL length of 1.284
I don’t feel comfortable about this OAL, as the cartridge almost comes clear to the end of the cylinder in my model 28. It has the shortest cylinder out of the other .357s I own. However, the length from the top for the driving band to the base is likely no different than what I had in the past.
Has anybody else had any experience with the bullet? Longer than recommended OAL? Suggestions?