What weight bullets for 357 Mag

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edgehit
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Re: What weight bullets for 357 Mag

Post by edgehit »

357 ballistics are pretty challenging for a 200gr cast at 1080. 5-ft holdover at ram line and 14” windage in a mild 10 mph cross wind. Your ES will need to be held under 80 fps or a perfect hold will result in a guaranteed miss.

But hey, the journey to figure it out can be fun and very satisfying when you whack a ram.

I shot a buddy’s 357 at last summer’s western national and I knocked down every ram I pulled a trigger on. It was only 2 but the light recoil was easy to get used to. I can feel a connection but man, any wind and you’re in big trouble.
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TheBugFather
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Re: What weight bullets for 357 Mag

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I've done the same with 200gr cast from Penn Bullets (RIP), I later went with a 200 grain Sierra or Hornady round nose 35 Remington bullet.

Very critical seating depth, I had best results with Redding competition bullet seater, best ever!

Worked great on Rams, no recoil about 24 min. elevation from chickens to rams.

180gr Hornady XTP works almost as well at 1080fps but will have more trouble than 200gr.

I now do the same, but with 44 mag and 240gr bullets.

Dennis O.
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Re: What weight bullets for 357 Mag

Post by PAndy »

I'm sure a fast heavy 30-30 bullet will cut through crosswinds a little better than a 200 gr .357. One of the complicating factors in looking at down range numbers is that the ballistic coefficient of these flat/round nose bullets is quite a bit higher at slow speeds such as 1080 fps. Sierra shows different BCs on their bullets for a range of speeds, which have all been measured in live firing.
So slow heavy bullets might behave better than expected. A couple of us here are messing around with .357 ram bullets over 210 grains, so hopefully that is helping a little in wind drift as well as momentum at 200m. We are shooting at supersonic speeds.

According to Sierra's info, streamlined spitzer bullets have almost the same BC across a wide range of velocities. Go figure.

Another factor worth mentioning is that folks who shoot in the western states probably deal with more wind than we do here in PA.
edgehit
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Re: What weight bullets for 357 Mag

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Sounds like a fun project where you clone a 300 Blackout. Report back and let us know what you learn.
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Re: What weight bullets for 357 Mag

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Old concept of the 300 whisper, below the speed of sound, the velocity drop off is much less.

Dennis O.
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Re: What weight bullets for 357 Mag

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For what it’s worth - Just back from the Western National. The .357 with 200gr cast at 1080fps has now put down 120’ish rams this season and two failures to fall plus one stubborn pig. It may not be the most ideal choice, it may not appeal to the majority, drifts a good deal in the wind, heck I’m fickle and may be shooting something else next season just because, but I do believe it has proven itself adequate. If you don’t like recoil or feel recoil is likely to adversely effect your game it may be an ideal choice.
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Re: What weight bullets for 357 Mag

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To close out the .357 theme, My wife and I finished the season at the National’s. The 200gr .357 at 1080’ish FPS lost no hit Rams or any other hit critters. With slow pistol powders or fast rifle powders these are very mild loads and I feel will give the 1873 replicas a long healthy life free of pressure abuse (safety) issues.
Hopefully someone(s) that thought they needed a new rifle to be competitive can pickup the rifle they already may own and come shoot matches. We want all the new or used shooters we can get. You can get it done in all three classes from Smallbore to Highpower with two rifles. If you love guns and never need much excuse to buy another, like most of us, you can do that as your knowledge or desires grow but for now bring what you got and come to matches. We love and need new shooters.
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