[Ringo Steele]

Howdy folks,
Just wondering if anybody has cronied a 357 round loaded with BP or 777 powder? I don't have access to a crony,so I am curious. I load mine with 777, about 21-22 grains by volume, for Cowboy Action Shooting.

Thanks,
Ringo

 

[44-40 Willy]

I'm showing 18grs Pyrodex P by volume with a 158gr cast bullet got me an average of 796fps when I tried it several years ago.

 

[Ringo Steele]

Thanks Willy! I was guess-timating between 800-900 fps with the 777, since it is a little hotter than Pyrodex.

 

[30wcf]

Howdy Ringo,
Yes, indeed! It is one of the most accurate .357 cartridges I use in my '94 Cowboy Ltd. ;D In fact, I use it most of the time in NRA Cowboy Silhouette shooting.

A few years ago I did some research on the .38 Special black powder cartridge of 1907. I found that it was factory loaded with 21.5 grs of black powder and a 158 gr lead bullet with two grease grooves. Factory ballistics were an impressive 960 f.p.s. in a 6" barrel!

Since I like to relive history I searched for an obsolete Ideal (Lyman) 358250 mold which produced a bullet that replicated the factory b.p. bullet. After some searching, I found that mold and proceeded to load 21.5 grs of SWISS 3F black powder in some early .38 Special balloon head cases that I had.

Chronograped velocity in the Marlin's 24" barrel averaged 1,255 f.p.s. By comparison, 21.5/GOEX 3F went 1,205 f.p.s.
In .357 Magnum brass, the velocity with 21.5 / SWISS 3F was bit slower at 1,215 f.p.s. most likely because of the less compression used.

Hodgdon 777 - .357 Magnum cases 158 gr cast bullet
15.0 grs by weight = 1,134 fps in the 24" barrel. Velocity in a 20" carbine barrel was pretty much the same.

CCI 500 primers were used in all loadings.

w30wcf

 

[44-40 Willy]

I'm thinking I might have made an error in my above post. I put Pyrodex P by volume, but after thinking about it a bit, I'm thinking that was probably a weighed charge. I do know that I chrono'd it in my brother's Vaquero as I wasn't too keen on getting black powder residue into the action of my rifle. That and he was interested in shooting BP in his pistol. I know I loaded up 6 of them and the first one we just poured Pyrodex in until it came up to enough for the bullet to compress the load a little.

As I didn't keep good notes on how it was measured, I think I'm going to delete that load off of my 357 load sheet in Excel.

 

[308/338]

No chronograph but did load 777 in a 357mag. for my Ruger Security Six used the the suggested powder charge from Hodgdon's data and lee 158 gr. cast bullet. Not bad.

T ;D NY

 

[Ringo Steele]

Thanks 30wcf, good info!

 

[30wcf]

Ringo,
You are most welcome. One other thing of note.....with 777 & magnum primers, the velocity was almost 100 fps less.

w30wcf

 

[Pat/Rick]

I may never load .357 with BP, but a very good amount of info here, thanks!