Cactus Plains bullets keyholing in my 357 Mag

S

Slapshot

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NE Sask.
I was at the range today and had about 50% tipped or complete keyholes. The bullets are Cactus Plains 158gr SWC loaded with 5.0gr of Unique. Quite a light load. I was shooting a Ruger Blackhawk SAA. It was leaded up pretty good after 36 rounds.

I came home and measured the bullets, they were all 0.355.

Is it the small diameter bullet or the light load that is causing my problem?
 
Too small...... I have used 1000's of those boolits, in 9mm, 357, 40 and 45. Never had that drastic of a problem.....

What was on the lable on the lid of the bucket? Is it different than what you measured?

If so; Give him a call, those are sized for a 9mm, take them back to your retailer, they should be able to do something.

If not; Next time read the lable, for a 38 you should be no smaller than a .358 projectile...... See if you can make an exchange

I have always found Cactus plains or Plains ammunition supply (as they are now known) to be straight shooters (pun intended) and helpful when special requests are made.

Cheers!
 
Had the same problem with .44 mag bullets from the same company. I was using Blue Dot powder. Switched to Bullseye and problem disappeared. No problem using H-110 either.
Maybe try a different powder?
 
I bought some plated bullets for my 44MAG, they were .429 and couldn't get them to shoot well for the life of me.

My Cactus 44MAG were .430 and shoot like a hot damn!

Lesson to me, the 44 likes the larger diameter bullet.
 
Found a picture.
Circled holes are keyhole bullets at 25 yds using Blue Dot.

P1010644.jpg
 
My target looked just like that, nice little round holes in the middle with a scattering of rectangular ones sprayed around the outside.

I measured 50 or so bullets out of my pail, most were 0.355 with the odd 0.354 in there.

I have some other misc cast I bought at an estate sale, they are 160g round nosed, sized and lubed to 0.358, I will shoot them.

What would happen if I reamed the base on the CP bullets to make a kind of mini bullet?
 
Slapshot said:
My target looked just like that, nice little round holes in the middle with a scattering of rectangular ones sprayed around the outside.

I measured 50 or so bullets out of my pail, most were 0.355 with the odd 0.354 in there.

I have some other misc cast I bought at an estate sale, they are 160g round nosed, sized and lubed to 0.358, I will shoot them.

What would happen if I reamed the base on the CP bullets to make a kind of mini bullet?
Click to expand...

You would be wasting your time me thinks.

Graydog
 
Maybe try a snappier load. It might cause the bullet to obturate better and improve accuracy. Worth a try for a handful of bullets.
 
joe-nwt said:
Maybe try a snappier load. It might cause the bullet to obturate better and improve accuracy. Worth a try for a handful of bullets.
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest this, a little tiny bit warmer with a faster powder might cause it to seal better, It's only got to bump it out a couple thousandths to work fine. If you have a big bucket, it's worth a try on 10 or 20, enough to know.
 
i've tried cactus plains 38/157s in a 9mm beretta- you wanna talk about keyholing?- try EVERY TIME- it's just too heavy for a 9mm- or THAT 9mm- 147 is probably the upper limit-and i know it's a good load b/c i use that same load for 124's- my advise, either find a way to shave 10 grains off or just put up with it for now- or give cactus a call and see if they'll make it right, but without doing the shipping thing- that'll kill you over the weight alone- or you could melt the works down and re-cast
you could actually SEE THE PROFILE OF THE SWC on the target- ie it hit SIDEWAYS
 
unstableryan said:
I was going to suggest this, a little tiny bit warmer with a faster powder might cause it to seal better, It's only got to bump it out a couple thousandths to work fine. If you have a big bucket, it's worth a try on 10 or 20, enough to know.
Click to expand...

The base on these bullets is slightly tapered so pressure bumping will not work on them.
I also had accuracy issues with these out of my Marlin, never got better than about 3" at 25yds no matter what powder.
No Keyholing just lame accuracy.
I tried Blue dot, red dot, H110, Unique until I tried a heavy dose of 2400.
That cut the groups in half, still not great but at least worth burning them up.
 
too small and too hard. Try a heavy load as suggested and if that doesn't work take them back to the dealer and demand a refund. Plain or beverl based bullets in a 38 or .357 mag need to be .358 to be accurate and to not lead.

even if proper size you will get a bit of leading because the bullets are too hard.

I use Cactus plains .38 super bullets in my 9mm and they work well--their 9mm's are too small and too hard also.

fwiw, 44Bore
 
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