.357 Mag Question

D

Davidf

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I'm pretty much a die hard reloader. If it's a centre fire cartyridge I feel like I have to reload it to shoot it.

I bought a Ruger GP100 in .357 mag late last year. I fired the first few boxes through it factory but since then nothing but reloads. I also tend to load nearere the hot side of safe as long as I get no signes of over pressure.

Now this weekend someone let me try a few rounds of Federal factory ammo through my revolver. WOW. The recoil from these rounds was dramatically greater.

So my question is - what causes this? Do the ammo produceres merely have access to better powders?
 
Manufacturers use powders that are not standardized like the canister powders sold to consumers, but generally there isn't anything magic. They do have access to testing equipment, and don't have to rely on the signs of excess pressure that handloaders do. Have you chronographed your loads and the Federal factory ones? May be that you loads aren't as hot as you think.
 
What year/ brand is your load manual? and out of curiosity what powder / primer / bullet combo are you using. I like to check at least three manuals before deciding on what powder to use and what other components to match with them. I always look for low pressures with high speeds, but that's not always the whole story. Primers is usually not a biggy for me, but by looking at a few different sources, including the internet these days you'll see a HUGE variation in recomended amounts of a given powder. Some seem 'standardized', but you'll start to notice others have quite a bit of discrepencies. Some manuals run almost all their loads 'hotter' than other manuals. Some manuals are letter for letter from manufacturers specks. Comparing a load from a speer manual vs a lee for example you'll see the starting load of the speer can be a grain higher than the max/do not exceed for the Lee... its not even subtle in some cases.
One other thing I've learned is that a giant bang isn't always more power, and that big flames doesn't always come from the hotter load.
The AGE of your manual could be the culprit. Compare it to one from ten years ago... perhaps I'm just paranoid, but tell me loads aren't getting cooled down for 'safety's' sake. If IIRC your post said you had a Ruger. Look for books with 'ruger only' loads. Some don't wanna say that anymore, but those things'll take loads that make that Federal crap look like a .38
With the HUGE selection of powders with have, there's nothing special about the stuff they use. If you match things up right and experiment a little, your handloads will always be better than anything you buy.
 
it's become really obvious in the rifle sections latey- there's loads in the new( 13) speer that won't function my m14 because of low pressure- i also think they fiddle with the velocities ( longer than standard barrels or something) so you think you're getting the same or better velocity with less powder-which we KNOW as a bold faced lie
 
American Eagle .357 sure makes a pop in my GP100...One time someone shooting at the next range over thought I had loaded double charges....way more recoil and noise than my reloads..
 
Factory loads also depend on the bullet type.
.357 Mag LSWC are loaded to lower velocity than a similar mass jacketed round (ex. JSP). Usually only 100-200 fps lower (Assuming 158gr), but still noticable.

Brands use different powder mixtures as well, some work on faster pressure curves than others which also has noticable effects. (I'm sure that UMC, Rem Express, Rem Golden Sabre, all have different "feels" despite being the same overall company.)
 
7.62 I can't answer that except to say that I know I've seen it. (somewhere???). See if you can get your hands on a 'complete book of __ caliber'. I think that's the name of them anyways, that may have it... they are a (probably illegal?) cheaply made load manual for a particular caliber of your liking. Say .44 magnum, the 'authors' basically photocopy every commercially available manual and put it out as their own. The guy I first learned about those from is a Ruger fan and IIRC the same guy who introduced me to the concept of Ruger onlys
Anyway, I'll look around. They do exist though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/+P
edit: Looks like this was a Hodgdon phenomena, some even mention it used to be included in the website data, so probably still fairly 'recently' (am I showing my age?). I have word that it was definitely in their 'older' books, but unsure of the latest ones. It does NOT seem to be published on the website anymore. Anyone with a full Hodgdon manual care to check? All I've got is a baby Hodgdon manual.
 
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I have found for a given bullet weight, that a full magnum load of H110 is signifcantly more "violent" recoil than a full load of "Titegroup". Titegroup is a very fast burning powder whereas H110 is a slow burner. So yes, varying the powder type will vary the felt recoil for a given caliber/load.
 
the only "RUGER ONLY" loads i've EVER seen are for the RUGER BLACKHAWK& CONTENDER in 45 colt-their other revolvers, while being good and able to take the odd HOT load,are simply standard loadings
 
Yes, I suppose one must be clear on that... "Ruger only" isn't ALL rugers... and probably the reason the wording has been all but dropped.
 
incidentally, if you want to know where the "LOADS FOR RUGER AND CONTENDER ONLY" are they're in the SPEer, under 45 colt, behind the regular loadings- if you read the schpeil, it says that "ALL LOADS SHOULD BE APPROCHED WITH CAUTION' AND 'THESE LOADS ARE SAFE IN RUGER BLACKHAWK AND CONTENDER PISTOLS ONLY"- then the usual forbidding about trying them in anything else
 
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