SW 357 ammo question
- Thread starter Stosh
- Start date
Cocked&Locked
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- S. Ontario
every firearm is an individual unto itself. Some will shoot very well with brand X, but the next off the line might prefer brand Y. Part of the fun, finding what it likes. Also the best reason for handloading....tweaking your own for the optimum accuracy
The only real deal I've noticed with accuracy is that I found that my S&W's tend to produce tighter groups with lead bullets vs jacketed. I'm not some hot bullseye match shooter by any means. But I can typically get 3 to 4 inch groups at 25 yards in slow accuracy shooting if I'm having a good day. The right sort of lead bullets from my S&W's tends towards the 3 inch or sometimes slightly tighter sort of grouping while jacketed or plated tends more towards the 4 to 5 inch size groups.
If you're serious about accuracy and your eyes and arms are sharp and steady enough that you're already shooting 3 to 5 inch groups at 25 then you should be reloading so you can experiment with bullets and loads to find just the right mix for your guns. If you're not yet able to shoot 5 inch or smaller groups then you need to practice more and improve before the differences between different ammo brands or differences in your own reloads compared to commercial ammo will be at all noticeable. In the meantime find and try some 158gn cast lead loads to see if you notice a difference.
We often see folks with things like rimfire guns find that the group size difference with various brands of ammo is 2:1 or even 3:1. But with handguns the shooter's ability is so much part of the limits that you simply won't see this sort of difference between the best and the worst. For handguns it's more of a potential 20 to 30% gain. But the gains you'll see are STRONGLY tied to your own ability. The better you are the more you'll see a gain. The worse you are the less difference you'll see. For someone that is producing 8 to 10 inch groups at 25yards the ammo differences from worst to best will not be seen at all. The differences will be hidden totally by the "noise" of the shooter's lack of consistency in how they are holding the gun.
If you're serious about accuracy and your eyes and arms are sharp and steady enough that you're already shooting 3 to 5 inch groups at 25 then you should be reloading so you can experiment with bullets and loads to find just the right mix for your guns. If you're not yet able to shoot 5 inch or smaller groups then you need to practice more and improve before the differences between different ammo brands or differences in your own reloads compared to commercial ammo will be at all noticeable. In the meantime find and try some 158gn cast lead loads to see if you notice a difference.
We often see folks with things like rimfire guns find that the group size difference with various brands of ammo is 2:1 or even 3:1. But with handguns the shooter's ability is so much part of the limits that you simply won't see this sort of difference between the best and the worst. For handguns it's more of a potential 20 to 30% gain. But the gains you'll see are STRONGLY tied to your own ability. The better you are the more you'll see a gain. The worse you are the less difference you'll see. For someone that is producing 8 to 10 inch groups at 25yards the ammo differences from worst to best will not be seen at all. The differences will be hidden totally by the "noise" of the shooter's lack of consistency in how they are holding the gun.
Good info here BCRIDER. I suspect the reason for better accuracy with the cast bullets over jacketed is mainly because cast bullets are most often loaded to a lower velocity and that in it self means less recoil which almost always will result in better accuracy.
Graydog
I am not even going to load with powder anymore. I'll just use primers with jujubes or peanut butter. I'll get tighter groups with red jujubes and a crazy spread with the black ones. Nobody likes the black jujubes. What medication did I take 30 minutes ago?
