Touching lightly upon this old thread, it brings to mind my early days circa 1980 naively attempting to make 'max' loads with 357 to knock down the 200 yard steel ram for IHMSA, my fascination at the time.

New to both shooting and reloading at the time, it took months to realize the abysmal accuracy, dreaded recoil, and continual leading/copper fouling of the barrel might somehow all be related.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

Since my first 357 was just a K frame I stayed away from the super hot loads and was happy hitting the 100 yard Ram with 158 lead with open sights.

Now that I have a almost magnum in a L frame I will be adding a little more powder to see what I can muster up.
With the 158 lead, Unique only got 1320 fps so 2400 powder is next to see if 1400 fps is possible.....
plus I may need to buy two brass brushes in case the barrel leads up a little.

later.

Yeah, interesting! Especially since now it is Speer being concerned about pressures after some of the absolutely horrendous loads they published in #8!!!!!!!!!

Also interesting is how Hercules/Alliant published loads for over 30 years, PRESSURE TESTED MIND YOU(!), recommended the Federal 200 SPM primer in .357 Magnum with 2400 and didn't find any pressure issues! And now that Speer and ATK/Alliant are related by marriage it is suddenly an issue????? I don't think so.

Something to keep in mind when reading loading manuals, and that is, "It ain't necessarily gospel just because it's in print!" Especially if printed in a Speer manual.

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Gunsmithing since 1961