I used Wolf Bullets (a local company) 158gr .38 special SWC-TMJ. Wolf generally produces cast lead, so I think their jacketed stuff may actually be rebranded Winchester or Montana Gold. The bullet profile is less of a standard SWC with the sharp shoulder and more of a TC design.

I used once fired Federal brass, 12.4 gr of W296, and a CCI 550 primer. This is the minimum load from the 9th edition Hornady manual. The bullet has a cannelure, and I put a heavier crimp on the bullet at that point.

Firing them from a M28 6" bbl, I found they were a very light .357 round with reasonable accuracy. It was a definite step up from my .38 special target loads in recoil, with a visible muzzle flash.

When I extracted the cases, I found them coated in an oily soot and the barrel was filled with what looked like coarse black pepper. I suspect the debris is unburned powder. Is the soot because the case isn't expanding enough to seal the cylinder?

Is the solution simply bumping the powder up a bit? I'm paper punching so I'm not looking for fire breathers. Just a suitable jump from .38 Spl to minor magnum velocities.

I have found that W296/H110 does best at max or near max loadings.

Yeah, you might try bumping the powder up a bit and get a little more pressure. 296/H110 can burn a bit dirty on the lower end I find.

I've recently been trying out the Hi-Tek coated cast bullets and I am really impressed with their performance. In 357, 44, 380 Auto and 9 MM, I've run coated bullets from Bayou Bullets and they are the way to go in my opinion for paper killing rounds. No more smoke than a jacketed bullet and absolutely no leading. In 357 Mag, I've had them running at 1750+ fps out of my Rossi 92SRC with no leading with the coated 158 grain SWC bullets with a healthy charge of 296. I've had no leading issues with them in the other calibers either in pistols. And I just got in a couple thousand 125 grain 9MM Hi-Tek coated bullets from SNS and got a chance yesterday to run a box of them through my brother's Glock and they shot very well too and no problems whatsoever. They were hot, as I was actually trying to see if I could get leading issues with them; loaded with 5.3 grains of WSF. When I get to the outdoor range I belong to I will try them in my Uzi too, to see how they perform as well as my 9 MM pistols and also run some through my chrono and see how fast they are.

A couple of other powders I like and use for 357 Mag are Accurate #9 and also Blue Dot. Accurate #9 has less flash and "boominess" than 296 and burns pretty clean. Blue Dot also burns clean in my experience with it dating back to the late 70's and is more economical than 296 or 2400 or Accurate #9. It does have a bit of a muzzle flash though. I tried it out in the late 70's because I was tired of seeing how dirty 2400 left my 27-2 and found that I really liked it. But, I find it doesn't meter as well as 296 or Accurate #9 in my old Lyman 55 measure, so I use more 296 and A #9 nowadays. One powder I tried in the last few years that I am not impressed with in revolvers is the Power Pro 300MP. I find it is a bit of a mixed bag, in that it runs really well and burns clean in a non-vented barrel such as a rifle or my Coonan Classic, which is a semi auto 357 Mag or Desert Eagle, which is 44 Mag. But in my Smith revolvers in both 357 and 44 Mag, it is sooty as hell. I can run 100 rounds through either revolver and to look at the pistol afterwards you would swear it had run a thousand rounds through it without being cleaned. I guess that powder loses a lot of burning efficiency with the barrel gap on a revolver.

If you want reduced charges, suggest 2400. 296/H110 is when you want to go fast. As you noticed, reduced charges with it suck, and can be hazardous.

__________________
Science plus Art

110/296 is not the best at light target loads.......as stated.
These powders are usually used in hunting, maximum range shooting or Hi-Vel. SD loads.

Plus you can use just half as much powder with the fast powders and get better accuracy and less muzzle flash.

Have fun.

I'll agree with the others. Bump up that charge. I forget what I've been using (I don't make a lot of 110/296 357's), but it's about 15.5 grains and still well below lyman 49 max. At this level it's still a little dirty so I'm going to up the charge some and try again.

__________________
Jim

As has been hinted at H110/W296 isn't a great choice for 357 Magnum Handgun loads. It has a burn rate slow enough that you won't get full efficiency from this powder from a barrel shorter than about 12 inches. However, it is simply superb for 357 Magnum rifle loads.

I have one favorite Rifle load that I've shot to under an inch at 50 yards using iron sights and as my eyesight at 60 isn't what it once was I suspect that it might be about a 1 MOA load for my 20 inch Winchester. BTW, it features 14.8 grains of H110 with a 158 grain Hornady XTP and produces 1615 fps from the Winchester. This same load out of my 6 inch Dan Wesson only yields 1200 fps and is a lot more flashy and boomy than I like out of a revolver.

Now, contrast that with a load featuring 11 grains of Accurate #9 with that same 158 grain XTP and the Flash and Bahoom is gone and it produces 1150 fps. from the Dan Wesson. As for the accuracy, from a sandbag rest for my hands I can consistently get 5 shot groups spanning 1.5 inches from my Reflex sight equipped model 620.