We finally picked up a pound and itching to try it in the .357s.
Did some searching around and can't find many recipes for it except in the Alliant guide, which is showing 22.3 grains tops for a 125 grain Gold Dot......and 2000 fps?? Really??
Would like to put up some 125 grain XTPs with 20 grains or so.
Figure plenty of you fellas have tried every possible combination, and this is for sure the place to ask about where to start and what you all think of it.

Thank you in advance;
Bil

The Hornady 9th edition manual has some load data for Power Pro 300MP in it for 357 Mag.

My personal experience with that powder is a bit of a mixed bag. I've shot it in 357 Mag and 44 Mag and rifle and revolver and semi auto pistols. In the rifles and the semi auto pistols it shot well and cleanly. In the semi auto pistols, it had a big muzzle flash and has a "boominess" to it like 296/H110. But, in both my 6 1/2" 629-3 Classic and my 5" barrel 27-2, it was one of the dirtiest running powders I've ever shot. After shooting 100 rounds or so, the pistol both were covered in carbon and you would swear they had just shot 1,000 rounds through them. So I am guessing thatr for me at least, the barrel gap on the revolvers was making them burn really inefficiently. In my Desert Eagle (44 Mag) and my Coonan Classic (357 Mag) semi auto pistols on the other hand were both pretty clean after shooting the same amount of ammunition out of them with Power Pro 300MP. Both of those pistols did have some big muzzle flashes though; much like you see with other slow pistol powders.

Thank you Sir.... Been away from all this for quite a while. Haven't done much serious shooting or reloading since the early '80s, and man, things have changed some. We used a lot of Blue Dot then.
Guess all the magnum powders are sooty, but cleaning up the guns is quality time for us..... and big fireballs inside the booths at the indoor range aint that hard to take either. We'll go ahead and try it and see what happens.
Bill

Alliant data is from a 10 or 12" barrel. The powder really shines in longer barrels. My 8.3" 629 really wakes up with it. My 4" GP100 was a bit disappointing. As noted, hornady #9 has data.

Richard Lee's book shows loads for three different loads as well.

FYI, Hornady lists a max of 20.4gr, and a velocity of 1600fps. I have noticed Speer bullets seem to be shorter in length than Hornady or Nosler's of the same weight. I don't know if that's the difference, or it is Alliant's use of standard Federal primers vs WSPM's for Hornady.

If you use 300-MP and shoot XTP's, the Hornady #9 is worth a buy.

I shot some 357s yesterday from a 6" Hawes Western Six Shooter. I was using 15.0 grains of 300-MP with a 158 coated bullet and mag primers. That was plenty powerful in my opinion, although I don't have chrony data for it. To go beyond that, I would have to change the traditional grips. I was using a glove as it was.

All good replies and thank you again. We won't be going anywhere near the maximum charges for sure now. The model 27 would take it in stride, but aint so sure if I would. Just knew there had to be a catch to that 2000 fps!!
Bill

ST BERNARD, I would take that velocity with a grain of salt, IMO. When I had some ammo loaded with the powder I didn't have a chronograph then, but it didn't "feel" any more powerful than hot loads with H110/296. It did "feel" more powerful than loads made with Accurate #9 though, but that could just be a result of the bigger boom and muzzle flash too. I don't think I have any ammo in 357 with the Power Pro 300MP left either, so that I could check this with now that I do have a chrono.

I do have a box left in 44 Mag with the PP 300MP though. They are using Nosler 200 grain JHP bullets with 29.2 grains of PP 300 MP. That's a pretty hot load for that bullet; corresponds to the second highest load in the 9th Hornady for the 200 XTP. I should be able to get an actual velocity out of my 629 and compare it to the load velocity in the Hornady manual and see how they compare. The Hornady manual is using a 7 1/2" barrel RH for their velocities, which is 1550 fps in the book. I will also run some through my 20" barrel B92 Browning to see how much velocity that load picks up in a rifle too. I've been wanting to do some velocities with the chrono with 44 Mag anyways and this gives me another excuse to go to the range.

Thanks Muddoc.... will be interesting to see how much difference the long barrell on the rifle will make. We'll try 16 first, then 18 grains, and I'm pretty sure the range has a chronograph, and the folk there will help us use it.
Bill

Just over 29 grains under a 200gr XTP resulted in just under 1700 fps from my 8.3" 629 and just over 2100 fps from an 18.5" 77/44. Stout stuff for sure. However 17 grains under a nosler 158gr from a 4" 357 was only doing about 1175 fps.

I had a long lay off and you right. Things have evolved over time. What was good before ain't so good now in many cases. Especially with bottleneck rifle cartridges.

And yeah, sooty dirt isn't any problem. Give it a wipe and keep shooting. The only time I had crud interfere with my shooting was loading .357s after shooting .38s. You had to get rid of the crud ring that was left to get the .357s all the way into the chamber.

Try it and see what happens? Yeah, start low and work up.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

The biggest problem I did have with the PP 300MP was with my old 27-2 actually. The first time I did shoot those loads with this powder, it actually did build up enough soot and crud that the cylinder started to bind up and get stiff. I have never had that happen with any other powder on that pistol. It needed a really good cleaning and taking the cylinder assembly off of the yoke and a lot of powder solvent to get it back to working right and get all the fouling off the pistol. 296 doesn't run nearly this dirty with comparable loads. But, with guns with a non-vented chamber such as the carbine or the Coonan, those very same loads ran about as clean as any powder I've encountered or used. So, like I said earlier, a bit of a mixed bag with Power Pro 300MP for me. BTW, the 629 didn't seem to run quite as dirty with the PP 300MP as my old 27-2. The difference between the 2 might be that the 27-2 has had around 30K rounds through it and the 629 a whole lot less and the 27-2 has some minor forcing cone erosion and a little larger cylinder gap.