Been shooting a lot of steel plates at 75-100 yds with .357. Go to load now is Berry’s 158gr Target HP with 7.5gr HS-6 and 12gr 2400. Should be getting around 1000fps out of 6” and 8 3/8” Barrel according to my calculations. Pretty mild shooting loads and both way more accurate than I am. Should be on upper end of .38+P. Have some Summers HiTek Coated on way in 158 and 130 to try. Should the 158gr Coated give approximately same velocity and pressures as the Plated? Also looking for load suggestions for same bullets to use with my Model 14 with 6” Barrel for same plate shooting?

I had better accuracy from the HS-6 powder with more powder
that had me at 1108fps.

I go hot with 2400 powder but did download a 158 lead at 1039fps to see what happened.
Green Dot did way better.

In my revolvers, 1082fps was too slow........
No coated bullets as yet.

Good luck.

Plated bullets work well in that range. I'd like to know which one wins on velocity and which one on accuracy.
I assume the coated bullet is faster, but I don't know about the accuracy.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Coated are exactly like lubed lead so you will get more vel than plated. Accuracy, like any load will vary.

__________________
NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I try to load for about the same velocity. I like Accurate Arms No. 5. Try about 6 gr and you can work up from there.

__________________
Accuracy supercedes Speed

Different seating depths could make a difference but all things equal plated bullets are the slowest.

Here's an interesting article showing a bullet type comparison.

.

__________________
Waiting for the break of day

Wow. That is interesting reading. Based on the published data by Hodgdon, Allianz and other manuals I expected a bigger difference in lead and jacketed. Didn’t expect plated to be the slowest either. I’m sure there are many more variables that could come into play based on individual loads, but it’s good to know that velocity doesn’t vary much between bullets.
Thanks for the post

The op has a lot going on at 1 time.

Accuracy:
Any bullet can be accurate. It's easier to find accurate loads with jacketed & coated bullets simply because of the nature of cast bullets in general. The coated bullets fall into the same easier to find accurate loads category as the jacketed/plated bullets.

Velocity:
Lead/coated bullets tend to have higher velocities than their jacketed/plated counterparts. It's a less friction thing. On another forum a reloader took a mica (HBN) bullet coating and coated pc'd/coated bullets with it and got 50fps more from the same load.

Powders:
HS-6 & 2400 tend to be at their best when used in the upper ranges of their recommended loads. Higher pressure ='s better/more complete burn & a complete burn ='s consistency. Consistency ='s accuracy. You'd be better off in the mid-level burn rate powders like universal clays/unique/herco/power pistol/be-86 for 1000fps 357 loads. Any of those powders will also make excellent 38spl loads for your Model 14. Less powder and more efficient.

Typically 1 of the things I do when testing loads is test for accuracy 1st. Then I break out the chronograph and test the load in the down/raise the muzzle up and fire & then the up/lower the muzzle down and fire. Position sensitive loads are worthless when looking for accuracy. I've showed this picture before. I use a lot of these powders because they have excellent case capacity/fill.


Those powders pictured above fill a case anywhere from 20% to 40% more then popular powders like bullseye for the same load. Just something to think about.

Bullets:
The op stated his loads are in the p+ range pressure wise. Jacketed bullets have soft cores and rely on the jacket to seal the bbl. Plated bullets core's vary in bhn and also rely on a "mechanical" seal of the bore just like the jacketed bullets. Coated bullets have the best of both worlds, too hard of an alloy and the coating has a mechanical seal of the bbl. The correct alloyed coated bullet will seal the bbl with both a mechanical seal and by obturation (alloy expands to seal the bbl).

This is why you're seeing more plated bullets with a hb (hollow base). It is also common to see jacketed pistol bullets that have the exposed lead bases to have the jackets extend past the lead forming a trail edge/hb.

Why all the long winded typing?
Because you might be better off using powders that are better suited to your needs seeing how you're looking for "accuracy". You should also look around for coated bullets in the 10bhn/12bhn range. Those coated bullets you ordered are 18bhn. 18bhn alloy takes 25,000+psi to get the alloy/bullet to expand/seal/obturate. Your mild 357 loads & you're 38spl loads are not going to take advantage of what a coated bullet brings to the table. You've taken the expansion of the bullet out of play and are now only relying on a mechanical seal with those rock hard bullets.

18bhn x 1422 ='s A minimum pressure of 25,596psi to expand
12bhn x 1422 ='s A minumum pressure of 17,064psi to expand

Having a bullet that not only expands to seal a bbl, it has a mechanical fit to seal the bbl ='s extreme accuracy with more/different loads. Easier to find accurate loads.

Myself I'd get a more efficient powder and 12bhn coated bullets. You could easily down load your 357's and make warm 38spl's with the same powder/bullet combo for both calibers and have both of them doing 1000fps with those 6" and 8 3/8" bbl's.

It would be interesting to know the actual bullet diameters for each.