110 gr viable 357 weight?

[Luke Duke]

Found myself with a bunch of 357 XTP 110's . I would think these are still viable options for SD if not pushed at max level with slow burning powder. My stupid Taurus Tracker loves them. My S&W hates them. Using WIN 572 , Unique and PP these can be pushed along pretty fast with start loads. My Taurus is a truck gun. Dont want to kill the Taurus, but will keep shooting these without concern. What do you guys think?

 

[Eddie Southgate]

Sounds like a plan.

 

[rwsmith]

I agree...

Sounds like a good plan to me. 9mm shoot 115 grain bullets so there can't be too much wrong with a 110 grain out of a .357 magnum. The only problem I would have is shooting up high class bullets at the range, but I understand you can't find enough SD situations to make them useful.

 

[Luke Duke]

Not so much as wasting bullets. Its more like that s Taurus shoots them really good! Nothing crazy . 9.0 grains of Unique in .357 brass and it just stacks them at 25 yards. My question is? Do we still consider a 110 XTP at 1300-1400 fps a good viable load against today's boutique loads? Sounds crazy, but I bought this Taurus 627 brand new for $416 bucks out the door. And next to some Taurus limitations it is amazingly accurate. Truck Gun. Dont care if it gets dirty or scratched! Not like my S&W's that get babied.

 

[murphydog]

I think a solidly constructed 110 gr .357 bullet at medium-high velocity would work fine.

But I would stop bashing your 100% functioning, super accurate gun, no matter what brand. If you hurt its feelings it will start throwing out random flyers as revenge.

 

[stansdds]

Factories used to offer 357 Magnum 110 grain JHP loads, shot plenty in my 357's, no reason you can't use them for your reloads. It's not the bullet weight for the very slow burning powders, but fine with fast or medium burning rate powders. As for their use in hunting or defense, these light weight bullets tend to not penetrate as well as heavier bullets.
Now, as to the quality of Taurus revolvers, I think most of the ones produced from about 1980 to today are pretty good, especially considering cost. The earlier production revolvers had some truly rough machining. My only Taurus as of today is a Model 96, which looks very much like a S&W Model 17/K-22 Masterpiece. It does not have as nice of a trigger as a S&W, but it was also about 1/2 the price of a K-22.

 

[Venom6]

The entire line of XTP bullets was pretty carefully engineered, and while 110 gr. would be considered light I think it will work fine for your needs, especially home defense where excess penetration is a bad thing. I still have a negative association with 110 grain bullets because the agency I worked for issued .38 +p in that weight, and we had some bad experiences. One officer shot the man assaulting him in the face at a range of about two feet; the bullet shattered the man's front teeth and knocked him unconscious. In the ER the doctor just pulled the blunted bullet from the guy's throat with a pair of forceps. No other damage. In another case the officer shot the woman in the hand; the 110 gr. bullet went through the back of the hand and palm and then bruised her abdomen, but not badly. But the XTP is a much better bullet than what we were issued, and a couple hundred more fps ought to increase the energy sufficiently. Also, as I'm sure you know, sterling accuracy is nice but not near as important as reliability and ergonomics in a gunfight.

 

[M29since14]

I wouldn't buy 110 grain bullets for use in a .357, but if I had them for some reason and wanted to use them up, why not? I think you're wise to stay away from the slow burners like 2400 and 296. I'm no ballistics expert and don't have the sophisticated equipment to test it, but the whole idea of 110s with slow powders "gives me the creeps." I loaded a box or two 125s like that years and years ago and would I not do it again. For me, the .357 starts at 145 grains and goes heavier.

 

[venomballistics]

I've used them in a 38 way back in the day.
I was shooting a wet phonebook without any visible hits, so I moved in closer fired again, no visible hit.
Stood over the target firing 3 more times, feeling what I thought was an insect flying into my shin.
What I found was a fired 110 XTP resting unscathed on my shoe, and several ring shaped dents in the phonebook cover, matching the metplat of the XTP.
They'd likely do better in a 357. Though i'd use it as a varmint load rather than SD where I'd favor a 125 or 140 grain.
If you look at Hornady's ammo offerings, we have two lines in particular.
Critical Defense and Critical Duty.
Defense tends to be a lighter bullet. I have never seen a solid argument for this as in either the case of law enforcement, or a citizen acting in defense, justified use involves identical targets.
Thus, those loads developed for LE simply make more sense than what's been foisted upon the SD consumer.

 

[mikerjf]

It's my understanding that the Hornady Cr Duty is intended for duty-sized barrels (~4") and Cr Defense for shorter. Makes sense if they are trying to tune the expansion/penetration trade-off.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

The Winchester "Treasury Load" was a .38 Special +P+ 110 grain JHP and was considered quite effective. While Winchester doesn't load it anymore (to my knowledge) they do load it in .357 as equivalent to the Treasury Load.

Using the XTP bullets in a load to match the Treasury Load sounds like a viable thing.

 

[biku324]

Decades ago there were problems with 110 grain JHPs being so soft they wouldn't penetrate reliably. But that was when new cars and trucks had carburetors.

 

[alwslate]

I would not personally use 110 gr bullets in the .357 for SD or any other reason. I wouldn't buy 110 gr JHPs. If somebody gave me a box I might use them for plinking loads in the .38 spl. My favorite bullet for SD in the .357 is a hard cast 158 gr SWC loaded to a modest .357 load of 1200 FPS out of a 4" barrel. Cuts a full caliber hole and gives deep penetration. A proven combination for game animals so should work on the two legged animal as well.

 

[Nevada Ed]

In the Old days the little 110 gr JHP was smoking fast, but

then "Those people" made it a lot safer and dropped them by 300-400fps
to where they would not hurt the revolvers, shooters and any thing else.

A quality 110 JHP will penetrate enough for SD use, but there are some that only do 9-10" in the 4 Gel test.

Gun and barrel length are important as well as type of ammo used.

Many, just step up to the heavier 125 gr JHP bullet for the "Standard" SD load in a .357 revolver
that is street, proven.

The 110 is a great light load for targets and field work on pest, though.
Get er done.

Note;
In a 6" 357 revolver, I got a 110 JHP up to 1500fps with SR4756
since it was the slowest powder that I had on hand, at the time.

Stay safe, if going for a maximum fps load.

 

[Luke Duke]

I think a solidly constructed 110 gr .357 bullet at medium-high velocity would work fine.

But I would stop bashing your 100% functioning, super accurate gun, no matter what brand. If you hurt its feelings it will start throwing out random flyers as revenge.

You're absolutely right. It is a pretty decent gun. And every bit as accurate as my S&W's.

 

[Luke Duke]

The entire line of XTP bullets was pretty carefully engineered, and while 110 gr. would be considered light I think it will work fine for your needs, especially home defense where excess penetration is a bad thing. I still have a negative association with 110 grain bullets because the agency I worked for issued .38 +p in that weight, and we had some bad experiences. One officer shot the man assaulting him in the face at a range of about two feet; the bullet shattered the man's front teeth and knocked him unconscious. In the ER the doctor just pulled the blunted bullet from the guy's throat with a pair of forceps. No other damage. In another case the officer shot the woman in the hand; the 110 gr. bullet went through the back of the hand and palm and then bruised her abdomen, but not badly. But the XTP is a much better bullet than what we were issued, and a couple hundred more fps ought to increase the energy sufficiently. Also, as I'm sure you know, sterling accuracy is nice but not near as important as reliability and ergonomics in a gunfight.

I just ended up with 300 of them. And with the cost of components I will use them.

 

[Luke Duke]

I wouldn't buy 110 grain bullets for use in a .357, but if I had them for some reason and wanted to use them up, why not? I think you're wise to stay away from the slow burners like 2400 and 296. I'm no ballistics expert and don't have the sophisticated equipment to test it, but the whole idea of 110s with slow powders "gives me the creeps." I loaded a box or two 125s like that years and years ago and would I not do it again. For me, the .357 starts at 145 grains and goes heavier.

I have Unique, Power Pistol and Win 572 all of which can push these along pretty good without loading them Hot.

 

[Beauetienne]

I have 100 of them that I've yet to load.
I remember reading on line (maybe on a Hornady page) that Hornady does not recommend shooting them at higher 357 velocities due to separation. I bet that info is still out there somewhere. Info stated these bullets were for use in 38 Special loads.

 

[Luke Duke]

I have 100 of them that I've yet to load.
I remember reading on line (maybe on a Hornady page) that Hornady does not recommend shooting them at higher 357 velocities due to separation. I bet that info is still out there somewhere. Info stated these bullets were for use in 38 Special loads.

My new Hornady manual says you can push these out of a 8 in barrel with 10.0 gr of PP at 1500 fps! I'm not going to even try for that. 8.5 gr of PP at 1300 fps seems more reasonable. And I've only got a 4" barrel.

 

[Luke Duke]

Factories used to offer 357 Magnum 110 grain JHP loads, shot plenty in my 357's, no reason you can't use them for your reloads. It's not the bullet weight for the very slow burning powders, but fine with fast or medium burning rate powders. As for their use in hunting or defense, these light weight bullets tend to not penetrate as well as heavier bullets.
Now, as to the quality of Taurus revolvers, I think most of the ones produced from about 1980 to today are pretty good, especially considering cost. The earlier production revolvers had some truly rough machining. My only Taurus as of today is a Model 96, which looks very much like a S&W Model 17/K-22 Masterpiece. It does not have as nice of a trigger as a S&W, but it was also about 1/2 the price of a K-22.

This would be my third Taurus. Had a 66 that was really accurate , but it rattled itself apart every 150 rounds. Had to use Red loctite. Blue wouldn't do it.
And a 431 44 special that was a great gun, sad I sold that one.