I recently aqcuired some Sierra 170gr. FMJ bullets at a local gun show. The price was right, so I figured I would give them a shot (pun intended). I found some data for them in a .38 manual, but I haven't yet seen any load data for .357. Has anybody used a bullet of this weight in a reload? Would something like this be worth carrying out in the woods for a black bear encounter? Should I just load them up for cheap .38 special practice ammo? Thanks in advance.

W

As I recall (always a dangerous thing), Sierra developed that bullet for pistol metallic silouette competition for it's knockdown power.

I loaded and fired a couple boxes of them, and did find them to be more effective than cast lead or softpoint bullets for the metallic silouettes.

They should give extreme penetration, if that is important for your bear defense loads. I would use W-W 295, H-110, Alliant 2400 loads for the 158 SP bullets reduced by two grains for starting loads.

Check out Hogdons website they have a number of loads for the 170gr bullet fir the 357 mag

Cartridge Loads - Hodgdon Reloading Data Center - data.hodgdon.com