I’ve had good luck with coated SWC’s in 357 with Win 244, but wanted to load something with more beans. I’m taking my family to the Dells and we’ll be doing some hiking. Figured that was as good a reason as any to load some “hot” hard cast 158’s. Basted some research I elected to give Ramshot Enforcer a try. I have had excellent results with Silhouette so I figured “why not”. 14 grains is Ramshot’s max with 158 grain XTP’s. Other posts I read based on some googling stated that they had to get to 13.6 grains before it would burn clean, so that’s what I elected to try. I went “slightly” over to make sure I was good. To put a finer point on it, usually when I load “to” say 13.6 grains I’ll load to a shade under to account for dispenser inaccuracy. In this case I went slightly over. The 13.62-64 range as opposed to 13.56-60. I wanted to make sure I had enough pressure for a clean burn. I loaded with a decent roll crimp with the Summit SWC’s seated to the groove. I had zero jump but I’ll probably give the crimp die another quarter turn as my 66-7 is a little tight.
I only loaded 10 as I wanted to test before I went nuts. First six rounds were out of my old Pre-27 3.5 inch. I’ve found that it tends to be “slow” compared to my other wheel guns but as it’s an N frame I wasn’t worried about strength.
Average velocity was 1120fps from the 3.5” N frame with slightly flat primers. I had used “range brass” for this test and one piece was S&B. It cracked down the side. I’ll be reserving close to full power loads to new brass from now on……
The 2.5 inch Smith 66-7 gave me 1080fps.
158gr Summit SWC
13.6gr Enforcer, 1.58” COAL, SPM
3.5” Pre-27: 1120fps
2.5” 66-7: 1080fps
The empties just fell out of the 66. They shot very well and definitely got my attention out of the 2.5”. It had some bark! Recoil was definitely present but easily controllable even from the 2.5” K frame. Guns looked reasonably clean with a little un burned powder in the barrel. Nothing drastic at all. I think I got pretty good combustion. I’ll be loading up some more this week in new Starline brass for our trip.
Gratuitous Pre-27 and 629 picture…
I only loaded 10 as I wanted to test before I went nuts. First six rounds were out of my old Pre-27 3.5 inch. I’ve found that it tends to be “slow” compared to my other wheel guns but as it’s an N frame I wasn’t worried about strength.
Average velocity was 1120fps from the 3.5” N frame with slightly flat primers. I had used “range brass” for this test and one piece was S&B. It cracked down the side. I’ll be reserving close to full power loads to new brass from now on……
The 2.5 inch Smith 66-7 gave me 1080fps.
158gr Summit SWC
13.6gr Enforcer, 1.58” COAL, SPM
3.5” Pre-27: 1120fps
2.5” 66-7: 1080fps
The empties just fell out of the 66. They shot very well and definitely got my attention out of the 2.5”. It had some bark! Recoil was definitely present but easily controllable even from the 2.5” K frame. Guns looked reasonably clean with a little un burned powder in the barrel. Nothing drastic at all. I think I got pretty good combustion. I’ll be loading up some more this week in new Starline brass for our trip.
Gratuitous Pre-27 and 629 picture…
