reloading: first test rounds of .357

158gr Berry’s target hollowpoint¹ plated bullets in Starline brass. Win 231² since that’s what I have on hand.

Win 231 is usable in .357 at low-to-middling range. Which is fine for this use case since the plated bullets have a generic 1250fps³ limit before they start having integrity problems, and they will be shot out of a 16.5” carbine. There are two test loads, just below and just above 1250fps.

I promise the public land for shooting being a few miles away didn’t affect my decision to live here. :-) Might get out there this week to try them out, but I’d like to load some of those CNCed Lehigh bullets to see if they feed in the Ruger LCP. If so, I think they’d make a good carry round. Should penetrate more than an expanded hollowpoint but less than FMJ or unexpanded HP.

1. Regular hollowpoints are for expansion to increase terminal effectiveness. Target hollowpoints are built to increase accuracy over normal FMJ – the mechanism is supposed to be increased bearing surface engaging the rifling. Dunno. The Berry’s are for dorking around and 158gr XTP will be pushed harder. The XTP expands reliably between 1000-1400fps and the FP version from ~1200-1800. ↩

2. aka HP-38 ↩

3. the official position is 1250fps although reloaders report up to ~1400fps before the plating starts to suffer. ↩