About to buy a henry for pistol cart. and need some ideas about loading. have shoot the 38/357 in pistol for years. Whats the best bullet weight and powder to use and roll crimp verus taper crimp ?

Best load is what shoots best in your rifle... ;)

Here's something to start with:
Chk/Pigs: 38cal 125gr Reiner RN IMR 4227 12/13 gr.
Trk/Rams: 38cal 158gr Reiner RN Reliance Unique 7.2/8 gr
ppkny

[quote="tnchicknsnipr"]From: Nomen Nescio < > To: cedestech@yahoo.com Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2015 5:33 AM Subject: RE: 38/357 loads


"Best load is what shoots best in your rifle... ;)"

Can you be a little less technical. What a tool......


Well.... since I seem to have a few minutes before heading to Austin this morning because of a slow to rise teen age boy.....

Are you shooting lead or jacketed? Are you shooting pistol cartridge or full size CLA? What twist rate is your barrel?

With that information someone can give you something to "try".

RIfles can be finicky eaters. What works in one may not shoot so well in another. Load development can be quick and easy or sometimes very frustrating to find the sweet spot for a particular gun.

I personaly shoot a Rossi 24" Hex barrel 1892. It likes light and slow. I'm shooting 125gr XTP over 7gr of PB with a very light taper crimp. COL 1.57, Winchester Primers, mixed headstamp brass. This combo shoots very well, IN MY RIFLE. It may shoot like poop in your.

My comment was meant to be snarky, hence the little smiley face..... I do apologize if you misconstrued it as being "a tool". I assure you if you ask 10 guys, you will get 10 different loading for their 10 different rifles.

I'm going to drive for 3 hours to Austin now and shoot a couple matches at ARC, take care and try to lighten up....

Emmett Dibble.

tnchicknsnipr:

I shoot a Marlin 1894 Cowboy in .357 with a 24" barrel. My load is 5.7gr of Unique with a Hornady .357 XTP bullet weighing 125 gr. This load is very accurate in my rifle. I used to shoot the 158g Hornady XTP 158 gr bullet with 7.5gr of Unique--also very accurate. I went to the lighter bullet and powder charge for less recoil. Believe me, you don't need a 158gr bullet for the rams or pigs. The 125gr bullet is quite adequate. This load may not work in your rifle, but it is a place to start. By the way, I taper crimp and weigh every powder charge.

Jim Luke

I'm shootin 180g lead round nose out of my Henry with either 13g of H110 or 8.5 g of Unique. Makes them chickens dance. Just a big ol roll crimp with my old set of dies. Seems to work good. The other Henry I had liked 158's. The first one liked to be clean. 100 rounds was it, the other wasn't so finicky. Neither likes light bullets. Like Emmett said, YMMV. void where prohibited etc, etc, etc.

hugh

My Rossi loves a 115r cast 311008 over 4 gr W231 for Pistol Cartridge CLA. Literally zero recoil, very accurate and really fun to shoot. in fact, with this load it is cheaper to shoot a match than the .22!

I'm about to "pull the trigger" on a .357 rifle and wondered about using it for CLA matches too.

I can load for Pistol cartridge, but I have a question about Rams at 200 meters. When I lived in Arizona the local wisdom said use 170/180gr for the long rams, and 158gr for everything else.

I'm thinking 125gr/Unique (Thanks Jim Luke) for PC matches, but not sure where to start for the long-range stuff.

Where would you suggest I start for CLA matches?

Michael

Jim Luke has been kicking my butt ( and almost everyone else's ) in pistol cartridge for years. I always find his loads to be what works best. I was obsessing about trying to find that magical lever gun / load that shoots consistent 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards. A national champion informed me his guns shoot about 3 inches...but he can hold three inches.

I found a pretty good load and started working more on me and my scores have risen. Pick Jim Luke's ( john henry ) brain...he has a ton of knowledge and experience.

I tried shooting the PC and the CLA with my 357 Rossi. Excellent results in PC with the loads I mentioned above but for CLA It was just to difficult to find anything that would be consistent for the turkeys and rams. Pick up a 30-30 and be done with it for CLA and enjoy shooting rather than trying to do the impossible.
ppkny

Thanks - I do shoot a 30-30, but wanted a .357 "just-because" I want one. Not a valid reason, but since when do shooters need a good reason to add a rifle?

Michael

OMG - I was high bidder on GunBreaker! Guess I'll "have-one" now. I'm looking forward to it an about a week.
M

Shooting 110grn Winchesters with 7 grns of unique in a 357
Whats this changing the sight for turkeys and rams?
pretty flat shooter, so is this cheating???

March '16 update.
After a very long and cold winter we finally had a "reasonable" weather day for a CLA match (if you sat in the truck between relays).

Anyway, I shot 158s at chickens, pigs, turkeys with 6gr of Unique. All that I hit fell.
I changed to 180gr cast/coated for rams...those I hit fell as well as they do with 30-30.
I shot the 180s with 8gr of Unique. A hot load, but I didn't get any leading with coated bullets.

The trouble was the Hornady158s tracked true and very close to Hornady 125s. But the cast/coated 180s shot way to the right (miss #1, hold mid ram #1 and hit ram #2, etc). I took only three down, but they had no problem falling.

Bottom line...I'll go back to 30-30 for CLA and use the .357 for PC matches.

Michael