Bear Creek Supply Bullets & Loading the 190gr
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edgehit
- AAA Poster
- Posts: 666
- Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:24 pm
Bear Creek Supply Bullets & Loading the 190gr
I bought a box of BCS 190gr 38 S&W cast bullets to load in my 357 for the rifle cartridge match. BCS’ order process is simple. Call them on the phone! I explained my intention to load them in a 357” bore. Being manufactured for a 38 S&W round, the 190’s are normally sized 360”. BCS offered to size them 359” and they shipped them the next day. I had my bullets 3 business days later and found them double boxed and wrapped in bubble-wrap. This is nitro-delivery! I encourage you to buy from BCS because of the quality and they supported this years National with an abundance of door prizes.
What’s in the box? I didn’t count the bullets inside. Perhaps 400? I weight sorted them and like many commercial cast bullet suppliers the bullets varied in weight from 191-197 grains, which is a 3% variance. I decided to weight sort them in 2 groups. Top 1% by weight being 196-197.x gr, separated from the next 1%, 194-195.9 gr. About 40 bullets fell below 194 grains and I pitched those in the bullet casting recycling bin.
FYI - In the midst of gearing up to test load the 359” diameter 190‘s I decided to slug my 2024 Winchester 92 sporting rifle’s bore.
ALERT - Winchester 357 magnum barrels have a 0.355” groove diameter which explains the leading issues I experienced with cast bullets and early pressure signs with jacketed.
So I ran my bullets thru my Lee 358 sizer which actually sizes 0.357”. Perfect!
I quickly settled on a subsonic powder charge that gave me an ES-25 and SD 7. At the 200m ram line it shot 3”. Do they take rams? You betcha. I never had a practice ram not fall in the days leading up to the nationals. Come match day, I hit a ram in the front armpit and didn’t fall. In contrast, my shooting partner shot a ram during the match just below center with a 150gr 30-30 sierra PH at 2100 fps and it rang.
Shooting long line in Whittington’s cross winds, I found wind drift to be very manageable and similar to shooting a 30-30 w/150’s.
I think weight sorting into 2 bullet weight groups was unnecessary. I’ll shoot some controlled tests on paper targets and see what shakes out.
The long tapering round nose of this bullet wasn’t meant for the 357 magnum. I addressed it by seating them to 1.59” then rolling over the case mouth A LOT to eliminate the bullet nose-2-mouth gap. There was no crimp into the bullet and I relied upon 0.001” neck tension to hold the bullet in place. This doesn’t sound like a lot but there’s an awful lot of bullet bearing inside the cartridge to create ignition back pressure and prevent bullet setback. At the range, I successfully loaded 5 in the mag tube and experienced smooth loading throughout the match. The few rounds that had a small gap at the case mouth would occasionally hang up on the chamber mouth during feeding. I shook the rifle to pop-up the rim to the bolt face and they fed fine from there. I’ll be sure to add more crimp on the crimp stage.
Dillon 550 loading deserves some attention. It saves A LOT of time by loading in big batches using 2 handle pulls per cartridge. I’ve found my Dillon loaded ammo matches the accuracy of my single stage loaded test ammo. What’s not to like?
Pass 1 seats a primer + gets a carbide size from the neck down to mid-body. A NOE m-die sized 356-360” expands the mouth. That’s it.
Pass 2 charges powder (no flare), seats the bullet then crimps. DONE.
I have yet to experience a squib load, double powder charge or other malady loading on the 550. It can happen if you fail to keep an eye on powder levels. I always select ball powders that measure within a 0.1gr window. Not +- 0.1 grains. That’s +- 0.05gr and I proof the charge using a powder scale that measure to 0.03gr. The Dillon powder measure will deliver when properly setup.
What will I change after my nationals experience? Maybe nothing. I’ll be sure to clean my bore after each practice session and match. I did experience powder fouling that was a result of incomplete combustion and the unburnt kernels got smearing onto the bore. I will test a slightly faster burning powder than LilGun to reduce carbon load.
What’s in the box? I didn’t count the bullets inside. Perhaps 400? I weight sorted them and like many commercial cast bullet suppliers the bullets varied in weight from 191-197 grains, which is a 3% variance. I decided to weight sort them in 2 groups. Top 1% by weight being 196-197.x gr, separated from the next 1%, 194-195.9 gr. About 40 bullets fell below 194 grains and I pitched those in the bullet casting recycling bin.
FYI - In the midst of gearing up to test load the 359” diameter 190‘s I decided to slug my 2024 Winchester 92 sporting rifle’s bore.
ALERT - Winchester 357 magnum barrels have a 0.355” groove diameter which explains the leading issues I experienced with cast bullets and early pressure signs with jacketed.
So I ran my bullets thru my Lee 358 sizer which actually sizes 0.357”. Perfect!
I quickly settled on a subsonic powder charge that gave me an ES-25 and SD 7. At the 200m ram line it shot 3”. Do they take rams? You betcha. I never had a practice ram not fall in the days leading up to the nationals. Come match day, I hit a ram in the front armpit and didn’t fall. In contrast, my shooting partner shot a ram during the match just below center with a 150gr 30-30 sierra PH at 2100 fps and it rang.
Shooting long line in Whittington’s cross winds, I found wind drift to be very manageable and similar to shooting a 30-30 w/150’s.
I think weight sorting into 2 bullet weight groups was unnecessary. I’ll shoot some controlled tests on paper targets and see what shakes out.
The long tapering round nose of this bullet wasn’t meant for the 357 magnum. I addressed it by seating them to 1.59” then rolling over the case mouth A LOT to eliminate the bullet nose-2-mouth gap. There was no crimp into the bullet and I relied upon 0.001” neck tension to hold the bullet in place. This doesn’t sound like a lot but there’s an awful lot of bullet bearing inside the cartridge to create ignition back pressure and prevent bullet setback. At the range, I successfully loaded 5 in the mag tube and experienced smooth loading throughout the match. The few rounds that had a small gap at the case mouth would occasionally hang up on the chamber mouth during feeding. I shook the rifle to pop-up the rim to the bolt face and they fed fine from there. I’ll be sure to add more crimp on the crimp stage.
Dillon 550 loading deserves some attention. It saves A LOT of time by loading in big batches using 2 handle pulls per cartridge. I’ve found my Dillon loaded ammo matches the accuracy of my single stage loaded test ammo. What’s not to like?
Pass 1 seats a primer + gets a carbide size from the neck down to mid-body. A NOE m-die sized 356-360” expands the mouth. That’s it.
Pass 2 charges powder (no flare), seats the bullet then crimps. DONE.
I have yet to experience a squib load, double powder charge or other malady loading on the 550. It can happen if you fail to keep an eye on powder levels. I always select ball powders that measure within a 0.1gr window. Not +- 0.1 grains. That’s +- 0.05gr and I proof the charge using a powder scale that measure to 0.03gr. The Dillon powder measure will deliver when properly setup.
What will I change after my nationals experience? Maybe nothing. I’ll be sure to clean my bore after each practice session and match. I did experience powder fouling that was a result of incomplete combustion and the unburnt kernels got smearing onto the bore. I will test a slightly faster burning powder than LilGun to reduce carbon load.
- Joe