ScottMn

There has been some discussion lately about 357 revolvers and how shooting lots of hot 357 ammo could/might accelerate wear. If you used M.E. out of a 6" barrel as a reference, when would you consider the ammo "hot"? 600 fpe and above?......

Curious...

DIYautotech

What I shoot is pretty hot:

Rxdoc

Caution on using "hot loads" in a .357 mag "Snubbie". I had the dreaded cylinder lockup on my Ruger KLCR .357 mag using CorBon DPX .357 mag 125gr. After going through one cylinder full, on the second cylinder it locked up on the 4th round. Never happened before on anything I had used. Found that the 4th cartridge "separated", locking up the cylinder. I also found out other things. READ the Owner's Manual COMPLETELY. In the Manual, it cautions that before settling on any ammo for SD, "Shoot 4, and CHECK the 5th for "separation", several times. Advised CorBon of my dilemma, National Manager said they were aware of the possibility, and was driving all the manuf. of ammo crazy trying to counteract the problem. Tightening the crimp was the only answer, which he said he would pass on to the developers, for future batches. I bought Speer GD 125gr .357 mag to test several times, no problems. Speer GD is my carry ammo now, both in .357-125gr and 38spl+P 135gr Short Barrel. Take care and good luck.

bwinters

I use buffalo Bore 180 grain loads in 357 it is accurate powerful and heavy recoil but okay.

ScottMn

Thanks for the replies but perhaps I should clarify my question a tad. Iowegan brought up that shooting 200 rounds of "hot" 357 (200 is just a number out of the hat) was the equivalent of shooting many times that number of 38 +P in terms of putting wear on a gun.

I have an SP101 4 inch that I carry in the field and have been loading it with Hornady and Remington ammo. The Hornady pushes over 600 fpe while the Remington is around 550. The real question I guess is at what energy levels do you start pushing the envelope and increase your chances of premature wear? In my mind, the gun is designed to shoot 357 so it should handle it well if I don't pass a certain threshold. There are some 700 plus rounds out there that I'm not inclined to shoot at the moment. Now, if I was in bear country, that might be a different story but if I'm going to carry the gun I'm going to practice with the same ammo and putting a bunch of 700 fpe ammo through the gun doesn't seem like the best idea unless you really have need for all that energy.

Scatillac

buffalo bore!

intercooler

I have shot the hottest of them. I can't give you the exact numbers for 6" but out of my 4":

125gr going 1550 FPS/ 675 LBS
158gr going 1400 FPS/ 700 LBS


Below is my sheet with many different offerings. All the onese in green highlight I have personally shot and are my numbers. The others are compiled from data results I have found.

The red and orange energy numbers tell the extremes.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...0ZVMybFE#gid=0

TMan51

You can 600fpe a lot of different ways. If you handload.

If you load up to max pressures with Red Dot, the load will be hot, performance, not so much. W296 or 2400 will net pretty fair energy levels with less pressure. Factory .357 stuff is loaded to comply with SAAMI standards, and pretty much independent of bullet weight, is "hot" as pressures go.

I am a big SP101 fan since I brought my 4" model home. But as several have noted, a continuous diet of full power stuff will eventually take it's toll. I load most of my SP101 ammo to a moderate level, as I'm hoping to pass it to my daughter on my way out of this world. I use 2400, 2gr below max, for any given bullet 110-160gr. It's a combination that nets 90% performance, with 75% pressures with jacketed bullets. For Cast bullets, I use Unique at 75% of max, and those loads run about 50% of full power pressures, and net 1000fps. My mild load is the Hornady 140gr Cowboy bullet, 4.5gr of Red Dot, for a very tame load anyone can handle. Most of my shooting has been and will be with cast and swaged/extruded lead bullets.

My thought is that the SP101 I have is a top notch trail gun, suitable for bumping off varmints and even small game. Accuracy in SA is very good. If I need to stop someone at the door, I'll bring my .45 to the game. If large mean critters are on the list, the .357 BH and .44 SBH are a better answer.

I can shoot full power stuff, but I'd rather not.

exlogger

DIYautotech-- Thanks for the video. Very informative and well done.

Revoliver

Thank you for the detailed acounting and link, it is very informative!

clarkston_cz

Double Tap 158 gr. 357 Magnum Gold Dots;




Pretty powerful out of my old SP-101 DAO .357.


I'd NOT care to shoot them out of a LCR!