Hello! Ill introduce myself here since i cant find a intro forum...

My name is Erik, im 23 yo, live in south-western Michigan, shoot at a friends house... I work at a print shop doing graphics design and running a 2 color press. Its great for printing targets.. LOL anyways...

i have been reading quite a few of your forums and thought since i picked up shooting a year or 2 back, i might get into re-loading my newly acquired Taurus .357 Mag 4" 6 shot..

I work part-time so money is a big object, my dad used to shoot alot of 357's and has a brand new RCBS press, dies, measuring tools u name it ( except for powder and bullets ) and i thought this might be a good step in beginning reloading. I am totally new to the shooting world, ( as ive shot skeet a few times in the past years, but i am really getting into it this year, and my grandpa gave me his Taurus 357 4" 6 shot and gave my dad a 2" S/W 6 shot...

If there are any tips you could give a noob please do so...

Thanks in advance-
Erik Mitchell

Erik,

If your dad is or was a reloader I'd pick his brain and find out all that you can from him. As boring as this may seem, I'd get a reloading manual and read about each step of the process.
Learn it and get it firmly in your brain.

This might seem silly since someone can tell you what to do but it will make you a safer and more thoughtful reloader. Safety foremost. Check and double check to prevent double loads etc......

If you are anything like me, keep it simple. That shouldn't be hard with only one or two rounds being reloaded.

What I mean is, don't buy a bunch of different powders, primers, brass from different manuf., etc. Do you research, for free at Barnes & Noble, buy one book that suits you best, and pick one powder, primer type, etc. You can't grab the wrong bottle and cause a disaster if all the bottles are the same

Little canoe, Thanks for the reply. My dad was never a re-loader, he bought the kit from a friend awhile back ( 10 years or so id say ) when he was still shooting, He has not shot since then i think, he was going to begin re-loading but just lost interest i think. When i told him i wanted to start re-loading he was like " your not palying with bananas you know... LOL " yes dad thank you, im not stupid.. it is an explosive which i know can be dangerous..

The kit came with a manual which i have read front to back twice, as well as all the instructions for the dies, scale that sorta thing...

he works with a guy that reloads all the time, he gave me a few combinations as to he shoots .357's as i have started doing.

as i was reading through the manual the second time, i setup the press in the basement on a sturdy table and walked myself through the steps of setting up, measuring, calibrating that kinda thing and have re-sized and pressed out primers on about 150 Ni plated shells that i have shot and or my dad acquired... whether i can reuse them or did it properly in the first place is just what im worried about. I followed the manual and instructions step by step on setting it up and it seems to have worked pretty good for the first time...

so maybe talking with everyone here or if ther are any hints i might not find in a book or the instructions it would be much appreciated

i have a weird request... LOL if anyone re-loads .357's could you do a few shells and post step by step pictures of what teh shell's look like after resizing, expanding, powdering, priming, and finally bullet step that would be great. The manual and instructions just state what the shell and cap should look like doesnt actually show it... so if i could see that it would help me out alot... maybe.. heh

Sorry for the novel...
Thanks again!

I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find a shooter/handloader in the neighborhood who'd be willing to give you some hands on help and advise.

As you can afford it, stock up on components, they aren't gonna get cheaper.

Erik,

Sound like you've done the homework! Great!

I load for 357/38. I think that I use an old set of CH dies that I picked up at an auction long before I purchased the pistol.

If I remember correctly, I happened to find the right load for my pistol by accident on my first try. Using 158 gr Hornady XTP's and the Lee dippers I found the size dipper that fit in the middle of the Min and Max range for BlueDot and that bullet.

It produced 8 shot groups of less than 2 inches at 50 yds using a red dot sight. I stopped right there. That's great for what I'm doing.

I like the Lee Dippers. I recently purchased an RCBS Uniflow though and have yet to try loads measured in that unit.

Start low, work up, I always check the cases before seating the bullets to make sure no double charges are there to surprise me.

I like to Isolate myself from everyone else when reloading so that I can focus.

Erik,
I recently started hand loading and I’m finding many things to look out for while reloading that the manuals don’t always state, so questions in the forums help, I keep asking many myself, but keep reading any manuals you can get your hands on too.

A couple of things I would have in place and can’t live without before loading any cartridge.
1) A caliper to do measurements, some data manuals list (MOAL) Minimal over all length and (OAL) Cartridge Over All Length for loads; this will give you confidence in your finished product that you are within spec’s. I trim all cases too before I reload them so my crimps and finished sizes are the same and inside case capacities are the same.
Some guys don’t clean primer pockets or trim brass every time they reload handgun cartridges because case preparation sucks. But I do these steps anyway.
2) A Good / accurate powder scale, there’s nothing like a crappie scale - it will waste your time.

I think The 38 / 357 is a great cartridge to start with especially shooting a revolver.

Here is a load I found that works great in my 357 Taurus 605 snub nose revolver.
I can’t get Alliant 2400 to shoot good in 38 or 357 loads but I have found that Alliant unique works for this gun. With 110 grain JHP the 38 Spl max is 5.6gr the 38 +P Max is 5.9 grains but my 357 handles these 38+P max loads fine. I’m still working on 125gr and 158gr 357 loads for this gun.

Don’t ever start with max loads and most guys I talk with don’t go to Max at all.




Vin

Hi and welcome to the wide world of reloading.

I though I would just make clear one thing about your reloading of 357 magnum caliber pistol rounds.....

Please make sure you understand that cases for 38 special and 357 have quite different sizes and characteristics. Your gun can shoot both, but these cartridges and the mixtures of powder and bullet are quite different.

If you size and load 38 special brass make sure you use load manual concotions for just that brass and bullet......The same for 357 magnum.

Am I repeating myself? YES....because when you reload you MUST use at least the minimum powder for the case and bullet combination ASS SPECIFIED IN THE LOAD MANUAL. Aand then you NEVER use MORE THAN THE MAX LOAD SPECIFIED!.

Placing a 38 special small case load in a 357 case violates this rule and loads what is called a super light load. This in some cases can cause an explosive discharge that can hurt the gun and the shooter.

read more at the following link...
http://www.reloadammo.com/liteload.htm


Enough said.... have fun with your relaoding and as others have said in this thread....keep to one powder and bullet combination until you get your stride about reloading....