I'm steaming toward a S&W 357PP as a backup gun for bowhunting and would like some light load recommendations for familiarization/practice at the range. A couple of folks have offered to load me some but I have no idea what to ask them for.

An old standard .41 load for general use is 8 grain s of Unique and a good hard cast 200-220 grain lead bullet. I've shot thousands of these.

My light load is 9 grains of Unique and a 210 grain jacketed bullet.

6-7gr Unique under a 210-215gr LSWC, accurate & mild recoil.

7.5-8.0 Grains of Unique under a 200-220 cast bullet is NOT a light load, being on a par with full house .45 ACP, but it's the lightest I have ever been able to get good accuracy with using readily available bullets.

Wadcutters will fill much of the case and make an accurate light load much easier to obtain, but there are no current production moulds available. The Cast Boolits crew is doing a group buy on a .41 WC sixholer mould, but that's four months from delivery. PM me if you want info on that.

Lee and Lyman made .41 WC moulds in the past, but Ebay is the only likely place to find one.

NEI has a .41 wc mold.
http://www.neihandtools.com/catalog.html

8 grains of Unique is about 900 fps, light compared to 19 or 20 grains of 2400 or W296!