Adi powder load for 357. 45colt 32-20

[Expps]

Hi all
I am after a few loads for 357 mag. 45 long colt and 32-20 all lever actions .
I do have 45 colt in circuit judge as well
After loads using 2207. 2206 2208
I K ow a few of you fellas have expirementes and a few ideas with bullet wieghts in jacketed and lead be a great start . Otherwise I'd have to go to black powder

[bladeracer]

Hi all
I am after a few loads for 357 mag. 45 long colt and 32-20 all lever actions .
I do have 45 colt in circuit judge as well
After loads using 2207. 2206 2208
I K ow a few of you fellas have experiments and a few ideas with bullet weights in jacketed and lead be a great start . Otherwise I'd have to go to black powder

AR2206H will work but velocities will be low, if you're just plinking its fine.
AR2208 I think is going to be too slow, though I would expect it to push the bullets out the muzzle.
AR2207 is also slower than ideal but will work, especially with heavier bullets in rifle-length barrels.
I would expect blackpowder to make more velocity than these rifle powders.
Even better, scavenge the powder out of a case of cheap 12ga. field loads and use that, and you can use the shot to cast your bullets.

AR2205 is a much better choice if you can get some, they just released more to the market very recently so you might still find some in stock somewhere.
A mate of mine scored some Vectan A0 this week which is a pistol powder that I would expect to work better in pistol cartridges. It was $300 for a kilogram, but he bought it through his club so that may be a member discount price.

I can't give you load data for those but can say that AR2206H is a very safe powder to experiment with, start lowish and work up, probably to a heavily-compressed full case - be very, very aware that you will very likely have squibbed bullets stopping in the barrel, don't get trigger happy when experimenting with rifle powders in pistols. In the US, AR2207 is sold as H4198, AR2206H is H4895, AR2208 is Varget if you want to search for load data, there must be Americans that have experimented with these powders when they couldn't get pistol powders. You will be trying to ignite a lot of rifle powder compared to a charge of pistol powder so you might want magnum primers. in .45Colt for example your normal pistol powder charge is likely to be in the 5gn to 10gn realm, with AR2206H you might be filling the case to the top and compressing it to get enough in there. In 9mm for example I was using 12.5gn of AR2206H under 124gn plated bullets making 560fps in a pistol barrel. Normal pistol powder loads are in the 2gn to 6gn realm. I couldn't fit more than 12.5gn of AR2206H in the case, even with vibrating it, and the bullet was seated longer than conventional 9mm pistols will feed. You need the bullet to stay in the barrel as long as possible to be able to burn as much of the slow powder as you can, so use the heaviest bullets, with heavy crimp. Jacketed bullets would also work better than cast as they require more pressure to engrave into the rifling.

I really do have to set aside some time to do some more experimenting with AR2206H in the pistol chamberings.

[Obie73]

Posting this here, for extra coverage so to speak. I first posted this in the primer thread. But here it attracts the notice of specifically lever action shooters:

I'm finding this whole primer thing a bit confusing, being new to reloading. I want to load mild to moderate .357 mag rounds to use in a rifle, for target shooting out to about 100m. Talking to gun shop proprietors doesn't necessarily clear things up as it appears to be the case that there's some overlap of what works. Some say use small pistol, others say magnum pistol. Yet another source says use small rifle. And others just don't know because they don't shoot pistol calbre bullets out of rifles.

Is it the case that you can get by with small pistol or small rifle primers, for .357 mag, but only if you use pistol powders (which occasionally can be found for sale in Australia if you search around)? Or must it be small pistol magnum? But only if you use slower powders? I'm a bit exhausted trying to figure all this out. Any helpful advice appreciated.

[Obie73]

By the way, I'm happy to reload .38 spl and just use that in my .357 mag rifle. That way, I think I can use SP primers rather than magnum ones, which are currently difficult to find. But then again, I would probably definitely need pistol powder for .38 spl. I guess 2207 wouldn't work in a low-velocity .38 spl round?

[Obie73]

Here's a guy who just wants to work up his own loads but, man, how difficult it is to get started in reloading.

[deye243]

Yes quick end the dead You just have to haunt used Guns and similar websites and be prepared to travel Or go without .

[bladeracer]

With pistol powders the charges will be fairly small, and a standard primer should have no trouble igniting it all. With a slower rifle powder you might have two or three times more powder so I would use magnum primers - if you aren't going to burn it it's just wasteful tossing extra powder out the muzzle.

If you're loading for a lever rifle you can probably use rifle primers as well if you can't get pistol primers.

Posting this here, for extra coverage so to speak. I first posted this in the primer thread. But here it attracts the notice of specifically lever action shooters:

I'm finding this whole primer thing a bit confusing, being new to reloading. I want to load mild to moderate .357 mag rounds to use in a rifle, for target shooting out to about 100m. Talking to gun shop proprietors doesn't necessarily clear things up as it appears to be the case that there's some overlap of what works. Some say use small pistol, others say magnum pistol. Yet another source says use small rifle. And others just don't know because they don't shoot pistol calibre bullets out of rifles.

Is it the case that you can get by with small pistol or small rifle primers, for .357 mag, but only if you use pistol powders (which occasionally can be found for sale in Australia if you search around)? Or must it be small pistol magnum? But only if you use slower powders? I'm a bit exhausted trying to figure all this out. Any helpful advice appreciated.

[bladeracer]

By the way, I'm happy to reload .38 spl and just use that in my .357 mag rifle. That way, I think I can use SP primers rather than magnum ones, which are currently difficult to find. But then again, I would probably definitely need pistol powder for .38 spl. I guess 2207 wouldn't work in a low-velocity .38 spl round?

The rifle powders aren't going to burn fast enough to make high pressures anyway, even a full case of rifle powder is likely to be a very low-pressure .38 round because most of it isn't going to burn anyway. My experimenting with 9mm left me wondering if there's an optimal charge weight above which little if anything is gained. There may be a point where instead of adding more powder it might be better to reduce the case volume using a filler (on top of the powder) or seating the bullet much deeper rather than stuffing more powder in.

[Obie73]

Thanks Bladeracer. All this information is very helpful.

[Larry]

At some point you are just going to have to try something for yourself. Very unlikely someone will have definitive answers for all your questions as there is just so much variability in results and too many construction options. Pick a powder work through some loads then try a different powder adjust components depending on results only one at a time dont change powders and primers at the same time ect.

[Obie73]

Just took me a while figuring everything out, which I've now done to my satisfaction -- at least to get started. I will start using 2207 with SR primers (NH's book specifies SR primers for use with 2205 powder which you can't get, but I'm told that 2207 isn't too different to 2205). This is with .357 140gr JHP, and Starline brass. Won't change powder and primer at the same time.