245 WLN

[Halftime]

Hi Veral,
 I got one of the molds from your sale, and it is great fun and pretty devastating. It's the 245 WLN for 357 Mag in 38 Spl cases. The best load I've found so far is 6.5 gr. of VV 3N37, one of the only powders left after the recent rush to stock up on components. It's the first Vihtavuori powder I've tried, and it was in the burn range I was looking for - slower than Unique but faster than Blue Dot - and very accurate. I found the limit at 7.0 grains in a 38 Spl case when the case head split.

 I started with AA#9 also at 6.5 grains and tried it in my Security Six. It's the most pleasant load ever - not very stout - but even at a slow speed the weight would do some damage. As I increased the load I moved to my old Vaquero and trimmed some 357 cases to 1.215" so the cartridge almost fills the chamber. I got up to 9.5 grains without pressure signs but couldn't get very good accuracy. Plenty of power. With the heavy Vaquero, recoil was only noticeable from the barrel kicking up. One shot went a little wide and busted the 2x4 on the target frame at our shooting range.

 Next I'll try the newspaper test to see how deep they go, but what a fun bullet!

Thanks!

[Veral]

  Thanks for the report.
   For those who don't understand what Halftime is saying, he's talking about a 245 gr 38 caliber revolver bullet.  It is one of my favorites though the only thing I ever killed with it was a badger, at about 60 yards.  The impact sounded like he had been hit with a baseball bat.  I drove it at 1100 fps, so it was just subsonic in all weather, to keep the report mild, as the mild report was my main objective in designing the bullet.