I have a 8 3/8 586 S&W in 357. I opened the cylinder so a .357 wad cutter would slide through easily with a light pencil push. I then fire-lapped so the barrel restriction was gone. I mounted a 2 1/2-8 Leupold on it. I locktighted the base and used 3 rings on the scope. I loaded about 9 different loads using Bullseye, 231 and Unique in .38 cases. My bullets were 158 grain swc sized .358. At 50 yards off a rest, I was getting 6" groups. Not gonna work. None of the loads would shoot good at all.
I then pulled out some 125 XTPs, loaded hot in a magnum case. 3 or 4 out of the cylinder would touch or almost touch with the other 2 or 3 landing an inch or inch and a half away from the group. At this point the crane ejector rod started backing out and making it hard for the cylinder to unlatch. (I didn't realize this was what was happening until I got home) I don't know if this had any effect on group size or not.
My questions are:
1. Did the oversize cast bullets keep the gun from shooting well? It was set up for .357 bullets. Did swaging them out of the cylinder cause a problem?
2. I am going to try a heavier bullet in the jacketed to see if it will shoot a different weight better.
I would guess that a different bullet weight might tell me if this gun will shoot.
Any other questions I should be asking, but don't know enough to ask?
Thanks,
Craig
