Paper patching a .357 Magnum

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Hi fellas.

I don't have a .357 handgun yet, but I've been playing with a .357 lever action.  Since it's chambered for a pistol round, I thought it appropriate to post a few musings on my paper patching adventures.

I know, there's a particular forum for paper patching.  Right now that forum's a tad slow.  And like I typed already, this is about a .357magnum.

Load:
.357 federal cases
17.6 grains Lil' Gun
158 grain RNFP from a Lee mold
Paper - vellum
Primer CCI 550
Very slight crimp
Just a shmear of Sno-seal boot care as lubricant

To start I cast the bullets from pure soft lead.  Ran 'em through a .356 sizing die.  Patched 'em with two wraps of 25% cotton vellum, let them dry.  Then ran 'em through a .358 sizing die.  (the first sizing is done just to reduce the number of ruined bullets)  Lube 'em.

Load with Lil' Gun and a very light crimp.  

Results.  1.95" center to center at 40 meters with open sights.  That's not real great, but I was a bit hasty in my shots.  Also worth noting, three shots cloverleafed, the other two cloverleafed as well, just in a different location.  I suspect the poor group was me.  

I set up a milk jug full of water in front of about 4' of piled up snow.  I use snow because it generally catches bullets so softly that they don't mushroom, so any mushrooming would be from the milk jug.  The milk jug exploded, and the bullet was recovered about 8 inches from the back of the snow pile.  It expanded to 0.8" and stayed almost entirely intact.  A piece of lead had separated but was immediately next to the rest of the bullet.  I suspect the bullet hit a chunk of ice towards the end of its trip through the snow pile.

Velocity is better than 1900 fps.  I didn't 'graph this particular load but was getting 1900 fps with 16.9 grains of Lil' Gun.  

No leadding in the bore!

A factory load with .357 jsp was chronographed at 1875 fps.  That bullet penetrated the snowpile and was found laying just on the other side of the pile.  It blew up the jug fairly well, but expanded to only 0.6 inches.

Big deal.  A paper jacketed bullet can go as fast as a jacketed bullet and expand as well.

But I can load for less than $3.70 per box of 50 and get jacketed bullet performance!  

By the time you figure in my time spent wrapping bullets in paper it's probably not that great of a deal.  But you have to figure in the satisfaction of being able to do-it-yourself.  There are people that spend great sums of money to play golf, when it would be a whole lot cheaper to watch pros do the golfing on TV.

A little bit of work to get the accuracy fine-tuned, some experimenting with waterproofing these babies and I'll be all set to try hunting with 'em.

[Pat Marlin]

Hello Black Jaque,

I've been wanting to do just what you've done for a long time.  Way ta GO!

One question:

How are you applying the sno seal? (basicly bees wax and oil)

I've got Paul Mathews book, and have read it 4 times. He tells how to make a cutting board, that lines up your cuttings and rolling the patch.

Very Cool........ :wink:

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

For the snoseal I touch my finger to the jar of snoseal then shmeer it around the patched bullet - just to give it a coating.

I guess lubing isn't really necessary for paperpatching with smokeless.  Although if you want waterproof hunting loads, Paul Mathews suggests soaking the bullets in straight beeswax.

Go for it.  By the time it took you to read Mathews book the 4th time you could have sent several boxes of bullets downrange.

By the way, I've since tried some higher doses of Lil' Gun and the groups shrunk even more.  I've got under 1.5" at 40 m.

[Pat Marlin]

Black J,

Right now I'm holding in my never-was-stained nicotine fingers an Ideal

358 439 orignal Elmer Kieth Hollow Point Mold.  173 grs.

Oh man, I bet this baby would make a sweet paper patched bullet, for the

357 mag, or the .35 Remington.  I've haven't used it yet.

I've got Lee sizers and I don't want to spend more money on exspensive other brand sizer tools and dies.  The Lee Alox works great on alot of stuff, but I want to push my 454 Casull to the next county at breakneck speed, and I don't like buying bullets.

Same for my Ruger #1 in .300 Win Mag.  

The answer is the Paper Patch, and this would work well with various sized Lee dies, and a little ALox/beeswax probably wouldn't hurt.

let me know if you'd like a few of these Kieth bullets in ww lead.  It will give me an excuse to cast some, and try em.

Pat

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Pat,

Thanks for the offer.  I'm not sure how well WW alloy would work for the "sizing" process.  The pure lead bullets have a lot of "give".  I suspect that is a big factor in how well the paper patches survive getting squished between the bullet and the sizing die.

Let me 'speriment with paper patching some WW bullets before we go through the hassle of shipping bullets around.

I will say that with WW alloy, you could potentially drive the bullets beyond the 2200 fps mark.  I don't know about doing it with a .357 though.  

Is there a distinct shoulder on that Keith bullet?  From what I've understood, the SWC's don't make good paperpatchers.  But they said crimping doesn't work either, and I've having success with crimped bullets.

Hey, I see the bullet swagers have a gadget that rolls the crimp grooves and lube grooves into swaged bullets.  Works kinda like a plumbers pipe cutter.  A gadget along those lines could greatly speed up the paper-patching process.