.357 Magnum Loads

[Handgun'r]

TD,

Thanks for the kind words....

Like many others, I started loading the .38 & .357's as my first rounds when the reloading bug hit many, many moons ago.
As a kid, I thought the .357 Magnum was the almightly powerful "king of the hill".......that was until I had a taste of the .44.
In latter years I've found that with the proper mindset regarding cast bullets, they kill as quick, or quicker...but differently, if you get my point.

Whereas the jacketed bullets start expanding on impact, and continue to grow as they penetrate, they also shed their energy at an increasing rate as their frontal diameter increases. Naturally, the bigger a bullet mushrooms, the more it transmits it's energy, and the quicker it slows.

In an odd comparison, kind of like the way a parachute works on the back of a jet. But, instead of catching energy (wind), it transmits it.

At a point prior to the bullet stopping inside an animal, the bullet has slowed enough where mushrooming seems to cease. If it has enough energy left while in motion in soft tissue, and then strikes a bone, naturally it'll expand further, but it all depends on how much.
A jacketed bullet was the answer to a lot of problems back when they were developed. A copper jacket of approx. 40BHN, and a pure lead core of 5BHN, working in unison, the two performed very well together and gave very desirable results on game.
The harder (40BHN) jacket also engaged the rifling in the barrel in a more postive way creating a better level of accuracy overall.

All that being said, a trip backwards to cast bullets, and using some of todays bullet styles, technology, and alloys, it's easy to produce bullets that will match jacketed bullets in accuracy and even killing power. The thing is, now instead of using two seperate components of different hardness levels, you have one consistent alloy. (Other than the two part cast bullets you glue together)
As jacketed bullets shed their energy over a more gradual curve, cast bullets depend more on their frontal flat, or meplat more so.
A big flat nose in a cast round hit's very hard and transmits a good majority of it's energy on impact. It also expands as it travels, but not the same as a jacketed round.
It seems the two are opposite in the way they react, or are designed to react, I should say.

Well, I'm ramblin on and on here.....

Thanks, take care & have a good Xmas

Bob