The .357 Maximum Project Lives!

Well the .357 Maximum project is finally moving on.  Tug Hill Cartridge, Inc., in upstate New York must have forgotten about my standing order, so luckily I just found and ordered 500 pieces of brand new Remington .357 Maximum brass, and 500 Hornady 180 grain XTP bullets from Midway USA this week.  I also obtained 800 of the CCI 450 primers I wanted to use for the project from a friend, so the last step is to buy a couple of pounds of IMR 4227 powder and then I'll be loading up my first batch of .357 Maximum hunting ammunition for my Ruger Super Blackhawk revolver.

The load I'm looking at is 20.0 grains of IMR 4227 powder over a CCI 450 primer, utilizing the Hornady 180 XTP jacketed hollow-point bullet.  This load is supposed to be superbly accurate, easy on the gun and the brass, and still pushes 1,450 feet per second.  That's more than enough for Deer-sized game animals. 

I found this particular load in an article written by Glen Fryxell, and published on the Los Angeles Silhouette Club's website.  I'm not a big experimenter when it comes to cartridge reloading.  If I find a load that is accurate, and it works well for me in a particular rifle or pistol, I'm done tinkering around.

As soon as I get some rounds loaded up and I get to send some bullets downrange, I'll report back on my findings.  I'm fairly sure that Glen Fryxell's load will work perfectly in the big Ruger Single-action.

www.lasc.us/fryxell357max.htm

www.GunTrainingIL.com

www.midwayusa.com