On 7/18/14, 12:28 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:01:33 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

On 7/18/14, 11:27 AM, Tim wrote:
I bought mine new in the early 80's and liked the idea of having a matching round for my dan Wesson.

It was nice to shoot and I went through several boxes of Remington,
Winchester and other known brands of quality rounds.

One thing I noticed is though you could shoot ,38's in it, for some
reason they didn't want to load the barrel well.

Found out it was due to the shorter casings, the .38's would sometimes
rise in a higher angle and miss the end of the breech.

It was more dedicated to .357 and that was ok. But still I thought for a
rifle the cartridge combination was a bit weak, so I traded it in for a
Ruger model 44

which was semi-auto 44 mag, and now I had a rife and pistol with
matching calipers again. It was an interesting rifle with a 4 round
rotary clip ea 4+I. And it was ok, and more satisfying to shoot,

but the rotary clip was giving problems not holding the cartridges
straight. This became as a known defect with that rifle, otherwise it
was a great shooter.

But I couldn't have that, so I traded it in on an M1-Garrand. Now we're
talking.... Sorry for this block post but this iPhone doesn'take
paragraphs well


The loading ramps on some of the .357 MAG/.38 SPECIAL lever guns can be
set to handle one or the other of those rounds properly. Yours might
have been one of those. The problem is that the .38 SPECIAL round is
shorter than the .357 MAG round.

The barrel on my lever gun is engraved .357 MAGNUM. The importer told me
that some of these 1892 Winchester clones handle both rounds properly
and some do not, and that if I wanted to shoot .38 SPECIALS only, they'd
be glad to adjust the rifle accordingly. Apparently the 1873 Winchester
clones do not have the feeding problem and will digest either round.

I wasn't planning to shoot .38 SPECIALS in the rifle anyway, so it won't
be an issue for me.


That sounds like another good reason to reload. If you were loading
.38 brass, you could just seat the bullet a little higher to keep your
overall length in the .357 class.
I am not sure about availability these days but when I was reloading,
once fired .38 brass was everywhere because the cops used so much of
it. My cop buddies brought me bags of it any time I wanted some. .357
brass was a bit harder to come by. Most .357 loads will fit just fine
in .38 brass.



..357 MAGS are down to 36 cents a round for 158 grain FMJs, and .38
SPECIALS are 30-32 cents a round for FMJs. Not interested in reloading
for reasons stated here several times.

I agree that small cartridge re-loading isn't really profitable and time consuming, but one advantage to it is the knowledge and fun of 'customizing' your cartridges by using different manufactures products, like powders, billet configurations, primers etc. Harry, if you have no interest in reloading cartridges then you can probably save more money by using disposable alliminum cased rounds instead of brass.

On 7/18/14, 1:53 PM, Tim wrote:
I agree that small cartridge re-loading isn't really profitable and time consuming, but one advantage to it is the knowledge and fun of 'customizing' your cartridges

by using different manufactures products, like powders, billet
configurations, primers etc. Harry, if you have no interest in reloading
cartridges then you can probably save more money

by using disposable alliminum cased rounds instead of brass.



When I was shooting 9mm a few years ago, there was a significant
difference between the selling prices of Blazer alum and Blazer brass
rounds, but I haven't found that to be the case between Blazer alum and
the non-Blazer brass case rounds in .357 MAG I shoot today. Prices vary
day to day, but typically I can buy S&B or Fiocchi or other brands of
brass case ammo for less than the alum case Blazer.