How to pick just one bullet

johnnyjr

Well-Known Member
Ok,being honest about it. I need to pick just one bullet and stay with it. I have the 358156 gc. And the 358429 plus the wad cutter.i jump from one to another. I like them all,lol. I just want to pick one for target, and hunting. I have a smith 686. 38/357 and a Rossi 92. Can you help me to decide?? Thanks Johnny. Merry Christmas
 

johnnyjr

Well-Known Member
Well. That was a fast reply,I appreciate it. In reality I think the 156 gc is more accurate in both guns. I may have to melt some of 492 and make 156. It's tough to decide but I think I'm going to have to. I can't keep jumping around with it. Thanks Johnny
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
I have it down to TWO, shared between revolvers and carbine.

Oddly, none of the ones I THOUGHT would be the ONE, were. Right now, I'm shooting 360-180 WFNs (plain-based) and 148 grain TL WCs.

I have not let go of y other moulds, but these two are getting a workout.
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
Johnny, I've never seen 358156 be a bad choice. Some some like it because of the gas check but I've seen it straighten out guns that were supposedly "inaccurate". I do have an attachment to 358429 and probably have more versions of it than any other design since there were more versions of 429 if you count the hollowpoint and hollowbase versions. I especially appreciate 429 when it's held to what it was originally designed for, the 38/44. I often shoot 38/44 loads in my 357s because I feel that 358429s greatest "magic" is in that platform. That said, Skeeters 358156 load performs the same way for me, and I've sold or traded off a lot of 429s because they just didn't seem to work well for me. Blashempy.

358432 is a fine design, and another one of those unsung heroes of Ideal/Lymans history in spite of Lymans neglect at making more loading data available for it. It is the only wadcutter design I'm aware of that can be loaded with a speedloader. Accuracy can be outstanding, and I know of competition shooters using it as their first choice for action shooting. I only have a couple of them at this point and need to get busy casting, which I haven't done any of for ages.

It all goes back to what Brad said in Post #2.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Not too long ago, I reached the point of having one mould per caliber. A few months ago I bought a .45 Colt Uberti Cattleman, bought two moulds, and a third beckons so loudly I may post a want-to-buy. Too, I've been thinking of augmenting the Lee 358-158 RF with some mould maker's 125-grainer. Neither of the additional moulds are needed, nor do I have any rational reason for wanting them, but sometimes there's only one way to get an itch to stop itching.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I've been desperately trying to achieve what Brad has done. Have it down to one bullet for all in four chamberings, still do two for the .38s (Accurate 135W and Lee 125 RNFP), don't need the wadcutter but have a ton of brass for it and a ton of military brass that likes the RNFP). The .357's don't get shot much and when they do, it's the 125 RNFP, powder coated, with True Blue so it shoots to the sights.

Powder coat is the great equalizer, can make bullets that don't want to work in a gun work and make ones that do work better (sometimes) in guns that already like the design.
 

JonB

Halcyon member
Ok,being honest about it. I need to pick just one bullet and stay with it. I have the 358156 gc. And the 358429 plus the wad cutter.i jump from one to another. I like them all,lol. I just want to pick one for target, and hunting. I have a smith 686. 38/357 and a Rossi 92. Can you help me to decide?? Thanks Johnny. Merry Christmas
You've given us lots of posts to get to know you. I feel like you are a close friend. Because of me thinking I know you so well, I'm just gonna say my opinion. You should stick with the 358156 GC mold ...and use GCs in every bullet you load. Work up a load and COAL, that works best in your rifle and then, and only then, see how it shoots in the 686. I bet your rifle load will shoot as good in your revolver, as you are able to, at 25 yards off hand.
That's my 2¢
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Actually pretty easy for me. What can another bullet do in 38/357 that the Accurate 155K swc not do? If I was going to use a different bullet it would be the NOE 160 WFN.
44 special? A good old HG 503 clone. Done
45 ACP? 200 swc. Done

Now for something that will terrify some- I use the same load almost all the time as well. I know, boring.

Sure makes it easy to grab ammo and go shoot.
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
What Brad said, except my 357s had a different preference for specific types of shooting, so different bullet.

This has been a goal I've worked toward for several years. Sure, it was fun and interesting to try this and experiment with that all those yers, but it got to the point where picky eaters were eating my TIME, which is very rare these days. Getting multiple revolvers/carbines to be happy with the same bullet isn't easy and several became someone else's as part of the process, but it's so much easier now to cast and size one (or two) to ONE size.

NOT boring by any means. The process was interesting and provided a lot of entertainment. Now, I spend more time shooting than fiddling and the fiddling never did much to improve my proficiency in shooting.