Best molds for 357 Mag lever action

AndyTheCornbread

AndyTheCornbread

Member
For those of you who have 357 lever actions. What mold do you use for yours? How well does it feed and what kind of rifle are you feeding it in?
 
J

JSH

Active Member
I run 180's in mine. Mold was from a group buy from Lee years ago.
Rifle is a Marlin, cut rifling not micro. I got it for the son to deer hunt with. He made a remark of it being small. I proceeded to whack five whitetails with it and nary a glitch.
Some like the 150-160ish bullets. I have been using 175-220's in all my 35's. Just seem to do better for me.

FYI, the 357 in a carbine or a rifle of modern design will do what the old anemic 35 Remington loads will do. No offense to the good ole 35 Remington, it has been doing a fine job for years. But is do for some upgraded data imo.
Jeff
 
RBHarter

RBHarter

West Central AR
Had a Marlin 38/357 it fed 358-124 tltc , 358-158 RNFP , and 358-125 like butter as long as it was at least as long as a 38 Special case and less than .360 nose it fed fine .
 
462

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
I have an EMF Hartford (a dressed up Rossi 92) with a 24" octagon barrel, and for cast bullets use the Lee six-cavity 358-158 RF. Initially, there was a feeding problem, but disassembly, and a thorough cleaning and lubing made a substantial difference. Still, there is an occasionly hiccup, however a slight bit of lever wiggling and it all comes right (tweak the cartridge guides?). Dummy .38 Special rounds using the same bullet always fed quite easily, but I never loaded any.

From the beginning, though, Sierra's 158-grain JHCs chambered flawlessly.

In my case, proper feeding is a function of bullet nose profile (the rounder the better -- for sure semi-wadcutters are very problematic) and cartridge overall length (approximately 1.590"?).
 
462

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
It doesn't appear to be as sharp cornered as the Lee, which is good.

Despite my early fears, but with a near maximum load of H110 (1700+ fps?), Lee's minuscule lube groove, and a 24" barrel, there have never been any signs of leading. However, the same bullet at 1400 fps leads a 6 1/2" Blackhawk near the muzzle. I don't know the why of it, whether it be magic, alignment of the universe, or something I'm doing right and not being aware of it.

Anyway, and at least from my experience, a gas check design may not be necessary.
 
Winelover

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Larger meplat and a gas check if your going to use it for hunting big game. You'll gain at least 200 fps in a carbine over a revolver.....and you appreciate it, if you decide to use a softer alloy.
 
J

Jeff H

NW Ohio
If it helps, I was shooting a 16" Ross 92 Clone, 1:30" twist, .355" groove diameter.

These cycled, fed and shot well in that lever (and a Ruger 77/357):

RDO 190 with brass trimmed back .020" or with 38 Special brass, to allow crimping in the crimp groove.
*LEE 358125RF
*LEE 358158RF
*LEE 358158TLSWC
Lyman 358156
**Lyman 355??? 124 grain Lyman 9mm bullet
**Lyman 358??? 158 grain RN
*NOE 360180 worked well through the Ruger, but I'd sold the Rossi before getting this mould.

*I would be happy to send a few of each of these for experimentation purposes if you shoot me a PM.

**I use these so infrequently that I don't even know where I have the moulds stashed, so I can't provide the mould numbers, but they are from the late fifties/early sixties.
 
KHornet

KHornet

Well-Known Member
Have a 26"bbl M94 Win, that digests and shoots with acceptable
accuracy with every thing I put thru it. It loves the 358429, and
it functions beautifully. Leave these loads for near max. For just
paper punching it loves the little 125 lee RNFP, at around 1150-
1200 or so. All of the others mentioned that I have shot thru it
are very tolerable.

Paul
 
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