One thing that has dawned on me since we last spoke Ed is sights. All things considered unless your shooter purchased a Marlin rifle, the sights in general on the 45's and 44's tend to suck badly. I replaced my rear sight on my Rossi quite a few years back with a Marbles semibuckhorn rear sight. Most of the Marlins I have seen come with this as a default configuration. This cut my groups down staggeringly.
Also keep in mind that many people know very little about custom loading, I cannot count the number of guys at the range that push their loads right to the max, and cannot understand why my loads, or my dads loads which are NOT max shoot tighter better groups. Many people just don't grasp that each gun perferes a particular type of powder, type of bullet, speed, etc and the WHOLE purpose of handloading (besides trying to save money) is to address this issue.
I will grant you that with out of the box factory ammo 357s TEND to shoot better groups, but again this is not always the case in my experience.
As for the rifle bullet advantage you mentioned I really don't see the advantage. In my 45 I can shoot anything from a 180 grain all the way up to a 360grain GC LFN (which is actually a bit TOO big since it is a 454 dia and while it works well in some blackhawks I prefere not to push it and stick with the 452 dia bullets in my 45 colts). My rifle preferes 250grain RNFP .452 dia laser cast bullets over bullseye powder, although I still have not gotten to try their 300grain FP. I am also currently working with that same bullet over unique powder trying to come up with a load and it looks VERY promising for accuracy. Yet again, my Rossi actually shoots much better if I back off from the max load depending on the powder. My dads Marlin actually seems to like them a little hotter, but again not at max load.
As for lock time that is possible, but as slick as my Rossi is, and as slick as Dad's marlin is lock time would be meassure in thousandths of a second difference, and since accuracy tends to count more than time in most shoots I have been in I don't see the advantage, but then again that is me.
Barrel length is always a factor. Bulletpusher's longer Marlin barrel outshoots my Rossi's shorter carbine barrel any day of the week, particularly out beyond 100 yards. Not to mention the shooter is a factor. Bulletpusher tends to outshoot me on just about anything that goes bang.
Anyway I look forward to your reply, this is one of the best pistol caliber carbine conversations I have gotten to have in awhile, and I am enjoying it quite a bit.
I would like to hear more about rifle bullets in the 357 it sounds very interesting (and sounds like something The Mad Reloader would do
)
GoodOlBoy
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