I've been looking for some .357 Max brass for a while now. Someone recently contacted me about some loaded ammo he had. He was up front and completely honest about it - They were someone else's reloads, and he didn't know anything about them.
He pointed out ahead of time that there were "two different bullets" (more on this in a second), so he thought maybe one of the labels on one of the boxes was wrong. That was ok with me. I wanted the brass. I planned on pulling everything and dumping the powder the minute I got them anyway.
They came in today. 78 rounds. I started pulling them down. Findings:
1) Not 2 different kinds of bullets - 3 different kinds. 180 grain Hornady XTP, 158 grain Remington SJ HP, and 180 grain Remington SJ HP.
2) Two different powders. I can't identify them, but one looked about like H110 / W296. The other one might be the IMR4227 that was on the label, but I have no way of knowing.
3) Compressed loads with all 16 of the 158 grain SJ HP loads. Powder wouldn't come out of the case. It was mashed down in there pretty tight. The end of a zip tie helped me scrape it all out.
4) The 180 grain SJ HP loads had 22 grains of whatever that powder was. If it was H110 / W296, that's substantially higher than what every manual I have lists for those two.
5) Since the 158 grain SJ HP's were compressed (and the bullet doesn't go down as far into the case as the 180's), that means those had substantially more of whatever that powder was.
Regardless of all the numbers, weights, and measures, it just goes to show you - Never believe what is written on the label of a box of reloads from someone you don't know. And even if you know them... proceed with caution.
All the best,
Glenn
He pointed out ahead of time that there were "two different bullets" (more on this in a second), so he thought maybe one of the labels on one of the boxes was wrong. That was ok with me. I wanted the brass. I planned on pulling everything and dumping the powder the minute I got them anyway.
They came in today. 78 rounds. I started pulling them down. Findings:
1) Not 2 different kinds of bullets - 3 different kinds. 180 grain Hornady XTP, 158 grain Remington SJ HP, and 180 grain Remington SJ HP.
2) Two different powders. I can't identify them, but one looked about like H110 / W296. The other one might be the IMR4227 that was on the label, but I have no way of knowing.
3) Compressed loads with all 16 of the 158 grain SJ HP loads. Powder wouldn't come out of the case. It was mashed down in there pretty tight. The end of a zip tie helped me scrape it all out.
4) The 180 grain SJ HP loads had 22 grains of whatever that powder was. If it was H110 / W296, that's substantially higher than what every manual I have lists for those two.
5) Since the 158 grain SJ HP's were compressed (and the bullet doesn't go down as far into the case as the 180's), that means those had substantially more of whatever that powder was.
Regardless of all the numbers, weights, and measures, it just goes to show you - Never believe what is written on the label of a box of reloads from someone you don't know. And even if you know them... proceed with caution.

All the best,
Glenn
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