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December 19, 2015
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Hey Stinger,
You got a sense of humor. So you don't think I should try to emulate the PC ammo. Good Call !
I started with the Hogdon site recommendations for a 180g cast boolit with 18 grains to 20 grains of H4227. I started at 18g and got 1500 fps. I was getting about 1650 fps at 20grains and the recoil was a little much for me. I backed off to 17.5 and dropped to 1350-1400 fps with recoil a little less than a 44 mag and manageable for a 68 year old man. Is that a light load? I have found the 4227 is a little dirty (smoky), but is no more difficult to clean than any others. I really like the 4227 for my 44 and 45 loadings as well.
Fascinating info from Ole Dog about not downloading the Maximum. Never really thought about it. I think I will try some light loads and check that out. But I don't know why anyone would want to. You could shoot magnums and specials instead. Why shoot a Maximum if not trying for top end velocities and knock down.
I have never seen any prohibitions on downloading the 4227 powder and I have done it multiple times.
DWF Supporters
February 13, 2012
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This is all very good information for me, so thanks. I just got a model 40 with a 6" barrel. Are the recommendations the same (faster powder, instead??).
I do have some hornady 180g xtp that I'm going to try first because I have it on hand. I have magnum pistol primers but the hornady book seems to use small rifle ones?
And I posted a question in the large revolver section which may be more appropriate here. Given that the cylinder in the DW is longer than the one in the ruger, would, does that mean with the starline brass (OAL 1.600) we can load the longer bullets that Hornady lists for the thompson center (I kind of want to try their 200g ftx bullet)?
Thanks for any info 🙂
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Dans Club
February 22, 2009
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You can load bullets to fit flush (just less than) with the face of the cylinder- you must crimp appropriately or you'll jam her up. Also- be aware of case capacity and how deep you end up seating heavy (or longer) bullets. That will affect pressure. Rule of thumb is start low and work up in increments. Be safe.
Technically, the glass is always full; half liquid, half air....
DWF Supporters
February 13, 2012
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Well. It's a no go on the ftx bullets. I made one up without the primer or powder. It seated ok, and weren't too long for the cylinder, but they were too fat to fit. .358 instead of .357 made a difference, at least in mine. There's $35 shot to hell. If anyone else wants to take a chance (or has a TC or something), I'll donate the 49 left to you, if you'll be so kind as to pay the shipping. In the meantime I'll make up a nice range to test with the 180gr xtp
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Dans Club
February 22, 2009
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Throats should be .359"; are you sure they're all cleaned up? My three maximums all measure .359"
Technically, the glass is always full; half liquid, half air....
DWF Supporters
February 13, 2012
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They are (I just got this one from Cabelas and it looks barely used.) I dropped an xtp bullet through the cylinder and it slid through fine but the ftx bullet didn't (it got stopped near the barrel end- are the cylinders tapered?) I could easily get a .357 magnum cartridge to sit in the cylinder. I didn't actually crimp the ftx bullet in- would that make a difference?
To be honest, I'm not that good of a shot, so I don't think that long range silhouette shooting is in my immediate future. I just think it would be kind of interesting to try it.
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Dans Club
February 22, 2009
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Do they push through the throat from the front of the cylinder? If not, you can ream your chamber throats to .359", or greater, which will help accuracy and in particular with lead bullets.
Here's some relevant threads for your reading enjoyment:
Technically, the glass is always full; half liquid, half air....
DWF Supporters
February 13, 2012
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Well, I tried out my first reloads for it yesterday. I used the 180gn hornady xtps with two loads of h110 and the 4227 each (all less than the max listed in the Hornday manual I have). The H110 certainly seems to shoot out more fireballs than the 4227, but they all worked, and I think the 4227 was a little more accurate (although who am I kidding, I was shooting offhand and my reloading technique sucks).
Anyway, the cylinders do seem pretty tight. Actually, one of them seems a little too tight. When I was dropping just the bullets in from the back to see the difference between the ftx ones and the xtp's, I noticed that one cylinder caught the xtp a little too. I could give it a little shake and it would fall out, though. When I reloaded the xtp's I used the lower crimp line (with the bullets sitting up higher). The starline cartridges with the xtps all went into the cylinders fine.
But. For that one cylinder, the cartridge didn't seat all the way (like an 1/16 of an inch- just enough not to let the cylinders move) unless I pushed it in with my thumb. I don't think I'd have the same problem using the other crimp line. I was going to go with the hard cast penn bullets (because they are cheaper), and just order them in .357.
I did look at the other threads. I'm kind of afraid of messing up something trying to fire lap my cylinders. I could try some sort of light sanding with a dowel or something, but if it's going to make a huge difference in pressure or accuracy and/or lead all everything I could send it out to DW????
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Range Officer
Range Officers
May 2, 2009
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Start with the basics -- try a full length resized empty case in each chamber, if they work fine then move on to a loaded cartridge and see where it sticks at...then report back here 🙂
Don't mess with the gun...
SHOOT
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Range Officer
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DWF Supporters
Dans Club
December 4, 2011
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It's possible that a previous owner fired some 357 mag rounds through the gun. If so, that could leave a carbon ring in the chamber that would make subsequent insertion of full length SM rounds difficult/impossible. A good cleaning of the chambers with a brass bore brush chucked into a drill will remove the ring. It won't hurt the gun or remove anything except combustion residue. This happens a lot on 357 mag guns if one fires a lot of 38 special rounds. As a rule, I try to shoot the round the gun is chambered for rather than shoot 'shorts'.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
My father
If a man designed it, and a man built it, then a man can fix it.
My grandfather
DWF Supporters
February 13, 2012
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Thanks for the tips! I'll try them this evening. The cylinders looked ok but I never thought about trying a brush on a drill. I did call DW and talked to Bob. He recommended sending it in and he could measure the cylinder, etc., and ream it out if it needed it. He also thought he could check the timing and maybe put in new springs. I sent in the e-mail form to DW to get a shipping number so I'll see what's up. If any of you more knowledgeable individuals have any suggestions for what else I may want Bob to do when it's there, I would certainly appreciate it. I really do like it. Although the fireballs may take some getting used to . lol
DWF Supporters
February 13, 2012
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Well, I tried cleaning out the offending cylinder with a brush on a drill. No luck. The unloaded case fits fine. It's just a loaded one with the crimp in the lower spot. It just sticks out a tiny amount - like a 16th of an inch or so. Off to DW we go.
March 25, 2008
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before sending it off check the trim case length and then check to see if the crimp has mushrooomed the case mouth with the bullet loaded. Just a problem i have run into on occasion. If you have a good set of calipers you can check the depth of each chamber to note a difference between all six. Dayton
DWF Supporters
February 13, 2012
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I'll check. The test cartridge didn't do it in the other chambers at all, though. Just dropped right in. I noticed when I was testing yesterday that it had put a lot of copper in the barrel, too, especially since I only shot 25 cartridges on my outing (It was definitely more than I've seen from my other DWs). I wonder if the whole thing is a bit narrow. I could order some of the Penn bullets in .357 and/or .356 to see what's up, I suppose.
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