[thunderstruck507]

I've shot several types of ammo through my .357 mag and can feel pretty distinct differences.

How (if possible) can you tell how hot the loads are from the box before buying?

For example the cheap Winchester ammo from walmart is considerably weaker than the CCI aluminum cased with the same 158 gr. jsp bullet. The CCIs were older stuff that had been stored in our gun cabinet at home and the difference between them and the Win. was like the difference between a .38 special and the Winchester .357 mag

 

[daveseitz]

All ammo is different, just the difference in powder will change the load. Some of the loads I ran had to be recalculated by changing to Red Dot.

 

[67EC]

Winchester white box, the stuff you buy at Walmart and other sporting stores, is notoriously weakly loaded. On the other hand, the cheap aluminum cased CCI Blazer ammo is known as being some of the hotter cheap stuff. PMC is a pretty good in between. With the same grain bullets, velocity is usually a good indicator of how much recoil it is going to produce, but it isnt 100%.

 

[Phil Keller]

Not only are most factory loads underpowered, but--thanks to corporate attorneys and their liability fears--even the reloading manuals shows reduced top-end loads for most calibers. The .357 Mag is capable of safely producing over l,500 fps with a 125 grain bullet, yet you'd have difficulty in finding ANY factory load that will deliver 1,300 fps through a chronograph with that bullet today. The .357 SIG (in a semi-auto) claims to be the ballistic equal of the .357 Mag with a 125 gr bullet, but only churns up an anemic 1,200 fps with factory ammo fired through a chronograph. It's a sad state of affairs and unless you handload, you're stuck with it.

 

[thunderstruck507]

i was just curious about it, cause after getting used to cheap white box winchester and going to the CCIs I nearly dropped the gun...

 

[thunderstruck507]

anyone here know anything about doubletapammo.com? they have some gold dot .357 they claim has a veloc. of 1600 for .357 mag

 

[sntjohn]

I tried some Double Tap in 9mm and 45ACP, it seemed like quality stuff--crisp shooting, consistent, and not much more recoil than other "hot" rounds that I've tried. The price was reasonable--about 50 cents a round. I'm a reloader so I don't buy a lot of loaded ammo, but I wanted to try Double Tap as I heard much about it.

 

[67EC]

The Doubletap guy, Mike McNett started doing hot 10mm stuff first with ihs company, before that he had already become legendary on glocktalk.com 10mm forum for reloading advice. He is a really nice guy and knows his stuff.

 

[thunderstruck507]

awesome, I might try out a box

I think my roommate is ordering a case of 9mm...might try some of those first

I might be better off just picking up some better ammo from a local shop