Cowboy action Loads

[marklyftogt]

I am planning on getting started with a local chapter of SASS.

Curious what loads and bullets are mostly used for 357 and 44 mag.

I have lots of AA #2, Bullseye and W231.

I make my own 158 gr LSWC for 38/357 now and am looking at getting a 105 LSWC mold.

What would you recommend?

For guns I would hope to get a Uberti Hombre and a Marlin 1894 Cowboy (if they eve rmake any more). Would like to go 357 but may need to do 44 because of gun availabiltiy/price.

Thanks!

[Noz]

Keep your speed below 800 fps and go for it. The cowboys have found that some recoil is better than none so the teeny tiny mouse farts of the past are gone except for new shooters that haven't gotten the word.
357/38 are the cheapest and easiest to load. More components available.

[Hawg]

There's a dude on Gunbroker selling NIB Hombres for 250 in .357 but you do need two of them.

[Throckmorton]

youi'll need a shotugn as well.
Word is the recent offerings from marlin kinda suck since they were bought ouit...by remington? a good used marlin that has had some breaking done is the way to go.
most folks shoot .38's for less recoil and for economy. I prefer to use 357 cases to avoid building up a 'crud ring' in my guns.
for the .44 cases i'd use a powder that fills the case up a bit,like Trail Boss,or maybe clays. a 185 or 200 grain bullet is all ya need,most folks go light.I use 200's as they seal the case btter with light loads.
I don't mean to scare u off,but if ur starting from scratch,guns and leather are gonna set ya back a minimum of 1500 bucks..not sure if it can be done for that these days.but it's a real fun past time shooting the ol' west guns.

[FloridaVeteran]

Revolvers, no problem. Shotguns, no problem. However, regarding a rifle, I strongly recommend that unless you plan to use .357 cases for all and forever, you spend a little extra time looking for a marked .38Spl. rifle, like my Navy Arms 1866 replica, instead of a .357 that will take .38s. This presumably rules out Marlins, but I've seen way more jams in Marlins than I have in Ubertis. It will save you headaches later, especially if you get into serious competition where you can't afford to have a hiccup.

I moved on to .45LC because I found the cost of reloading not that much different and the bullets were closest to the original .44-40s without the hassle and expense of the thin-wall .40-40 cases.

Note that some spotters listen for the "blang" on the steel instead of watching for the splash in the dirt behind it, relative to a miss. If I see spotters like that, I grab my box of 250gr. loads (versus the usual 200gr.) and there ain't no doubt about the "blang" when those suckers hit.

Best bet is to shoot first in the stage if you can, since the paint is still on the steels and you can prove your hits. But if you are a newbie, that ain't gonna happen anytime soon. All that said, CAS is the most sporting, good-time, good-sportsmanship discipline in which I've ever shot. If your gun breaks, many of your competitors will loan you theirs. You can't beat that with a stick. Best sport I ever got into, even though I'm getting a bit too broke down to participate much.

[Hawg]

Just get a .357 mag rifle and load magnum cases to .38 pressures and you won't have any feed problems.

[g.willikers]

The Marlin lever actions seem to feed .44Mag or .44Spl equally well.
Wonder why the .357s don't in .38.

[Hawg]

Its an overall length issue and not all .44 mags feed .44 specials well.

[FloridaVeteran]

Agree with Hawg on both counts.