Good or lucky... you decide... 257 special wildcat

Magnum Wheel Man · April 1, 2013, 09:20 AM

I loaded up some rounds for the 257 this weekend, & put a few rounds thru it... while loading, I ran into some issues with the jacketed bullets, with this being a long slow tapered case, & my 1st brass being .005" short, we think maybe I'm not stuffing them far enough into the dies to get a good crimp... ( so the dies & my cases are back to my builder buddy's shop, to look things over... he may start, by trimming .005" off the bottom of the die, & see if that fixes the issue )

I was able to find 4 cases that gripped the jacketed bullets enough to at least fire the gun, & the .259" cast bullets are seating & crimping fine ( these are from the 61 grain 6 cavity mold my buddy made, that I tumble lubed, since I don't have a lubrisizer die for it yet )

so my 1st loads through the gun ( as yet, unsighted ) I started with 4 shots from the cast bullets, from a table on my patio, to a target I placed in the yard 11 yards from the table... 1st shot, went 1.5" to the right of the bullseye... the 3 follow up shots I could have covered with a nickel, about 3/4" right of the bullseye... 1st shot of the jacketed bullets I pulled, & went 3" to the right of the bullseye, the following 3 were just right of the bullseye, with 1 in the 1" circle, & could have covered them with a 50 cent piece...

I did not use a chronograph on these test loads, cast bullets were in front of 3.5 grains of Unique, jacketed bullets were the swagged 55 grain .243 bullets, in front of 7 grains of Lil Gun... my buddy has a book of wildcat loads, & the 257 magnum is listed in the book, & the 3.5 grains of Unique is proportionally ( because of the shorter case ) equal to the accuracy load of the 257 magnum... there was no Lil Gun powder back when the 257 was developed, so I picked a load I thought was conservative... at 7 grains... my next loads will be at 8 grains... it looks like the case could hold maybe 9 grains without being compressed, which would likely be way too much, so 8 may prove to be on the warm side ??? I think the groups would be better with a tighter crimp ???

but over all, I was happy with the Unique load, & loaded up 25 more rounds to see what it can do there, may try tweaking it a little down the road... & once I get the jacketed bullet crimping issue resolved, will work on that one some more both with powder charges, & with a couple more powders...

revolver converted from a Ruger Single 10...

Magnum Wheel Man · April 1, 2013, 03:07 PM

I haven't picked up the dies & cases yet, but with the taper on the cases, .005" is now giving me plenty of crimp with the jacketed bullets...

I also just got a box of Hornady 60 grain flat point jacketed bullets to try...

April 1, 2013, 09:20 AM	#1
Magnum Wheel Man Senior Member Join Date: July 26, 2006 Location: Southern Minnesota Posts: 9,333	Good or lucky... you decide... 257 special wildcat I loaded up some rounds for the 257 this weekend, & put a few rounds thru it... while loading, I ran into some issues with the jacketed bullets, with this being a long slow tapered case, & my 1st brass being .005" short, we think maybe I'm not stuffing them far enough into the dies to get a good crimp... ( so the dies & my cases are back to my builder buddy's shop, to look things over... he may start, by trimming .005" off the bottom of the die, & see if that fixes the issue ) I was able to find 4 cases that gripped the jacketed bullets enough to at least fire the gun, & the .259" cast bullets are seating & crimping fine ( these are from the 61 grain 6 cavity mold my buddy made, that I tumble lubed, since I don't have a lubrisizer die for it yet ) so my 1st loads through the gun ( as yet, unsighted ) I started with 4 shots from the cast bullets, from a table on my patio, to a target I placed in the yard 11 yards from the table... 1st shot, went 1.5" to the right of the bullseye... the 3 follow up shots I could have covered with a nickel, about 3/4" right of the bullseye... 1st shot of the jacketed bullets I pulled, & went 3" to the right of the bullseye, the following 3 were just right of the bullseye, with 1 in the 1" circle, & could have covered them with a 50 cent piece... I did not use a chronograph on these test loads, cast bullets were in front of 3.5 grains of Unique, jacketed bullets were the swagged 55 grain .243 bullets, in front of 7 grains of Lil Gun... my buddy has a book of wildcat loads, & the 257 magnum is listed in the book, & the 3.5 grains of Unique is proportionally ( because of the shorter case ) equal to the accuracy load of the 257 magnum... there was no Lil Gun powder back when the 257 was developed, so I picked a load I thought was conservative... at 7 grains... my next loads will be at 8 grains... it looks like the case could hold maybe 9 grains without being compressed, which would likely be way too much, so 8 may prove to be on the warm side ??? I think the groups would be better with a tighter crimp ??? but over all, I was happy with the Unique load, & loaded up 25 more rounds to see what it can do there, may try tweaking it a little down the road... & once I get the jacketed bullet crimping issue resolved, will work on that one some more both with powder charges, & with a couple more powders... revolver converted from a Ruger Single 10... __________________ In life you either make dust or eat dust... Last edited by Magnum Wheel Man; April 1, 2013 at 02:56 PM.

April 1, 2013, 03:07 PM	#2
Magnum Wheel Man Senior Member Join Date: July 26, 2006 Location: Southern Minnesota Posts: 9,333	I haven't picked up the dies & cases yet, but with the taper on the cases, .005" is now giving me plenty of crimp with the jacketed bullets... I also just got a box of Hornady 60 grain flat point jacketed bullets to try... __________________ In life you either make dust or eat dust...