Lee Loader

I just ordered a Rossi R92 .357 lever rifle and will be getting it in this weekend. Should I be looking at something different when reloading than I do for my S&W 65-6 with a 4" barrel? I typically load 158 gr plated RN or 138 gr wadcutters. I don't believe the wadcutters will load very well so I'll stick with the RN bullets. I load with Win244 and HP-38.

First, welcome to the group. Wad cutters and lever guns can/are hit and miss. My 92 in 45 Colt never read the part about wad cutters not working and cycles them fine. I probably got lucky n that the first OAL I tried worked. The 92 in 357 is a whole other story. The one semi wad cutter I've used is the Lyman 358156 that I cast. It's a 158grain gas checked and with a lot of work to find a length that worked I finally got it to work. I've since moved on to a Penn Bullets 180 cast as my hunting load and if I want to shoot it for fun I get some local remans with 125 RFPs.

It all keeps life interesting, make smoke,

I have used 204 grain cast with a nice meplat in 38 special in a revolver (Blackhawk) I tried 357 but the seating depth required to fit the cylinder with the longer 357 case made me decide otherwise. 11.5 grains of L"il Gun gave me around, give or take, 1000 FPS without any pressure signs. If I had a 357 rifle I might try again depending on barrel twist. The flat nose makes the bullets more tolerant of twist but they are still a bit long. Perhaps with a slightly slower powder might bring out better rifle performance. I would go back to 10 grains and then slowly work up.

With 1:30 rifling and a 200+ grain bullet I would think you'd need a pretty stiff charge to keep the bullet stable.

I loaded all of my 38/357 with Unique. After many trials of both jackets and cast I ended up with the 358-158 Lee . My Buddy has a Rossi M92, I think it has a timing bug it'll run 38s like water through a hose , 357s hang and require sideways feeding to a wiggle to feed well . It's almost like they hang on the case mouth in the chamber .....

I had a Marlin 1894C it wasn't as slick as the 92 but fed everything as long as it was as long as a 38 Special case .

The companions were an M10 S&W 4" and 6" Security 6 Ruger . Loads gained 375-425 fps MV in the 16" Marlin . 1100 fps MV was as fast as I went with 140 XTPs or cast 158s in the pistol due to accuracy needs and the Ruger bloody knuckle . The best pistol loads were at least as good in the rifle at twice the range .

I don't think we shot the Rossi M92 38/357 at 100 yd , it's been 10-12 years ago. So I don't know how the 1-32" twist fares with the 38/357 .
The 7.5" Ruger BlackHawk paired with 2 different Vintages of M92 Rossi's has a 1-16" twist vs the 1-32" in the 16&20" 45 Colts Carbines. Neither with max standard Colts loads will shoot past 75 yd . They gain 200 fps MV in both rifles you have to have a load that never goes supersonic or will stay super sonic past 100 yd . A 250-265 gr bullet at 1050 fps MV will run right through 2' of hog out to 50 yd so there's that .

The Marlin in 38/357 has a 1-16" twist for grins I once shot an 8" octagon at 350 yd . Hold over was putting the front sight centered and the barrel band in the bottom of the V/U of the rear sight . A 16" plate would have been in trouble the 8" not so much .

Any loads will be faster and sight plain alone should improve groups .

GasGuzzler wrote:With 1:30 rifling and a 200+ grain bullet I would think you'd need a pretty stiff charge to keep the bullet stable.

I agree velocity is going to make or break this bullet/rifle twist combination. At first glance it looks like a mismatch but flat based lead bullets with big flat noses are inherently more stable. Most stability calculators ignore these variables. I would give it a try since I have a good supply of the bullets but wouldn't go out and buy anything just for the experiment. I wonder why Rossi uses such a slow twist. 38/357 revolvers are 14, 16 and 18 and most rifle makers have stayed in this range.

I use a 158 or 180 grain bullet with a powder load of 2400, 296, or H110 in a Puma 16" BBL rifle with excellent accuracy. My velocity runs from 1600 to 1800 fps, whether lead or jacketed. I've not had a bullet "tumble" or fail to "fly straight"; the accuracy does not seem to be adversely affected by the "twist". This "light" little .357 is about the handiest "walk about" rifle I've ever owned (higher powered version, less so IMO)!