AEA .357 power comparison slugs sized at .356 and .357

[bduares]

Since I seem to have an issue with longer slugs chambering in my .357 Challenger when sized to .357 I picked up a .356 sizer to see if that might help. Actually it did. So I went through some of my slugs and found some the exact same weights and sized them in .357 and .356 to see if there was a performance difference. There is.

4000 psi fill one shot then top up for next shot

103.4 gr           FPS                          FPE
.356                974.41 fps              218.05
.357                951                        207.09

106.4 gr
.356                961.28                    218.37
.357                935.09                    206.64


114.2 gr
.356                941.60                    224.88
.357                903                         206.82

[Ironman482]

Wow , that's quite a difference. Good to know I've got some NOE slugs in 356 ,I'll give them a try in mine.

[Nomadic Pirate]

WOW, looks like the AOA have a 9mm barrel

all the .357s I ever had always liked .358 and .359

[gendoc]

my SL challenger prefers the .357 (sized) proslug 109gr rnfp from the magazine for 4-5 shots, which i hopefully only need 1 shot....

[bduares]

WOW, looks like the AOA have a 9mm barrel

all the .357s I ever had always liked .358 and .359

The rifle does have ".357/9mm CAL" stamped on it

The main thing I was looking for was being able to use long slugs without having to beat the bolt handle to get them seated and the handle locked down. Regular slugs that are magazine sized I almost never have problems with. When the rifling starts digging into the slugs seems to be when I get the issues since I can see the rifling marks on the end of the slugs that are hard to seat when I get them back out to check them.

Someone said the issue was probably diameter of the slug, so I went down a size in sizing die. The longer slugs I tried did go in "almost" normal like the short magazine sized slugs always have. Had to use some force but nowhere like it was before at .357

[Jzizzle]

Are those chrony numbers with the 24" barrel?

[bduares]

Yes, Traditional stock, bolt action, 24" barrel.

[Shawn2571]

What about Accuracy though?  I care more about that than losing 30 fps did the .356 ones shoot good?

[Back_Roads]

If the larger diameter slugs shoot best, I would open the lead a bit for easier loading.

[anti-squirrel]

Good to know- my SPA prefers .3565, as does my ShinSung.  I ordered some NSAs as well as some 9mm reloads, and after swaging (my ShinSuung came with one) groups tightened up even more.  The odd thing is I started swaging the Hatsan .35 pellets, as well.  Sonja and I have discussed getting a couple more big-bores and AEA is on the short list (she wants a big-bore pistol  )

Dunno who else uses a swage for PELLETs, but it legit makes a difference.

[MJP]

Too small slugs tend to lead the barrel more. Something to keep an eye out.

Marko