I have purchased a Winchester Model 1873 Sporter Rifle and would like to have your recommendations as to which grain bullet and which bullet type I should use for leisure target shooting.
I definitely want to use a flat nose bullet.
Full Metal Jacket?
Jacketed Soft Point?
Lead Flat Nose?
Semi-Jacketed Soft-Point?
Soft Point?

Whatever is cheap.

If it is fun shooting, anything will work just fine.

Lead will be fine at moderate velocity, but may lead the bore at full power .357 levels. Remember that you can get 200 (or even more) feet per second out of a rifle barrel as compared to a pistol. But there aren't many full power .357 loads with lead bullets.

You can't go wrong with factory jacketed bullets.

.38 Specials will work great and be pussycats in that rifle.

I've shot bullets of every weight in .357 rifles. I don't usually shoot 110 grain bullets, but I've used everything from 120 grains on up 157. They all shoot fine for casual shooting.

Thanks. I was sorta leaning toward using 125 grain 357 magnum.

My Win Mod 94 really likes the Federal American Eagle 158gr jsp.

I would get several boxes of different ammo.

Shoot for groups at 50 yds.

See if your rifle likes one more than any of the others. If yes- buy a bunch of that.

To start I would look at loads by Magtech, Federal, Fiocci, PRVI, PMC 158 gr JSP.

several offerings here:

http://www.sgammo.com/catalog/...sale/357-magnum-ammo

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Fiocchi 142gr are my go to range ammo. You can find it for 15 a box sometimes.

For sd I have silvertips, ftx, homegrown 158 jhps and 158 sps.

Federal 158 grain crowd pleasers.

BANG!!!FLASH!!! Probably won't get any flash in a rifle, because the barrel is too long, but they are fun in a revolver.

I have found Federal from WallyWorld to be reasonably priced and pretty stout.

I have a Winchester 1892 in .357 Mag.

It is a real tack driver with my hand loaded 163gr Kieth type bullets with 15.5gr of 2400 powder...

It is likely you will have to experiment some to find what load your individual gun likes best.

FWIW

Chuck

Shoot the bullet the cartridge was designed for! 158gr for ANYTHING!

I shoot 158 SWC coated bullets from Acme out of my Henry BB Steel. I load them at about 1100 fps out of a 4" revolver. That load out of the rifle has as much velocity at 100 yds as the revolver has at the muzzle. That works for me.

quote:

Originally posted by arlen:
I have purchased a Winchester Model 1873 Sporter Rifle and would like to have your recommendations as to which grain bullet and which bullet type I should use for leisure target shooting.
I definitely want to use a flat nose bullet.
Full Metal Jacket?
Jacketed Soft Point?
Lead Flat Nose?
Semi-Jacketed Soft-Point?
Soft Point?

American Eagle 158 grain JSP! It's inexpensive, yet loaded up...from my 4" Taurus M65 it chronographed around 650 lb-ft of KE which means it will go much higher from a rifle barrel! It comes in boxes of 50. At the speeds obtainable from a rifle length barrel it really doesn't matter what bullet style you choose for the .357 Magnum. Even a FMJ-TC hitting at over 1,800 fps is highly destructive.

quote:

Originally posted by arlen:
I have purchased a Winchester Model 1873 Sporter Rifle and would like to have your recommendations as to which grain bullet and which bullet type I should use for leisure target shooting.
I definitely want to use a flat nose bullet.
Full Metal Jacket?
Jacketed Soft Point?
Lead Flat Nose?
Semi-Jacketed Soft-Point?
Soft Point?

Man, buy whatEVER you want! Out of a rifle the .357 Magnum is bad news to ANYTHING!

quote:

Originally posted by Hansgruber:

American Eagle 158 grain JSP!

That's what I use in my Marlin, and it's very accurate on paper at 70 yards with a 2.75x Redfield. I'd post an impressive target, but am too lazy right now.

Edited to add: I don't shoot .38 Specials out of it because the POI is so short.

I really like the Magtech 158 grain JSP .357. It's powerful and accurate and relatively clean. Their 38 +P on the other hand is very dirty, stinky crap.