357 grain .45 Colt load

Fired some 357 grain .45 Colt loads using 19.5 grains of H110 from my Ruger Blackhawk 4 5/8. The bullet was a cast lead LFN from Hunter's supply. Hodgdon shows 18 grains at a 1000 fps and 21 grains at 1100 fps, so I guess I was somewhere in between. I fired 12 shots and while recoil was noticeable, it wasn't unbearable at all. These are the stoutest loads I have ever fired in a handgun and between my excitement at shooting them and the thought of the recoil, accuracy was nothing to brag about. All 12 shots would have hit a man in the torso at 25 yards, but that's it. I was firing at yellow pine 4 x 4"s (3 1/2 x 3 1/2) which were back to back, creating 7 inches of material. The bullets went through the first and into the second, the length of the bullet. As a comparison, I fired 3 shots into the same posts from my 7.35mm Carcano at 100 yards. These bullets are 128 grain jacketed soft points at about 2000 fps. The penetration results were almost identical to the .45 Colt.

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