I have what might be a naive question but if you have a rifle that also shoots pistol caliber, and you normally reload for pistol, do you work up loads separately for each or do you just take what you already know works in your pistol and use it in your rifle?

 

I am asking because I am thinking about getting a lever action .357 and since I already re- load for my pistol I was planning on just using everything from my weaker .38 loads on up to my mid-level .357 and use them in the rifle.

 

Since I won't be using the lever gun for hunting I see no reason to work up a hot hunting load.

 

Just curious what others do.

A rifle might likely withstand more pressure than a handgun but to try to shooter hotter loads from the rifle is foolish. Both the rifle and handgun are designed to work at SAAMI max pressure plus an extra margin for safety. You are going to pick up a few hundred FPS with a 357 pistol load used in the rifle by virtue of the longer barrel being able to more completely burn the powder. 16-20" barrel is about optimum for most handun caliber carbines. A longer barrel may slow down your load as the powder gets completely burned and barrel friction starts to slow the bullet down.

 

Don't try to use hotter loads in the rifle. Too hot for the handgun, too hot for the rifle.

 

I would just find a load that works well in both.

Be aware that a "powder puff" load in a pistol may result in a squib in a rifle due to the longer barrel.

You can tune the ammo better as a hand loader. If you pick up a copy of Hornady's reloading manual there is a separate section for pistol caliber rifle loads. All the same equipment and projectiles can be used by a slight tweak in the powder can yield a much better/accurate round in the rifle.

Ken

Generally one chooses the same caliber rifle to match one's pistol out of convenience of using the same ammunition. Therefore one would load to optomize the pistol ammo and use that same load in the rifle. 9mm, .357, .44 mag, and .45 acp come to mind. Marlin Camp carbines are nice; .45acp uses 1911 mags. There are really nice lever rifles to match your wheel guns in .357 and .44, Camp carbine comes in 9mm also, but 9mm is not a great rifle caliber...

Both my Marlin 1894's in .357mag won't group my 38spl loads (wimpy or hot) worth a damn.

Now feed them my not-quite-max .357mags and they're both tack drivers.

 

My 45acp carbines (HiPoint and Beretta CX4) do much better with full power loads than they do with the light loads I make for easy pistol paper punching.

 

Like Ken said, handloading is the key. You can tailor your ammo to the gun and your needs. And your cost per round is considerably lower than buying factory ammo.

With a long barrel for the pistol round, you can theoretically move to a slower burning powder and pick up some velocity. 

 

Theoretically. 

 

For knockdown steel, before we allowed pistol caliber carbines, we tested with a chronograph. Had a handful of people running open guns in 38 super and carbine uppers in the same caliber. Since hteir loads were set up for open guns to have lots of gas to drive the comp, we figured that would be the worst case scenario. With a 16" barrel we were getting nearly the exact same velocity as out of 5" comped 2011s.  Our best guess was that even with slower burning powders, they were done burning before 16 inches, and friction kicked in bringing velocity back down. 

Thanks everyone, appreciate the many well informed perspectives.  I was hoping that I could just feed my 38/357 reloads and find some that work and that may be the case but I will probably end up working up some rifle only loads.  I use the Hornady manual for most of my loads (don't have the latest edition but I should be OK) so I have more than enough information.   

Both my Marlin 1894's in .357mag.

 

 

Both?!?

 

 

Care to get rid of one?