I was out trying to make brass for my Uberti .357 Mag, since the stuff seems hard to find. I bought the cheapest .357 Mag ammo I could find, and yes, many of you are saying right now, "well THERE is your problem, idiot!" I get that, but the whole point of the exercise was getting some reloadable brass AND having a wee bit of fun at the same time.
Except there was very little fun involved. First group was this;



Waitaminnit, that don' look right. I fired a few more at the cardboard.



WHOA! What IS this baleful brand of keyholing?



You get what you pay for. But I saved two rounds to dismantle later. I told you, I just wanted the brass, so I did the Danny Devito thing, and just started blasting.



Note, flat point, not HP. Could NOT get the camera to focus correctly...



So here we are...



Hmm...



Powder for both measured very close to 9.7 grains on my 5-0-5, looked a lot like Accurate powder, but a buddy I sent photos to said it looked like HS 7. Doesn't matter - that pulled powder goes to the dump.



The BULLETS, on the other hand...first, call it what you want - that's a plated bullet.



Both measured exactly the same.





I know that Ruger, among some others, sells .357 Mag revolvers with 9mm cylinders so .356/.355 bullets SHOULD work, but in a jacketed format - plated and lead I have always been told should be an extra thou over that.  Now here comes the fun part - .356 IS a thou over normal for 9mm; I load cast and powder coated lead at .356 all day long in my 9mm pistols with no issues whatsoever. But, in .38 Special, I always size cast powder coated at .358.

It's NOT the gun - I was able to make some groups with it on earlier day that at least showed ROUND holes.





It has shot both cast and jacketed, (XTP), just fine. So, either my revolver is REALLY finicky, or is .356 is just too small for a plated .357 magnum?

BTW, did I mention I have NEVER loaded for .357 before, but 38 Special for many years?

Thank you for your time and helpful replies.

Amazing.

Never buying that brand.

Imgur is having problems uploading directly some of the pictures.

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Keyholing
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It's plated
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Sounds like the bullets were NOT engaging the rifling. So, yeah. The bullets were too small. Like you said, the cartridges were just for the brass.

You got what you paid for, it says so right on the box!

TMC.....Tumbling Metal Crap

It is possible that those cartridges would perform well in a different revolver.  Some times a gun will just not like a specific load.

Plated bullets may perform poorly at higher pressures, and that may be part of the problem.

A thousandth of an inch is not that much of a difference, there is usually that much difference between the old Colt revolvers and other brands.

Agreed, jacketed can often get away with being a little undersized.

I have less experience with copper plated since trying Raniers a long long time ago.   Plated and Powder coated are too areas I have much experience in.

An undersized for bore diameter bullet will certainly do that, and I have seen lots of poorly constructed plated bullets.

For me the best accuracy in revolvers is almost invariably obtained with a cast lead bullet.

And the few exceptions you will find will be with a high quality jacketed like sierra or hornady

Which is why the tumbled, deprimed, resized, and reprimed brass were loaded with some nice cast 158 gr SWC last night, for next weekend.
Just letting people know what happened and what to avoid.
Oddly enough, Ammo Inc BRASS is really good, have loaded it many times, no issues there at all.

Now THAT'S funny!

I will only add that pulled/unusable for whatever reason powder NEVER goes to the dump.

Pile it up, make a trail, get creative and light it for the kids entertainment. That's how my Dad rolled.

That will work.  However, you can also just spread it on the lawn.  It is basically fertilizer, though it will take a long time to break down.

I just dump it in the ashtrays at my local bar....

Looks like Starline may be available now:

https://www.starlinebrass.com/357-mag-brass

You're only wrong because you think .357 brass is hard to find.



How about 200 pieces for $16?

How do you like your Uberti? I've had a couple of consecutively numbered Uberti Hombre's for 10 years now. I can't believe how accurate they are!

I'm not too worried about 357 brass, have some en route now, and I have enough 38 Special brass to keep shooting for some time.
Honestly right now I am trying to find something that shoots was well as i want it to shoot. The quest continues.

Crap.  I just bought half a case of Ammo Inc .44 mag for the same reason as OP.  I guess I'll find out how their .44s are sized.

I have used the brass a few loads now, and it is just fine - I will never buy their loaded ammo again.