Originally Posted by
Bruce
2400 is just a superb powder for magnum loads at any velocity - regardless of bullet weight.
Personally, I've found Hogdgon Longshot to be a truly great powder for medium-to-highish velocity .38 Special and .357 Magnum loads. The same could be said for Hogdgon's Herco powder but Herco, while maybe being a bit more versatile, tends to yeild a bit more pressure. Alliant's Power Pistol, also being useful from standard pressure .38 Special charges all the way up to .357 Magnum, also shines very brightly in this area and deserves mentioning.
Still, if what you really want is for the lighter bullets to get up to those screaming magnum velocities, 2400 will do the job very nicely - it's is a very versatile powder, letting you go virtually from .38 Special loads all the way up. :)
Personally, I feel that powders like Winchester 296 (or Hodgdon H110 - same stuff as W296) and Hogdgon's H4227 are not only just as fantastic and able to yield the same velocities as Alliant's 2400 - they do a slightly better job of filling the cases and in producing slightly less chamber pressure.
For the heavier .357 Magnum bullets - 158gr. and up - I have found that Hogdgon's Lil'Gun powder gives shockingly high velocities with equally shockingly low chamber pressures. Myself, I prefer to shoot 145gr. bullets or heavier in both my .38 Special and (especially) .357 Magnum loads. Lately, for .357 Magnum I predominantly use Titegroup or Red Dot for the 'plinker' loads (though these are usually loaded for other people's benefit) and Lil'Gun for the 'rattle-your-teeth' loads.
.