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I've been loading some 357 magnum rounds for my S&W 686,
and they have been quite fun to shoot. I was a little bit antsy about
how much powder (20g of W296) that is required. Is it simply a matter
of the burn rate?
Haka

WW 296 is one of the odd powders out there, it's not all burn rate. It was design for the 357mag and 44mag calibers back in the 70's I believe. 296 is on the slow end but is hard to ignite the reason a Mag primer is required. It's also one that is pressure sensitive and mfg's recommends a smaller use window and heavy crimp. It's what I use when I want a full house mag load for my Python. It really shine when your shooting a heavy bullet, >125gr. When it was first released you were informed to load as listed, no reduction. Since then they have revised that but they may have tweaked the formulation a little over the years.

When I'm at the range and the shooter are commenting on mouse loads I pull them out for a cylinder full. It gets there attention in a big way. It does take a good heavy gun to shoot them, not for the cheap Sat night special revolvers.

Used a lot of W296 myself but in 1/2 ounce loads in .410 for skeet and sporting clays, if I recall used to use about 12 grains.

For target shooting and paper punching, I use 4.0 grains of Titegroup. Titegroup is much faster burning. As I recall, it's around 1,000 feet per second, maybe a little slower, but is accurate. Lighter recoil for all day shooting as well.