[epijunkie67]

I love shooting my lever action .357 and when I saw the new lever evolution rounds from hornady coming out I wondered about the feasibility of making a bullet like that for the .357. They are doing one in 35 remington (200 grain) and thought if they backed the weight off a little they might be able to give me another 50-75 yards of useful range. No real reason, just for ????s and giggles.

So I emailed them and got this one line response back today.

"It's not particularly practical due to the short length of the bullet ogive."

So for anyone else wondering about this, no, it ain't gonna happen.

[ChristopherG]

Bummer. Glad you shared the results of your inquiry, though; thanks.

[MCgunner]

Bummer. Glad you shared the results of your inquiry, though; thanks.

Well, I had that one figured out before I read the response. It's a fat, short little handgun pill. You ain't gonna get much of a ballistic coefficient out of it, just no way.

Load it warm, keep it to 100 yards or less with a proper bullet weight and style, and be happy. I like shooting my own cast/gas checked 158 grain from a Lee mold. I've taken deer with it to 80 yards. It's a good load for thin skinned game of whitetail size under 100 yards. What I see the .357 in a lever gun doing that .30-30s don't is turning into a small game gun with the simple switch to light .38 loads. That's the charm in this caliber to me, plus the fact that I already load and shoot a lot of .38-.357. I wanted a carbine to go with my revolvers.

[Sam]

The LeverEvolutiojn rds are pretty much hype anywho. The actual trajectory differences aren't going to be enough to be noticable to 90% of the lever shooters.

Sam

[Northslope Nimrod]

The difference is HUGE in the 30-30 range. Check the numbers again. Big bores are gaining less.

[Sistema1927]

I was pretty jaded in my view of this, but after reading the article in the latest American Rifleman I might just have to try a box or two in my 336.

[JohnKSa]

WARNING! BEFORE reading farther, please read the disclaimer at the end of the post.The actual trajectory differences aren't going to be enough to be noticable to 90% of the lever shooters.I don't know, the numbers are pretty different.

(Trajectory numbers rounded off to the nearest half inch.)

Hornady 200grain 35 Rem Leverevolution zeroed at 150 yards.
3" high at 100 yards 1711 ft-lbs
1.5" low at 200 yards 1315 ft-lbs
17.5" low at 300 yards 1003 ft-lbs

Winchester 200grain 35 Remington zeroed at 150 yards.
3" high at 100 yards 1203 ft-lbs
7" low at 200 yards 791 ft-lbs
36" low at 300 yards 551 ft-lbs

[roscoe]

The skinnier and longer the bullet (sectional density), the better the effect. Plus, they upped the powder charge.

[Michael Courtney]

I love shooting my lever action .357 and when I saw the new lever evolution rounds from hornady coming out I wondered about the feasibility of making a bullet like that for the .357. They are doing one in 35 remington (200 grain) and thought if they backed the weight off a little they might be able to give me another 50-75 yards of useful range. No real reason, just for ????s and giggles.

So I emailed them and got this one line response back today.

"It's not particularly practical due to the short length of the bullet ogive."

So for anyone else wondering about this, no, it ain't gonna happen.


Actually, if it were not combined with a higher muzzle velocity, the marginal increase in ballistic coefficient from the pointy tip would not be that interesting. The 160 grain 30-30 load has a BC of 0.335, which is only marginally higher than some flat-point bullets in that weight class.

Also consider that the grain in BC would be even smaller with a .357 bullet. For example, the 180 grain Hornady XTP in .357 already has a BC of .230. Compare with Hornady's "pointy" 180 grain .358 bullet with a BC of .248. Even without the ogive issue, there's only so much to gain by making .357 magnum bullets pointy. Gains would be much greater by giving the bullet a boat tail. Combining a boat tail and a pointy tip would easily provide a BC above 0.3, even with the limited ogive.

Michael Courtney