.357 Maximum

[Fu-man Shoe]

I am curious about the .357 Maximum. Sounds like an interesting round.

Looking it up in "Modern Reloading: SE", I can see that a starting load
for a 158 grn jacketed bullet is 23.9 grn of Accurate 2230!

Seems as though that would be a bit 'brisk'.

Anyone have any experience with .357 Max? I wonder what guns would
even conceivably be chambered for this round...

Fu-man Shoe

 

[redneck2]

Among other, the Contender and Encore. Ruger and Dan Wesson had some revolvers.

I have a .357 Herrett, which is a step or two (or more) above the Maximum. Cartridges of the World lists the 158gr in the Maximum at 1,550 and the 158 in the Herrett at 2,310

I can tell you from personal experience that the Herrett is interesting to shoot. Doubling ear protection would be strongly recommended. Some type of shooting gloves are helpful. Keep a very tight grip or you'll have a scope imprint on your face. The fireball from a 10" barrel is roughly the size of a volleyball/basketball during moderate daylight (cloudy day at mid-afternoon).

Last time out, I was sighting at 100 yards. During a lull in the action, there was a blackbird that landed beyond the target on a slight rise. At the shot, there were a lot of little blackbird pieces.

The Maximum should be a good deer and/or silhouette round if you are so inclined

 

[Fu-man Shoe]

That .357 Herret sounds like a handful..

Doing a little homework, it appears that the OAL case length of the
various .357 bullet diameter rounds are as follows:

.357 Max = 1.605 inches
.357 Mag = 1.290 inches
.38 Spl. = 1.115 inches

I wonder how well .38's and .357's would shoot out of a .357 Max..?

For a .38 in a .357 Max chambered gun, that's almost half an inch of
bullet travel before it gets to the barrel. Seems like accuracy would
suffer. The same relationship exists between .357 Mag and .38, but
to a much lesser degree.

The point of all this is...well, wouldn't it be cool to have a .357 Max
gun and shoot all of the above? Yeah, I'm thinking that would be
pretty spiffy.



Fu-man Shoe

 

[Ben Shepherd]

It would be spiffy, IF someone besides remington would make brass for it. They seem to be having severe quality control issues.

For some discussion on 357 max do a search under my name and member Peter M. Eick. We've both posted some on what we've found to be the case with our 357 max blackhawks. He's happy with his. Mine's going out to be converted into a 475 or 500 Linebaugh.

 

[Clark]

I have only some 357 max brass and .357 groove barrels laying around waiting to become 357 max rifles. I will not use an $80 .357 max reamer with .381" base, but rather a generic $15 .378" straight fluted reamer for better accuracy and cheapness. The throating will be with a throater or a drill, I don't know yet.

But I have read about the 357 max on the internet and in books:
1) It was designed for revolvers, but does too much gas cutting to the top strap of revolvers.
2) It is still a good cartridge for guns without a cylinder gap.

 

[db_tanker]

Remington is still the only one, eh?

you would have thought Starline would have made it by now.


D

 

[Ben Shepherd]

db-

I tried to get them to. I was going to try to put an order together for 10,000 pieces to make it worth thier time. No go.

Therefore, mine gets turned into a monster mag as soon as I get my tax return.

 

[Grumulkin]

"I can tell you from personal experience that the Herrett is interesting to shoot. Doubling ear protection would be strongly recommended. Some type of shooting gloves are helpful. Keep a very tight grip or you'll have a scope imprint on your face. The fireball from a 10" barrel is roughly the size of a volleyball/basketball during moderate daylight (cloudy day at mid-afternoon)."

My T/C Contender 357 Herrett with a 10 inch barrel shooting 158 grain Hornady HP bullets and a slightly over maximum charge of IMR 4227 over CCI 250 large rifle magnum primers must be special. Although ear protection is recommended with all firearms, mine is quiet enough that a single layer of protection is sufficient. I've shot mine without ear protection in hunting situations and it's no worse than a 30/06 or 375 H&H Magnum. I haven't noticed a fireball from mine either even on a cloudy day. Mine has such mild recoil that I've never needed shooting gloves with it either. In fact, a PH in South Africa after shooting it said "sweet."

On the small side, I've taken a Springbok and a Mountain Reedbuck with mine. The largest animal I've taken with mine was a Black Wildebeest.

I do shoot a couple of handguns for which double ear protection, a pad under the elbow and a shooting glove would be highly recommended. They would be the 460 and 500 S&W Magnums.

 

[ACP230]

I have a scoped, 10 inch Contender barrel in .357 Max.

I've shot a lot more .38 reloads and .357s out of it than Max rounds.
It's been a while so I can't give group sizes, but both sub Max rounds seem to have reasonable accuracy at 50 feet, and 25 and 50 yards, if I am shooting well that day.

The recoil of the Max rounds wasn't too bad, but the muzzle blast gave me a case of the flinches when I first started shooting the Contender with the Max barrel. A lot of dry fire got rid of that.

I hunted deer with this Contender combination for a few years but didn't get a shot with it.

 

[highlander 5]

The 357 Herret is not the terror in the noise dept that you'd think.I had one years ago plain earplugs did fine.
357 Max in the Ruger 357 max revolver only cut .020-.040' off the top strap above the forcing cone then stopped at that point.
Fear of LIABILITY is why Ruger stopped production even though their tests showed little if any weakening of the frame.
Dan Wesson revolvers had no such problems as the barrels were easily changed .When you bought a DW they included a coupon for another barrel at a discount. In a Contender you just have to
worry about head separations. Friend had a T/C and more to his own stupidity when loading his own he had to send the barrel back once every couple of months to have cases removed that separated at the head.
My only regret with the Herret is that I used the wrong case to
form it from. I used 32 win spl cases when I should have used 375 Win cases easier to neck down from .375 than neck up from .321 and no accordion cases

 

[steveno]

the 357 max in a super 14 TC is one heck of a round. you will know you touched one off when the case is fillled with H-110 or WW-680 powder. it is VERY LOUD and a very impressive muzzle flash

 

[Donzo]

357Max

Had a Ruger 357 Max Super Blackhawk for several years, used it two years to hunt javelina, and loved it. I reloaded on a single stage RCBS, because Dillon Square Deal B didn't have dies for it at the time. Loved to shoot it right at dusk, with light gloves, long sleeves, a hat and eye protection, not to mention double ear protection. The muzzle blast was awesome, and so was the cylinder blast. Flames shot out of the front of the cylinder about a foot, sending unburnt powder, and fragments of bullet flying all over the place. After two years of shooting, the barrel started unscrewing from the shock, and the top strap was showing some signs of cutting through. I traded it for a Garand, and like every gun I've sold or traded, wished I had held onto it. My wife loved to shoot it, but heck... she's crazy.

 

[slylikea_fox]

I have some federal 357 max. brass with IHMSA headstamps any idea when this was made.

 

[usmccpl]

Aint a man in the world could talk me outta my Maxi. With 180FPJ it kills deer dead. With 110 XTPs you can do violent things to coyotes.And if I want to cut the loads back 357 mags and 38 work too.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Here is my max. That little thing next to the long one is a 357 magnum.

My take on the Max is simple. It is what the 357 magnum "used to be".

I am having a lot of fun with mine pushing 158's at 1550 to 1650 fps as a plinker round and I am working up 180 grn loads right now. I have not worked with 2230 but the 4227 rounds are a lot of fun. I find that the SBH is a hard gun (for me) to shoot well. Much less forgiving then say a double action Smith. But I have shot a bunch of good targets with it.

I have no regrets with my Max and find it just a lot of fun to shoot. It has taken the wear and tear off my 357 Magnums now because I can shoot full power loads in the Max when I want to do something. If I were to go hunting this would be the go to gun. When I compare shooting a full power 1930's velocity (1550 fps) 158 out of my Pre-27 8 3/8" and then shoot the same velocity and bullet weight out of the Max, the shooting is fun in the SBH and I worry about hurting my Pre-27. Those are hot loads for a pre-27 but nothing to the Max.

My advice is that the Max is like a disease. You see the numbers in the load book and you get curious. Once you are curious, you just can't stop thinking about one. I put off buying my Max for about 5 years and finally one day, I just did it. Big Regrets time! Why did I wait 5 years? Idiot!