Can someone shed some light on what I should or shouldn't feed it?
about the only round that has given me pause is the remington 130gr mc. it is a round nose fmj. i'm not sure if it qualifies as "pointy" enough, but the hard jacket is in contact with the primer in front of it. the recoil of the 38 special won't initiate a magazine chainfire, but a dropped rifle might.
the defacto warning about mixing 357 mag and 38 special aplies. the firing of 38 specials in your rifle will leave a ring of soot, carbon, and lead farther back in the chamber than the 357. firing 38's, then switching to 357's might lead to difficulty in chambering or extraction. the solution is to clean your chamber after the use of 38's.
as far as the actual ammo goes, if it feads and goes bang, go for it. i'm not sure about the various high zoot 110gr 357. i'm not sure how they would stabilize in your 1:16 twist rifle. buy a box or borrow a few from a budy and see. if they stabilize, it might make an entertaining varmit round, but be about useless on anything else. a bit of a novelty and little else.
generaly, in a rifle, the heavier the better. the various 158gr semi or fully jacketed hollow or soft points are going to be your bread and butter. my personal favorite is a stout factory 158gr jsp.
for max penetration a 158, 170, or 180gr fmjtc or hard cast lead is called for. several manufactures make both jacketed and hc lead hunting ammo in 170 and 180gr. sellier and bellot makes a 158gr fmjtc that i really like. it's full power, inexpensive and quite accurate. unfortunatly, it is illegal to hunt big game in many states, oregon included, with a fmj bullet, or i would use it on deer knowing it would have no difficulty in zipping through a shoulder or rib bone to reach the vitals.
