I was in the pub the other day, discussing weird calibers, and the .357 Maximum came up. I remember it from a G&A article in the late 80's, it was a lengthened .357Magnum and it looked very sleek and pretty. I think it rivaled the .44Mag in muzzle energy, and produced a flatter trajectory, but I'm not sure on that.

What happened to the .357 Maximum? Has it become extinct?

Hey there,

The max really hasn't become extinct. However, it's not that popular from a mainstream sense. It got a bad reputation for flame cutting of the topstrap on the Ruger revolvers it was introduced in. Soon after, Ruger discontinued it. It's loaded I think to something like 52,000 CUP or therabouts. That's quite high for a revolver round. The Dan Wesson revolver had the capability to adjust the barrel/cylinder gap so I think it wasn't too much of a problem there.


Speaking about Contender pistols, I'd say it is still in general use at least for the hunting end. Has a good amount of power in a 10" or 12" barrel for hunting. I like the 35 Rem in this application though.

As far as Sillouhettas Metallicas, I'm not sure as to what degree of use it is seeing these days. Perhaps someone in this game can relate more info on it.

You'll find a lot of calibers that are supposed to be dead, maintain a small but loyal following of dedicated fans. At one time the 444 Marlin was supposed to be dead but as you can see here, it is alive and well. That's what makes this all fun.



:cool:

Boys, wouldn't you like to have a .357 Max in a beefed up little Marlin!
Best Regards, James  

Yes ,James, to the Marlin. I think you could closely approach the 35Rem with it. Paco Kelly elaborated on the 357Maximum and the Silouhette shooters played it straight and went for accuracy with heavy bullets. Not much flame cutting, but the hotrodded light weight bullets with the H110 loads wreaked havoc because of the calcium carbonate in the powder and heavier charges of powder. Of course it was developed for the silouhette crowd. NEF chambered it in their SS rifle, but it would be easy to open up a 357Mag and try some Re#7 in it.

Hmmmmm.

Now you got me thinking......................

Actually though, If you load the 35 Rem to about 40,000 CUP, It's tough to beat with the increased powder space. The factory 35 Rem ammo is quite anemic due to the fact that it has to work safely with the old auto loaders it was originally meant for and not hammer the heck out of the actions in them. I often wished they had came out with a type of +P loading for the 35 in fixed breach and lever guns. I think the cartridge would then come into it's own.




:cool:

(Edited by Contender at 11:40 am on Mar. 17, 2001)

Contender...Look at Ken Water's Pet Loads for the .35 Remington! He has loads worked up for bolt guns, etc. I had an early Remington 760 in .35 and loaded some real raunchy stuff with the Speer 180!! If you can't find a copy, I'll get Cissey to mail you one.
Best Regards, James

Hey!

Got the two volume set a number of years back. I'll have to go over those loads.

You're giving me a ton of ideas today, my brain is warping!

Thanks, James


:cool:

Some years ago, Savage made their model 24 O/U in .357 mag/20 ga.  Not anything to set the world on fire, untill you ran a .357 Maximum chamber reamer through it!   Now, talk about a hotrod little over/under!

There wasn't enough meat in the chamber area to do the .35 Remington, but that little Maximum slides in there slick and sweet!  This little rechamber job took under an hour and let me tell you, the results are very gratifying out of a 24' tube!

Nope, not dead by a long way... just resting up!

God Bless,

Marshall

Interesting. So how much longer is the .357Maximum compared to the plain vanilla .357Magnum?

deebee, the 357Max has a case length of 1.605 and a COL of 1.990. The 357Mag has a case length of 1.290 and a COL of 1.590. NEF used to chamber this round in that little break action single shot. They still chamber the 357mag. A little chamber work would make this a nice little knock-about gun.