It's been a while since I've played with my little .357 carbines... I developed hunting loads for them years ago, and they have done some serious meat harvesting, but I had forgotten how pure fun they can be for plinking!

Hunting load:

BTB .359"-185g FNGC/16.0g H110/WSPP/Win .357 Magnum Brass/1864 fps out of 20" carbines! *
(This load has killed MANY, MANY DOZENS of blacktail deer in agricultural depredation work!)

My 12 year old daughter loves my little 20" Rossi 92. *and can go though two boxes of ammo down at our rifle range in short order... and punch out some pretty amazing groups with it too I might add with its factory sights.

The Load she shoots so much of is this:

BTB .359"-160g FNBB/6.2g AA #5/WSPP/Mixed .38 Special Brass/1237 fps out of the 20" carbine!

I began playing afresh with this little gun over the weekend, and what a joy! *No recoil, fairly decent trajectory over 100 yards. *Sighted in at 75 yard zero, this load is 1.5" high at 50, and only about 1.7" low at 100! *A close range varmint slayer to be sure!

It regularly punches out sub-inch groups with iron sights at that 75 yard zero! *I was curious, and for the first time, ran the numbers on this little combination and was very pleasantly surprised. *All the way out to 100 yards it will cleanly puch nearly a 3/4" permanant wound channel through its intended target, and still have just over 1,000 fps remaining at 100 yards. * Not only a fun plinker, but a potent one at that!

I've stacked up several feral dogs, and cats with this load, as well as some other predatory pests, and have always been amazed at the authority excercised by this light load, but until last night had not checked out the math to see why!

I simply love shooting these little .357 carbines with the light load I've been describing here. *It's great fun to shoot, very economical, easy on the ears and superbly accurate! * It is also a load that equals the performance of the .32-20 standard velocity factory round, with an additional 60 grains of bullet weight. * So, anything you would do with a .32-20, can be done with more authority with this combination!

I just had to comment on what joy was rediscovered shooting these little guns... and practicallity! *

God Bless all!

Marshall

Gee thanks Marshall, now I have to go out and get a new gun, I sure hope the wife don't mind, but if she does I'll just have her call YOU!!!!!!      Thanks!

God Bless

Chris

How about the Marlin microgroove carbines? I have one and it shoots great with jacketed bullets, my favorite gun to shoot.

I'm new to reloading and am interested in some hard cast loads, I am specifically interested in loads that would be effective on turkeys without much meat damage. Any suggestions on loads? Is it possible to get decent accuracy without firelapping? Ive already shot a ton of jacketed bullets form this gun, will that make a difference in how it shoots lead?

Thanks in advance, this is a great board.
Dean

Dean,

I too love the Marlin 1894C. *Great little .357 carbines! *You will probably get great performance out of your gun with cast, and your micro-groove barrel will really appreciate some .359" diameter bullets to fill up the bore. *Groups will be noticably smaller and more uniform with the .359" diameter as opposed to .358" in your Marlin Micro-Groove. *The newer ballard cut rifled barrels are tighter in tolerances, and shoot .358" just fine in my experience. *

As for a turkey load, just pick a bullet with a .280" meplat, and shove it to a velocity that will impact at your expected ranges above 800 fps, and you will have great turkey fodder! *The hard, non-expanding wide meplat bullets will only punch through the turkey, and not give the violent, meat destroying performance that JHP's are notorious for. *Consequently, meat destruction won't be an issue due to bloodshot, yet too the wide meplat will punch a three-quarter inch hole through your turkey at impact velocities all the way down to 1000 fps, and half inch permanant wound channels down to 800 fps! *Plenty enough to put down a gobbler, while still having something left for supper!

Just use the link below:
Permanant Wound Channel Calculator

Calculating your desired bullet performance is simple using this calculator, knowing the meplat diameter of your bullet. *If you need to know the meplat diameter of your bullet, you may print a copy of our Bullet Details pages which gives all the dimensional details of our bullets including meplat at the link below. *A printed copy makes a nice reference in your loading notebook!

Beartooth Bullet Details & Dimensions

Now, knowing your desired impact velocites, and the ranges at which you hunt, simply using our online ballistics calculator will give you your needed muzzle velocity to accomplish your goal at any given range. *To print a copy of the resulting ballistics table, simply highlight all the text of the table with your mouse, then right click on the highlighted text, and click on print! *Presto, you have a printed trajectory table for your bullet/velocity combination with energy and MV at the specified ranges! *Here's that link:

External Ballistics Calculator
(Be sure to maximize your screen for best results)

Now, armed with the knowledge of meplat diameter/wound channel relationships in regard to impact velocities, and the tools to calculate each, selecting the turkey load for your .357 Marlin carbine should be easy!

Have fun, and I hope that this helps a bit!

God Bless!

Marshall

It does this old mossyback's heart good to see Marshall come out with posts like this one. As you know I preach a lot about "Usable Power and Penetration"! We have new handgun shooters ( and hunters)coming aboard every day. When the look at some of these post they figure they can never accomplish what is written and go away. If you tell some of the boys down here, who have one or two free full of freezers full of hams and sausage, that they can't put down game with their .357's....well you know the answer to that!
I had a little pre-button Marlin and killed a lot of game with the Rem.180 gr load. I passed it on to my brother Clay, who then passed it down the his son Buck. That little gun still rides in the trucks, when others are left behind. I will be sending some of Marshall's losds down to South Florida for that little gun. Sometimes we forget our"fun" guns! Mine is a S&W 6" 686...where I go, it goes! Now it's full of Marshall's 185 grainers!
Best Regards from The Hammock....James

Thanks for the help Marshall, I'll get on it.
Dean

Recently picked up a rossi 92 in .357(20" bbl). Its an older one from interarms. Having a blast burning up 357 ammo with cast bullets.

The new for '01 Marlin 1894CP, a Guide Gun-style .357 Magnum, may just be the perfect all-around carbine for most potential gun buyers. Living in the crime ridden city it has great appeal as a "bug out" arm. Short, powerful, with universal ammo availability are all pluses. I thought of this when discussing how three local police departments had to intercept a number of potential rioters that were headed up the railroad tracks to a nearby strip mall when the Rodney King beating verdicts came in. My contention was that if such a situation arose today, when AR-15's, high-capacity magazines and such are anathma to the "public good," such a compact .357 lever action would be just the ticket. Tucked away in the trunk with a box of ammo, such an outfit would be very reassuring if one expected a similar problem today.

Of course such firearms serve admirably as sub-100 yard hunting arms and fun guns as well!

Yes, I too saw that little Marlin jewel!   What a fun, practical gun! I still love the .357 magnum!   Although I have many other go-fast-boomlouds, the lowly .357 still gets the job done... and done well!

A very tempting little gun!   I don't know that the ported version is all that necessary, but with my girls I'll bet they would shoot a hot loaded .357 with our .358"-185g FNGC and 16.0g H110 just as well using the ported gun, as they do the .38 specials we load for them to plink around the woods.

I concur too that it would make a great defensive weapon as well!   Sure makes more sense than that silly Camp Nine!

God Bless,

Marshall