I've been playing with my 357Max for some time now, tring to find a good cast bullet load. I've got the jacketted bullet load that shoots 1 1/2 to 2" at 100 yds, but a good cast load was hard to find! I recently bought a Lee mold for a 158gr SWC that's designed for tumble lube ( Alox ). This bullet has 6 thin groves for taking the lube
instead of 1 or 2 deep lube groves. These groves also provided a crimping grove in six different places! I tried a few, but crimping at the third grove down proved to be the winner!

This target is 4 shots at 100 yds with this bullet crimped on the third grove. 7.8grs of Unique over a CCI small rifle primer provided the push. ( don't know the speed......had to put down my Crony two weeks ago) The load is for a 357 mag case, and according to the manual is about 1200fps out of a 6" handgun, I'm shooting it out of a 22" HandiRifle. The flyer was the second shot.....don't know what I did wrong, but I'm sure it was me.

I see you are using the 357 max in a handi-rifle. Did you re-ream it yourself ou have someone do it? I'm thinking of getting it done to a handi-rifle.

Ed B

Ed, I did mine years ago. I'm pretty sure Reloader man did his too, but fairly recently. There was a Max reamer going the rounds on the H&R board this year. One guy bought it, did his, knocked ten bucks off his cost and sold it to the nect guy in line who did the same. I thought that was a neat idea. $10 is a lot cheaper than a reamer rental place.

It's an easy job, btw, and everyone I know of who has done has been thrilled by the results. The Handi .357s have something wrong with the throats that the rechmmber fixes. Even .38s and .357s shoot better after the conversion.

Yes, I did the rechamber job myself, it was easy and quick..........what an improvement!
I got the reamer from "reamerrentals.com", cost about $35 for three days.

Thanks Two you both for the information. I'll let you know how it works out. It proably won't be til this winter since my plate is pretty full until then

Ed

Just as a matter of interest, there should be some H&R factory chambered .357 Maxs out there. They were listed in the mid '80's. I ordered one with a spare 20 gauge barrel from a distributor closing H&Rs out. Box said .357 Max. Invoice said .357 Max. Gun and chamber said .357 Mag.

So I went ahead and fixed their mistake.