After a too long absense from the range, I finally made it out today, not the most pleasant conditions, temps in the 20's with a rather gusty wind. The range is right off the water, so a bit of wind is rather unpleasant.

Anyhow, the loads were assembled 3-4 months ago, and I believe the markings on the case were powder scale setting, not charge weight in grains.

What I found was, if you load as much AA 1680 as you can possibly compress under a 200 gr WFN gc, it'll clock 1910 fps, groups were a bit over 1" at 50 yds. Similar deal with a 200 gr jacketed spitzer bullet clocks 1850 fps with similar accuracy. A case full of Reloader 7 under the 200 gr WFN gc clocks a mere 1550 fps, but puts them all into one hole.

Minor conclusion, AA 1680 provides the same velocity as H 110, but at lower pressures, and better accuracy. You can't fit enough 1680 in the max case to hurt the gun, but you can stuff enough H 110 in to make the cases stick. Reloader 7 is too slow of a powder, but I'd already figured that after trying it in a 357 Herret. Oh yeah, other conclusion is the 10" 357 max will do everything the 10" 357 Herret will do, but burning 2/3's the powder, and the smaller dia case won't produce enough back thrust to hurt the frame. The other advantage of the 357 max is you can use carbide 357 max dies, and no forming or trimming.

Guess I need to order me some of those 150 gr spitzers figure they'll be good for at least 2200 fps, maybe 2300.

Thanks Paul,

I've come to the same conclusion as far as Surplus WC680 powder, case capacity/pressure-wise.

Consider that powder also if and when you run out of AA stuff. Virtually the same burning rate and a whole lot less money.

The Max is one efficient cartridge in the 10" tube.

Regards

I did not ever poke around to see where top load was, but reached 2150s in my 10" barrel with 158s or the Rem 150, can't remember.
Almost sure there was som more to go on velocity/pressure.

Something between WC820 (H110) and WC 680 should be the best compromise of velocity vs pressure there is for the Max.

WC 820 would get sticky in warm weather just like the Hornady(?) manual warned for H110 loads!

LouisB

I think the Max performs all out of proportion to anything else in the straight case genere