Well, it's winter and Dino is on the prowl for another caliber for his T/C.

I would like to pick-up a .300 Whisper barrel for my Contender. I've found a used T/C barrel that uses the rimmed .357 Max case as opposed to the rimless .221 Fireball (JDJ). Accordingly, I have some questions:

1) Can one still buy new .357 Max cases? Where?

2) Is there any distinct advantage to either one? (.357 Max vs. .221 Fireball)

3) Will I need to turn the neck OD's from the .357 Max after necking them down?

4) Being rimmed, I imagine it would be an advantage to headspace off of the rim as opposed to the shoulder, right?

Thank you all !

Graf's carries the .357 Max brass at a reasonable price. www.grafs.com.
Regards,
HockeyPuck

Hi Dino, here's my 2 cents:

1. Graf's, Midway, Midsouth, etc. I think Remington still makes it.

2.It's the same thing, just rimmed. The rim does make it easier to unload quickly during a match.

3.No need to neck turn unless it's a tight neck chamber.

4.You still headspace off the shoulder. Most of those barrels can accept either extractor so you have the choice of brass to use. The rim cut doesn't make any difference, just use the correct extractor for the type brass you're using.

Enjoy!

Check out Arms & Ammo, they usually have the cheapest prices for Remington and Winchester Brass.

armsandammo.com

A new IHMSA project eh? You had to know that I'm still lurking around here to enlighten you. Of course it really doesn't matter if I know anything about the subject myself! I knew of a group of people who ordered those barrels from T/C Fox Ridge so they would qualify as a production item. It seemed (and still does) like a good idea, but I'm quite averse to much case forming. Heck I get precious little time to shoot and it seems like even more precious time to reload. Anyway, this isn't about me (although it should be!) and the advantage is brass that is supposed to be a bit stronger (221 brass has a reputation of being on the thin side) and you have a nice rim for extraction. You really don't want to rely on the rim for headspacing as many of the rim grooves are too deep and can result in case stretching. It is still best to size the case so it just fits inside your gun's chamber and use the shoulder as the reference point for headspacing. You might have to turn the necks, but certainly it would help to anneal the neck and shoulder when you move the brass around that much. I'm pretty sure that you can still get plenty of brass through MidwayUSA.com and they are generally at least competitive in their pricing.

the .30x.357R or .30x221R (whatever you want to call it) is a good silhouette round. It can be mild enough to not beat you up standing and yet powerful enough to reliably take all targets. I still prefer the .30-20 but that's just me.

I should have known I couldn't escape the vigilance of the Steel Assasin! Hi Bret.

Why I am on this quest: I actually got to shoot a couple BB matches in Nov at TUSCO this year with my scoped 7 TCU. I did horrible too ! Lets just say no practice with the 7 and going from the .22 Hornet ... required a BIT of a learning curve ! One of the first shots caused the scope and my forehead to, well - meet. Towards the end of my second, dissapointing match I realized I was pulling down on the barrel just as I broke the trigger. That combo of "techiques" tends to leave a lot of animals standing.

There was some fun shooting after the matches and I did manage to control my shots properly and actually started hitting some steel! How does that go? "Just wait till next year!"

To make a long story short, I shot (6) .300 Whisper rounds out of my buddies T/C with iron sights. I hit 2 out of 3 chickens and the same # of pigs first time out. What a BEAUTIFUL round. 190 grainers going real slow. Hell, there was about the same amount of kick as my .32 H&R with 100 grainers!

In FP-Prod, I am AAA in my first year, with a scope on the Hornet I'm only AA in my second year of FP-PAS, albiet with the .32 last year. I guess I have to work on the scope-shake effect a little more !

SO - I thought, WOW the .300W with a Ken Light rail for BB-Prod in the taco-mode (as I shoot the scoped 7 TCU), what a combo !

I'll still use the 7 with the scope, just LOVE the .300W though! What the heck, right?

Now, my good buddy tells me I can do the same thing with some hefty bullets in the .32H&R; 165 grainers for T & R, at least. But I don't know. I did some experiments with 123 grain SST's in the .32 (thinking they'll work for C & P's) and the scope did some serious bonking to my noggin. However, they were not subsonic as they should be; they were moving around 1250 fps. I imagine if I slow them down a good bit it will lessen the recoil.

Whaddya think y'all ????

Thank you for all the repies folks ! Some GREAT info, as usual.