I plan on buying a NEF Handi-Rifle in 357 Magnum and having it rechambered to a 357 Remington Maximum.

My question is this. I bought Lee Carbide dies in 357 Mag because I was told they would work. My trouble is that I want to use the Hornady 180 gr. Single Shot Pistol bullet, which is a spire point bullet, and the bullet seating die for the Lee Carbide dies looks like it is designed for round nose and standard pistol bullets. What should I do?

Good choice with both your rechambering job and your bullet choice. I learned two tricks that might help:
First: Insert a hollowpoint jacketed bullet upside down into your seating die so that the hollowpoint cradles the tip of the bullet and protects it against being squashed.

Second: coat one of your bullets and the seater plug inser from you disassembled seater die with wax or mould release compound and make a seater plug out of 2 part epoxy putty and allow it to dry. Viola...custom seater plug. I've done both methods with Lee dies.
I won't badmouth Lee dies, as I find them very serviceable for a great price, especially the carbide ones, but this is one area that they are a little weak on. With RCBS dies or Redding and even Lyman, you can usually buy alernative seater plugs and that's just what I did with my Max dies, I got a seater plug for a 350 rem mag and it works perfectly on my max with the hornady pointed bullet.

Good luck and have fun,
Graycg

The Lee dies work fine for reloading the Max. I also purchased them for mine. Have not loaded any spire point bullets yet, although I plan to in the future. I built mine on a Martini Cadet action, and have not really had time to work up any loads (just loaded a few "test" rounds). I did score some original Rem 180gr cartridges at the local hardware store, and will be using them for hunting this fall. Would be real interested in your loading, accuracy, etc. when you get to it.

I tried using my 35 Rem bullet seating die. Just a little too long. I plan on calling Hornady since I live about 60 miles from Grand Island, Ne and see what they say. Maybe I need two bullet seating dies. I think they could just grind one down. I like the way their seating dies work. Thanks for the great ideas though.

Just order a .35 stem for the pointed bullet...

A question for you Max shooters, have any of you done any extensive 38 spl. or .357 mag shooting in your Max chambers. I'm curious as to the accuracy level of 38 spl with the long jump to the rifleing, I primarily shoot cast bullets. Any info would be appreciated. Nick

[ 10-18-2003, 04:10: Message edited by: fecmech ]

fecmech,
Unless you load 38's pretty hot they will just kind of slide out the barrel. Not much velocity on the cast bullets I have tried. 357 Mag work better.

Mark-- I use my Rossi ss as basicaly a plinker and shoot a lot of 38's out of it at 1100 to 1200 fps. It's nice and comfortable and the noise level is about on par with a .22. My main concern with a rechamber to max was if it would hurt the accuracy of the .38's with the long jump to the throat. I'd like to know about anyones experience in that area. Nick

I have a load with the 205 gr. Leadheads FPGC over 2.5 gr. Unique in the .38 Special case. This was developed for my 21" TC factory barrel in .357 Maximum. I don't know the velocity but here is a representative group.

I think that should answer your questions remembering, of course, that every barrel is different.

Looks good Hobie how far to the target?? Nick

I have an older H&R I rechambered to Max. It shoots .38 Special WC better now than it did in the original chambering. 50 yard groups run 1" to 1.5". I mostly use Federal cases and primers with 148 Lee DEWC and 3.1 grains of 231. Velocity runs around 730 fps.

In .357 Max cases , full house loads using Lyman #358315 do about as well.

[ 10-21-2003, 05:11: Message edited by: Leftoverdj ]

I can say nothing bad about a NEF Handi-Rifle but, a 357 Maximum is over bored and will take out the barrel, quicker than you want it to.

Even though I have no hands on experience yet with the 357 Max. I think as long as you keep it a cast bullet shooting gun and use the right powders the gun should last forever.

Otherwise, once I get mine I plan to make it a subsonic boomer for 99% of my shooting and fullpower the other 1% for deer and a possible future hog hunt. I have never heard any bad about this caliber other than its inception back in the early 80's.

I mainly want a cartridge that could duplicate the 35 Herret or atleast come close. From a 14 inch pistol barrel the 35 Herret is a fine big game cartridge. So should the 357 Maximum.

7-30 Waters

Sorry, meant to post that was a 50 yard target.