357 max ???

[buckslugger]

can anyone suggest any good deer loads for this round,like to load some up and let my boy get used to them before next season,
the new  range by my house will also let me shoot pistol caliber rifles inside,good place for rainy days

roy

[hellacatcher]

bullet-180gr hornady hp-xtp or jhp remington, powder-26gr 1680, primer-win. small rifle, lite crimp--#1deer load.

[Badnews Bob]

I use 22gr of IMR 4227 an 180 gr cast RNFP GCs kocks the water out of'em

[jbtazgrabber]

i used 158 xtp was good on deer under 100 #......quit shotting the max when i ran into a big one that took one behind the shoulder and ran to never never land to be checked in by another hunter.......my 7 year old will be shooting the max this deer season it will be 180 xtps <first choice>125 xtps <second choice>..jb

[buckslugger]

as much as i have heard about this great round i thought there would be tons of input on this, some may be skeptical about giving load data i guess , thanks to those who replied, ill give them a try, after reaming barrel

roy

[MSP Ret]

 deleted because I reponded to the wrong post!!! sorry....<><....

[Harold50]

Buckslugger,

I think there is interest in the round because it is easy to create in a Handi and one can (not necessarily will) think about hunting deer with it.

I would own a 357 Magnum barrel ( soon, I hope) in order to shoot cheap 38 Specials, and then spend the $90 some-odd to get a 30-30 barrel to hunt deer, should I ever decide to give up the 8x57 carbine.

Anything one can do with the Max in a Handi one can do with a better cartridge in a Handi - except shoot 38 specials. Thus I think-- think mind you--, that not many handloaders are using the 357 Maximun handi-rifles in the deer woods.

Just my .02 - might feel differently if I already had a 357 Max.

Harold

[buckslugger]

after typing the response i kind of thought that , i have a 7mm08 barrel i use and of course a bunch of other guns as well, just wanted some input on a straightwalled easy shooting gun for my 11 yr old son, he is going to reload his own (with my supervision)
deer rounds and wanted to start on straight walled ,for ease of reloading for him

roy

[bajabill]

I use 21 gr H110, and a Horn 180 XTP

I get 1975 fps


Never shot at a deer, but It is probably close to as good as it gets if you wanted to.  I think a 30-30 is just marginally better than that, and there aint nuthin wrong with a 30-30.  But, I would not brag about the 30-30's numbers at the bar 


edit - the best I could get with 25gr Reloader7 was 1850 fps, this was not enough of an improvement over factory 357 mag for me.

[MSP Ret]

Buckslugger, I had great luck with my .357 Mag barrel and resisted reaming to .357 Max for over a year. I was shooting .38 Specials, .357 Mags, and .360 Dan Wessons out of my factory .357 Handi just as it came from the factory with great results. I finally went to .357 Max by reaming it just a few .001"s of an inch and now shoot all rounds from .38 Special to .357 Max from the same barrel. I am very happy with the caliber and conversion and may someday take a deer with it, but for now it is a fun gun although I think it would make a dandy coyote gun also. I did recently acquired another barrel in a trade here that will become my .35 Remington. The Max will will still shoot all the other shorter calibers just as well, and it is from what I read a great deer gun to 100 yards at least with the proper bullets, no recoil to speak of and plenty of wallop at the recieving end. I say go for it for your son, if you want try some .360 Dan Wessons loaded with 180 grain XTP's in it for deer....<><....