Chamber casts of .357 mag and .357 MAX

[coyotejoe]

I reamed my new .357 handi to .357 Remington Maximum and did before and after chamber casts. The top photo is the maximum chamber and below is the original factory chamber. You'll notice that the throat is unchanged since the factory chamber has a very long tapered throat which the maximum reamer could not reach. You can click the photo to enlarge. The grid is about 1/4".

[Scibaer]

Joe,
 what exactly does making a cast of the chamber tell you ?
or maybe i should ask, what are you looking for from the resulting casting ?
glenn

[coyotejoe]

Well, it tells me that the factory chamber is ridiculous. It tells me that it is 1.855" to the first trace of lands. It tells me that to get a normal chamber throat one would have to go to something even longer than the .357 max.  It tells a lot about a chamber which can't be known by just looking at the gun and it gives me something which I can photograph, measure and record. I consider it to be 15 minutes well spent.

[quickdtoo]

All the more reason to make a 35 Remington out of it. But, then again, those that don't know about the long, out of spec chamber don't really care when more than acceptable accuracy can be achieved, the 357Mag barrel is one of the most popular barrels, right up there with the 30-30 and 45-70!!

Tim

[bluebayou]

Maybe he is just trying to illustrate the point for people with less experience with handloading. 

I can hear 1.855" all day long and not be able to visualize the difference between that and 1.590". 

[MSP Ret]

that's easy, it's 0.265"....<><....



sorry, I couldn't help myself!!!, you left yourself wide open...

[PHATINJUN]

Did you try and put a loaded max shell in the chamber before you reamed it? The reason I ask is when I cast mine I found what you did and did not see any advantage to reaming it after I checked it with 360 Dan Wesson loads I just don't see enough of a difference performance wise to bother .I figure I'll wait til I decide to go 35 Rem. Thanks for the photo it should enlighten others. Kurt

[bluebayou]

Ah, those wacky LEO-types.

[Scibaer]

Well that was my point, im brand new to handloading, and have heard alot about casting the chamber, and wanted to know what he was looking at or looking for on those molds he posted. i was trying to learn something. joe said it told him alot, and i was trying to grain some knowledge myself. 

[coyotejoe]

Yes, the reason I did a chamber cast was to see it for myself and the reason for posting was to let others see for themselves. And yes, before reaming the chamber I did drop a loaded .357 Max round into the chamber and it left about 3/16" still protruding. Even before I got the rifle back from H&R I had 100 rounds of .357 Max ammo loaded up with four different bullets and four different powders, starting loads, five or ten rounds of each load. I long seated all bullets without crimp, expecting I may have to seat some of them deeper after I got the rechambered rifle in hand but all dropped in flush as they were. Even with the Max case one cannot seat a 158 grain pistol bullet to touch the lands and the Remington 180 JHP, 180 Hornady SSP and 200 RN would have to be seated very shallow to touch the lands so all loads will have a bit of freebore even seated out as long as I considered practical. By "practical" I mean you do need a reasonable length of bullet inside the case just to be sure bullets won't loosen in handling, none of my loads were seated to the crimp groove. Now I just need a decent day to do some shooting. My chronograph won't work in below freezing temps and the wind has been too much for any hopes of accurate groups nor even getting the chrono to stand on its tripod. We've had an exceptional amount of cold and snow this year. Anyone interested in white water rafting should have an outstanding summer in Colorado once all that snow begins to melt!

[Smokin Joe]

Do you guys know anyone who's tried the Supermax?

L to R : .357..........357 Max..........357 Super Max  (Necked up 5.6 X 50R)

[Badnews Bob]

Got any load info on the super max?

Both my .357s have the long throat but they shoot so well who cares, The chamber cast can tell you alot but shooting your rifle will telll you more. Don't worry about the chamber UNLESS your rifle won't shoot. I always load my rounds seated to the crimp groove and crimp them, the crimp make a difference in my rifles.
 BTW both my .357mag and the max  will shoot 1" groups at 75yards with ease, and they prefer 180 gr bullets I mostly use lead but jackets shoot about the same.
useing IMR 4227 I get 2000 fps with a 180gr hardcast boolet, They sure hit a whitetail with authorityy.

[eskimo36]

here is the link to where that pic came from....  http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?s=316fa194890caccc23ab20d47b7e754c&p=321549#post321549

[coyotejoe]

I did get to shoot 100 rounds yesterday, 20 different loads, a five shot group with each. I only shot at 50 yards because I was just too lazy to break a 100 yard trail through the snow. Accuracy with the max was not much different than it had been with magnums, quite variable. Best groups were about one inch to one and one quarter, worst was three inches. These were all starting loads, or were supposed to be but two loads with Hodgdons LilGun were a bit warm and ran a 180 grain over 2000fps and a 200 grain over 1900fps, with a wide variation from shot to shot as I have come to expect with that powder, it frankly makes me a bit nervous. Loads with 4227, RL-7, and Accurate 5744 were all low velocity, as expected, 1500-1750fps, and I need to work on up with those powders. RL-7 showed the most promising accuracy but I think case capacity will limit velocity with that powder. Accurate 5744 always left unburned powder granules in the bore but also showed potential for accuracy. I didn't try any magnums in the max chamber, can't really think of much reason to do so, I'll probably load rifle rounds in the Max case and keep the magnums in revolvers.