.357 ?

[Eddie Haskell]

I want get a .357 for my daughter and have the barrel shortened to 16.5". Will this have any negative effect? I plan to leave it .357 Mag. Thanks

[Badnews Bob]

There have been sevral of those done and I believe the owners really like them. I don't have a problem with the longer barrel myself but it sure looks handi with the short tube.   I think the only effect would be you'd lose some speed and not much of that.

BTW most of the .357s will chamber a 360 DW without any mods that alone would put some speed back in it.
While this has work in my rifle I cannot recomend this in another persons firearm please have your chamber checked before trying this yourself. Thanks Bob

[Eddie Haskell]

Will the SB1 frame hold up to the .360DW? Where can .360DW loaded ammo be purchased?

[Graybeard]

There have been sevral of those done and I believe the owners really like them. I don't have a problem with the longer barrel myself but it sure looks handi with the short tube.   I think the only effect would be you'd lose some speed and not much of that.

BTW most of the .357s will chamber a 360 DW without any mods that alone would put some speed back in it.

I'm NOT a handi holic and know little of them but I will state emphaptically that saying such is a rather stupid remark. NEVER EVER chamber a round into a firearm longer than it is designed for. There might be a lot of wiggle room in there but chambering such a longer round without at least having a chamber cast made first and better yet having it rechambered is sheer STUPIDTY.

I really do not appreciate folks making such unsafe suggestions on here.

[Uncle Ji]

Not a Handi (sacrilege I know) but I lopped the 23" barrel of my Rossi down to 16.25" and I have been ecstatic with the results including adding a Williams peep sight and I'd recommend going this route if you want an extremely handy firearm.  From what I have gathered the 357 magnum cartridge uses up it's powder capacity in 16" so any longer does not improve performance.  Here's some interesting reading.
http://www.milesfortis.us/church/akc02.htm
http://www.gunblast.com/MilesFortis-AKChurch_BuffaloBore.htm

[quickdtoo]

As Bill stated, don't used 360 DW ammo in the 357mag until you know it will work by doing a chamber cast, the 357mag Handi has a notoriously long jump to the rifling, most will chamber the 360DW with no problems, some will almost chamber 357Maxi even, but not all of them will, mine won't even chamber 360DW, I have to trim the brass .010" just to chamber them let alone have enough wiggle room to shoot them with safe pressures.

That said, 360DW ammo is available from GBO sponsor Reed's Ammo and from Dan Wesson dealers, Bullseye Ammo being one of them that I know of, other that them, it's handloading only. GBO sponsors can be found in the links list and on the GBO home page.

Tim

[jlwilliams]

  When I get around to it I'm having my .357 barrel shortened to 16 1/2" too.  Pistol powder burns quickly, you won't lose velocity noticably untill you start cutting down so far you would need to pay the government $200 and get a tax stamp for a short barreled rifle. 

[jpshaw]

My .357 chambers .360 DW even with the 180 gr XTPs crimped on the rear canniler but as stated before, each is different and do a cast before you take off on a project.  .357 mag will kill cleanly enough I think.

[jbtazgrabber]

i built a 357 max with 22 in bbl.also had one with 13 barrel tubed to 20 in oal....the 13in shot faster than 22 in ...cut it to 18 in and was just as fast as 13 in............16 is great............my 9 year olds is 17in..the accury suffers but not that much, still able to hit and kill bambi at 100 yards or less...so cut away,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,jb

[Graybeard]

The fact that a round will physically go into a chamber DOES NOT mean it is safe to fire it there. Unless you've had a chamber cast made and taken the measurements and they meet the SAAMI specs for the round you wish to fire then it is to be considered unsafe.

[GatCat]

I want get a .357 for my daughter and have the barrel shortened to 16.5". Will this have any negative effect? I plan to leave it .357 Mag. Thanks

Eddie, QUIT picking on the Beav!!!
Seriously, shortening the barrel will work out good. One thought,though..if you are going to stay with open sights, the new sight radius will be very short, which may affect how well she shoots it. You might consider removing the rear sight, and going with a peep, at least two of which are available from NEF. They mount in the factory holes that are ususally used for the scope base. I like the Foolproof, with the adjustment knobs. Or, of course you could 'scope it, probably best with a fairly low power scope to begin with, 2 1/2X, 4X, or something similar.
Oh, yea, if you plan on going into Canada with it, their minimum barrel lenght is 18 1/2".
Mark

[Graybeard]

Hmmm. I thought long ago I remember someone in Canada saying they could use 14" barrels on rifles. Maybe my memory is faulty.