Anyone have insight to the 357 Remington MAXIMUM? Not magnum, maximum.
This is a discussion on Anyone have insight to the 357 Remington MAXIMUM? Not magnum, maximum. within the Ammo Dump forums, part of the Firearm Forum category; I was at the Crossroads of the West gun show in Orange County, California.
I bought a ton of stuff today for my revolvers but ...
Anyone have insight to the 357 Remington MAXIMUM? Not magnum, maximum.
I was at the Crossroads of the West gun show in Orange County, California.
I bought a ton of stuff today for my revolvers but came across some .357 Maximum rounds while browsing the 357 magnum isle. The Ft-Lbs of energy rating for the .357 Maximum was 1,200Ft-Lbs!!!!! Thats like 44 magnum power out of a .357 round!
I was asking the owner of the ammo tent and he told me that some firearms companies built guns for the .357 maximum, but they didn't hold up to the brute force of the round.
Anyone own or have any insight to guns that take this round? or the round itself? Would help alot, because i'm very interested in this!
Thanks.
It wasn't really that the guns couldn't handle it. Ruger , Dan Wesson and a few others hand handguns for the max and H&R and I Savage made rifles for it. Ruger did experience folks having flame cutting due to running particular loads. Siding on caution, they discontinued the SRM. Originally intended as a handgun silhouette cartridge, it just never caught on enough with a wide following to keep it going so other manufacturers dropped it as well. Only companies I know of that continue to offer it are T/C, Competitor and a couple other specialty handgun manufacturers. It is indeed an awesome cartridge. Have one Ruger SRM here currently but a 2nd one will be here this coming week. Also have one of the Handi Rifles and a Competitor chambered for the potent little cartridge.
Something interesting about the Max is that in some platform, OAL isn't such a concern so with rifle bullets you make some really potent loads.
To the best of my knowledge, there were only a couple normal production companies that made handguns for the 357 Maxi ... Ruger and Thompson Center. Ruger chambered this cartridge in a special long cylinder New Model Blackhawk (longer cylinder frame too). The 10.5" barreled 357 Max was primarily intended for steel silhouette shooting and the 7.5" barrel found strong support with hunters.
Remington 357 Maximum factory ammo was loaded with a 158 gr jacketed bullet, which resulted in major problems. Turns out ... the timing of the slow burning powder put the base of the bullet flush with the forcing cone at peak pressure. This was not a problem for a T/C Contender but it sure was for the Ruger BH. Flame cutting of the top strap and forcing cone were extreme ... to the point where Ruger considered it to be a safety concern. In the last year of production, Ruger changed the forcing cone from a 5 degree to a deeper 11 degree cone. This helped prevent forcing cone erosion but it made top strap flame cutting even worse. As such, Ruger discontinued the Maxi in 1984, just 2 1/2 years after it was introduced. There were about 16,314 made (Blue Book says 11,500) so they aren't considered rare but they are considered scarce. The Blue Book values them about 1.5 X normal 357 Mag NM Blackhawks.
The sad thing .... after Ruger discontinued the Maxi, shooters learned a 180 gr jacketed bullet would virtually eliminate flame cutting, making it no worse than a 357 Magnum BH. The heavier bullet and lighter powder charge allowed chamber pressure to peak well before the bullet's base was flush with the forcing cone. Ruger has never reintroduced any gun chambered for the 357 Maximum since.
Should be mentioned that a couple Ruger SRM model were made in stainless. I know one is not in the factory collection. Sold a few years ago for a rather high price.
I have a 10" 357 Max barrel for my Contender I am using 180 gr bullets over W296 for deer. It is very effective with less recoil then the 44 Mag. In dim light the muzzel flash can be blinding.
Thanks to BlkHawk73 and Iowegan for the vast knowledge shared about the .357 maximum. This is the exact reason why i joined this forum, because of guys like you!
When I was doing some engine building years ago, I had an instructor who always used to say this:
The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
and boy can we all live by that statement.
thanks again!
I had the chance to buy a couple of the Maximum's when they were first released and didn't. I wish I had. If for no other reason then just having one. Little did I know they would be short lived.
I have emailed the CEO before on this--I think it's high time the .357 Max was brought back--not only in Blackhawks but in a GP100 or Redhawk. Not only could the flame cutting be a non issue when using 180 grain bullets, by adding a heat shield on the top strap like S&W does with the Night Guard series would also prevent it with lighter loads. I would love a GP100 for defense in .357 Max!
I bet that would have made a great little lever action carbine round, or even a nice little m77 bolt action, no? I always wondered why no one came up with a hotter m1 carbine round like this either, I know it would've needed to be rimless but I bet it would've been sweet. A lever action Marlin/Winchester 357max and a m1 carbine in something modern and a little better balistically, man did someone miss the boat on a really good opportunity.
The Maximum (round) actually appeared as the .357 Super Mag. Developed by Elgin Gates. It's a long story how it developed into the Ruger Maximum. Some people involved were David Bradshaw, Bill Jr,. Federal, Remington and Ruger. Top strap cutting becomes a non-issue after 1000-2000 rounds. If Remington, and Ruger would have stayed with 180gr. bullets and heavier, as well as slow burning powders, the pistol may still be in production. But, of course, some people had to stick 125 gr. and even lighter bullets and see how fast they could make them go. Fast burning powders and forcing cone erosion killed the Max. As well as some uninformed and under informed gun writers. I'm using 200 and 210gr. cast with 4227, works well. The highest produced serial # is 600-16314. LESS than 11,500 were shipped, makes ya wonder where the almost 5000 Maxi's are?????? Coogs.P.S. there were 6 Stainless Maxi's produced. 3 were destroyed, the other 3 are in public hands.
The Maximum (round) actually appeared as the .357 Super Mag. Developed by Elgin Gates. It's a long story how it developed into the Ruger Maximum. Some people involved were David Bradshaw, Bill Jr,. Federal, Remington and Ruger. Top strap cutting becomes a non-issue after 1000-2000 rounds. If Remington, and Ruger would have stayed with 180gr. bullets and heavier, as well as slow burning powders, the pistol may still be in production. But, of course, some people had to stick 125 gr. and even lighter bullets and see how fast they could make them go. Fast burning powders and forcing cone erosion killed the Max. As well as some uninformed and under informed gun writers. I'm using 200 and 210gr. cast with 4227, works well. The highest produced serial # is 600-16314. LESS than 11,500 were shipped, makes ya wonder where the almost 5000 Maxi's are?????? Coogs.P.S. there were 6 Stainless Maxi's produced. 3 were destroyed, the other 3 are in public hands.
Well said the 357 max was at its best with 180 -220 grain bullets at 125 grain 357 velocities.
[/IMG]
Linear Mode
