Hi guys! New guy here.
A little introduction, I'm 20 years old, born and raised in southeast Louisiana. Iv hunted all my life, with a rifle. Unsuccessfully attempted bowhunting, but have now decided to try handgun hunting. My rig is an old style contender wearing a 10 inch MGM tube chambered for 357 Maximum, and a Burris 2x scope.

So my questions are, anyone who has any experience with this cartridge PLEASE share. I mean any info at all. Loads, velocities achieved, performance on game, ect.

Also, I'm planning to use 35 caliber rifle bullets, specifically 200 or 180 grain Remington core lockt or hornady interlocked. Will these bullets expand at the 16-1800 fps that I think il be able to reach?

Thanks in advance. I'm beyond excited about the handgun hunting experience.

Oh also il be hunting whitetail and feral pigs if anyone is wondering.

I think that is one of the best calibers for the contender platform. I don't think I would use rifle bullets since they are sized .358 and may cause pressure problems. Check out Mike Bellm's website and scroll down on the left for a good place to start reading. A good barrel with a good load will do all you need it to with handgun bullets. Quality handgun bullets generally cost less than rifle components.

I love the Max. My goto load is a 158 or 160 in front of 25 grains of H110. I would suggest sticking to handgun bullets, even the Hornady 180 SSP (single shot pistol) bullet is iffy at Maxi velocities. With a 10" tube and a 180 you can get around 1800 or so at the muzzle, at 100 yards it will be much slower. No worries about pressure with those .358" bullets, but don't expect them to expand.

Welcome to HH

Welcome to the forum, there is a wealth of information and experience here, the Hornady 180 gr. ssp, bullet # 3505, and the 200 gr. FTX are what I use in my Max.

Killed anything with that from the Maxi? Curious as to the results. What MV?

Thanks for the quick replies guys! Ok so the rifle bullets are out. When I starred ordering things I planned to use the hornady SSP bullets but can't find them, or really ANY .357 pistol pills anywhere. Except or one box of hornady XTP at bass pro. I'm not so confident in the XTP bullets as I fired one in my 45 through a bunch of bottles of water and got zero core expansion and total jacket separation. Hm.

I suppose the next question is where are the bullets in stock?

If you can find any of the old Remington 180 soft points or HP, they did pretty well on deer. I got those from Midway back then. The xtp is a good bullet. Don't put a lot of faith in water bottles. Water is hard on a bullet. Especially a fast moving one. Where are you in SE LA? I grew up hunting in the Natchez and Woodville MS area. Great handgun hunting woods down there! Good luck with it.

Glenn, I actually spent the majority of my childhood around Lake Rosemound (about half way between st francisville and woodville If you arnt familiar with it) and those are indeed some excellent hunting woods. Unfortunately I moved to the Hammond area several years ago and this area is worthless. Deer are wry few and very small save those hiding deep in the swamps. So now I drive up to amite Louisiana for deer and over to the Pearl river WMA for hog and small game.

Know the area well. My moms family was from Woodville area. I did most of my hunting near Pickneyville area and in Natchez when I was younger. Moved away from Natchez in 95 and headed to Starkville. The swamps around Hammond are pretty decent from what I remember, you just have to know the area well and be careful not to get turned around while you're there

check out Mike Bellm's page, he has info regarding the .357 max-its one of his favorites -you'll really like it and learn from his site-john

almost forgot-welcome to this site!

LOL welcome to the sight!!


look really hard at the 180 ssp's IMHO. They were meant to run at handgun vel.

Don't rule out a good 180ish hard cast either... JMHO again...

I have a 15.75in MGM that is a tack driver. It is one of my barrels I really want to take game with.

Duane

Thanks guys. John, I hav read Bellm's sight. It had a part in my choosing the Maximum. I think it's going to be an awesome cartridge. And when I ordered my barrel I had planned to use hornady SSP bullets but I don't know where to find them. Oh well. Now I'm thinking hornady xtp or a Partition or something.

Welcome to the site. The 357 maximum was my first barrel I owned in a contender back in 1986. Took a mulie with it in Colorado.

Welcome Swampcrawler.

Beartoothbullets.com ?

Might want to check into the Speer 180 gr bullet. I believe it might be a viable choice in the Max.

I use 180 grain XTP's in my 10" and 16.5" MGM .357 Max barrels. I am a 296 fan but 4227 gave better accuracy in my 10" barrel. I get 1700+ fps with 180's using 4227 in the 10" Max. I have yet to draw blood with the XTP's in the Max but wouldn't hesitate to use them based on field results with the XTP in other calibers. I also have a stash of 180 grain Partitions I'd like to try on game but this is the year of the 45 for me so it might be awhile.

Good luck!

Swamp...,

Midwayusa.com had 35 / 180 SSP blems for a very good discounted price. Don't know if they still have them.

Doc