One of my Contender barrels is a 10 inch 357 magnum. I plan on doing some hawg hunting this fall and wanted something with a bit more power so I've decided to rechamber this barrel to a 357 max. The ballistics look good on this caliber and I don't have to buy another set of dies to load it. I think a 180 grain pill running about 1750 fps should put some pork in my freezer. Any recommendations from anyone ?

I think the max is an outstanding round. 180 grain Hornady ssp, Speer flat nose, Nosler partition. Any of these bullets and add some h110 and small rifle primer, and you will have pork in the freezer!

kynardsj, I'm shooting a 15" MGM .357 max Encore, With 180gr XTP's and a dose of Lil'gun it will take a Michigan Whitetail and turn them inside out. Thinking about building a Max rifle. Mad Max is a outstanding round for most of the hunting we do, you'll do well on pigs

I will be the odd one out. I think the maxi performs at its best with a 200 gn hard cast or soft point. I load 20 gn's of imr 4227. I've killed 350 lb piggies with her and that load. Stuffs em down quick.

Lars

I checked on the Midwayusa website and found that the 180 grain XTP's were out of stock until December. No real suprise there so I was thinking of hardcast with a gascheck. Found some Cast Performance at 180, 187 and 200 grain. I just started using Lil Gun this year in my 357 mags and am very pleased with it but may try some ot it, H4227 and H110 in the Max and see which one it likes as far as accuracy.

Most everyone that uses the Max is happy, It does a great job with little recoil and not a lot of powder. What's not too like, Used with in reason it's outstanding. So why is it that the factory's are not loading for it? Seems that someone is asleep at the switch

I too have been considering a 357 max Bullberry custom barrel. My question is what would be the best barrel length?
Safe shooting
Doug

If I were buying a new barrel I'd go for a 14 inch in a pistol or a 20 inch in a rifle. Give those magnum powders time to do their thing.

Kynardsj, While your letting your magnum powder do their thing, I'll go get the gas grill going, their's going to be some tasty back straps that are going to be in need of some loving.

My Max is a 10"er and it works just fine. I like shorter barrels on my walkabouts, easier to handle in the bush. I might go 12" if I did it again to get a little more speed, but I find 14"s to be a tad unweildy, although I have a few.

I agree on a 10" barrel. On a Contender, its about the same length as a 7.5" revolver. Very shooter friendly with plenty of velocity.

Getting back to the Hog hunting question, I might take a quick look at the Hawk bullets. These bullets have a great track record and the good people at Hawk will custom tailer if you order 3 or 4 boxes. I'm sure they would work great on Hogs.
buckey

I checked the Midwayusa website yesterday and was pleasantly suprised. They had Hornady 158 grain soft point XTP's in stock. The reviews are great on these with one review saying that they hold together well for him at 2000fps. I ordered a box of them and 100 of the 357 Max brass. This way I can use the XTP's in my 357 mag brass too. May get to the heavier bullets later for the Max but these will be my first loadings over a pile of Lil Gun.

I use those 158 FP-XTP's in my Max and they work great on whities. Avoid the HP-XTP's as they do tend to destruct at the 1950 FPS+ of the Max. I've never hunted hogs so don't know about them, but they pass through deer with no problem.

My only experience with the Max is in a revolver. That being said I have taken a bunch of deer with the Remington 158gr SJHP. I'm launching it at 1,700 fps from an 8" barrel. I also like the Remington 180gr SJHP.

Don't overlook the Remington bulk bullets. They are cheaper than the designer bullets and in my opnion do almost as well. Here is a picture of the Rem 240gr 44 caliber bullet shot into a wet packed melting snow bank. They penetrated 20-34" with about a 3" channel to where they stopped. They were shot from a 12" 445 Super Mag Encore barrel at 2,000 fps from 30 yards to the snow bank. I'd say they mushroomed well and held together decent for the velocity.




Here is a charlie shot with the 445 and the 240gr SJHP.

They do say that there is no such thing as overkill ;-)

I agree, most any soft point moving along at a good speed will be effective.

Not a day goes by that I don't read something about someone that's very happy with the Max. What the H@#$ are the ammo and gun people thinking.With states changing there laws to allow straight walled cartridges, you would think that they would be all over this.