A couple weeks ago I pulled my old Contender out of the drawer. I had sold off all my Contender stuff a while back and pretty much went to revolvers except for my one Encore with a 300 Win Mag barrel for long range hunting. The only barrel I had for the contender is a 10" 44Mag/44shotshell barrel I let my daughter shoot rattlers with.

After handling the gun for a bit I decided it was time to bring it out of retirement so I found a nice 357 Herrett barrel with dies and forend on Gunbroker for a reasonable price so I picked it up. This is one caliber I have no experience with. I've already fireformed some brass and trimmed part of it. I have some 200gr Hornady pointed soft points on the way but I was also thinking about the Hornady Leverevolution bullets in 140gr.

I wanted to see if anyone has loaded the 140's in the Herrett and also if anyone had ever run any of the .358 cal rifle bullets in one. I'll primarily use this for deer although under the right conditions I might use it on elk but only with a premium bullet like the A Frame or Barnes.
Thanks for any input,
Rod

I had a .357 Herrett and about 30 years ago I shot a Merino ram from about 110 yards.
The bullet I used was the 140 gr, Speer JHP, can't remember the powder charge. The ram was perched on a rock, when the bullet hit him just behind the shoulder, he leaped off and did a summersault and landed on his back all four legs in the air, dead right where he lay. The bullet went right through, exit wound the size of a half dollar.
Wouldn't use that bullet on anything large like elk, but wouldn't hesitate on deer.
Good luck.

I have a 15" bull bbl, it like the 180-200 grainers. I think it was IMR 3031,or IMR 4227 I used. Can't remember the charge weight though. It shot very well. I tried some 158 grain hps that were good too! Good luck!