.357 Wadcutters.............

[Bob Wright]

A gent on another gun forum is contemplating reaming a Blackhawk .357 Magnum cylinder to accept .357 Maximun cartridge CASES. His idea is to load flush seated wadcutter bullets for target/small game loads.

To rain on his parade, its already been done, after a fashion. Over a hundred years ago, Smith & Wesson introduced the .38-44 S&W centerfire round for target shooters. (This was not the later .38-44 Special of the 'Thirties.) This was made for the No. 3 Top Break single action revolver, there was also a .32-44 S&W. In this case the cartridge case was the same length as the gun's cylinder, and the bullet, a round nosed lead bullet, was seated entirely within the case.

The idea was that the bullet was supported until leaving the cylinder and hopping into the barrel.

Who was it, maybe Solomon, who said "There is nothing new under the sun?"

Bob Wright

 

[olywa]

Man, that's an awful lot of case for soft loads. I actually just picked up some 357 hard cast DEWC to work up some 38 +P loads with. Just for general woods carry in my 3" SP101.

 

[LAH]

Who was it, maybe Solomon, who said "There is nothing new under the sun?"

Bob Wright

Was him.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

 

[coach]

I would question the need for the maximum with only wadcutters for small game or target shooting.

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Actually the .357 Maximum is very much like (nearly identical to) the .38 Ballard Extra Long rifle ctg of the 1880s, a black powder cartridge. So old Solomon WAS right--in this case twice.

I'd say that the proposed project is a kinda silly/expensive way to avoid using a little elbow grease to clean .357 chambers after firing .38 wadcutters in them. A "problem" whose solution is right at the end of your arms....

 

[Bob Wright]

I would question the need for the maximum with only wadcutters for small game or target shooting.

From my reading it was not "need" but "what if" type of pondering.

Bob Wright

 

[Cholo]

I've shot plenty of WC's out of .357 brass with stellar results. I can't see any advantage to reaming the cylinder unless it's just because, and I'm cool with that 8)

 

[Joe S.]

what about a gas checked wadcutter...

 

[jimbo1096]

Seems the reason to ruin a cylinder was to get less bullet jump before hitting the forcing cone. 357 Max cases leave a lot of empty space to fill up with the right powder to work consistently IMO.
Wouldn't it work better to go down in size to the 38spl and reduce BC gap to minimums and with the right powder you would have better case fill and therefore better consistency with velocity and accuracy. Seems the better choice to me.

 

[GP100man]

NOE will cut ya a 75 gr wadcutter & guess what , 3 will fit into a 357 mag case.

 

[Cholo]

↑ I wonder how much pressure it would take to lob them out of the barrel fast enough to do some serious damage?

 

[protoolman]

I have done this. I cut one chamber in an SP-101 parrallel full length. A .357 maximum will slide in full length maybe 1/32" short of the end of the cylinder. I did it to load shot cartridges with a roll crimp for snakes just on my first shot. I can now load a shot cartridges with more shot and far cheaper than using the cci capsules. They pattern about the same as cci's with a bit better density due to more shot. As for the cost the chambering was free at a friend's machine shop and it was a spare cylinder purchased for $30 to experiment with. I can still swap the original back if I was to trade the gun. I see no point to doing it for wadcutters but would recommend the guy buy a take off cylinder to experiment with like I did.