H&r 357 mag

[jbunny]

i just picked up my new H&R 357 mag. does any body on this list have one and how does it shoot. i'm disapointed in the long throat. see pic. i pushed a 158 gr bullet about
a 1/16 in into a new 357 mag case and chambered and closed the action. no
rifleing marks on the bullet. i then shoved a max case in and that is within 1/8 inch
of full chamber. i guess i will make a chaber cast and see what gives. i'm not
impressed to say the least. any feed back appriciated.
jb
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/357mag.jpg

[docone31]

I had contacted them to make me, or see if they could make one in .357 Max.
Hmmmm. I wonder.
If it will chamber, you have one heck of a rifle!
I would not complain if that is the case.
I wondered to what happened to the Max chambered one.

[bishopgrandpa]

Many people on Greybeard's has made 357 max out of them. Was this a used piece? Check on GBO.

[jbunny]

i'm sorry, this is brand spanking new. i just took it out of the box 1/2 hr before
posting. i have to get some medium height mounts tomorrow when in town.
i am pleasently surprised at the trigger pull. not a target triger but not bad. this has as much freebore as a whertherby. how would this much freebore shoot cast bullets???
cheers
jb

[NHlever]

The previous poster was correct in stating that many folks have reamed their .357 H&R's to .357 Maximum. The resulting chambers seem to shoot all lengths (.38 Special, .357 Mag, and .357 Maximum) quite well usually. Also several posters over at Graybeard have gottten excellent accuracy out of the factory chambers though it is a bit surprising. I would try yours with a few loads, and see how it does. It just might surprise you. That is one gun I've been tempted to buy too, but I haven't yet.

[Nobade]

I turned mine into a Max with a .381" chucking reamer. It's a quick job, and shoots great afterward. I've been wondering how the factory chamber would do with paper patch boolits...

[GrizzLeeBear]

Mine shoots the RCBS 35-200-FN well with Lil Gun powder in either .357 mag. or 360 Dan Wesson cases (.357 max. brass trimmed to 360 length). When I get my NOE 360-180-rfn mold I'm hoping for even better results.

Nobade, I'm considering lenghtening mine to a .357 max. Since I'm using max. cases it seems like a waste to trim them down to 360 DW. Could you give us some details on using the chucking reamer to do this? Whats a good source for a reasonably priced reamer?

Didn't think about trying paper patched boolits, may have to try that.

[crazy mark]

I have one in 357 max (old one) and a 357 mag one that I use 360 DW and 357 mag cases in. I was lucky to come across a person selling a few hundred new 360 DW cases. The 357 mag ones doesn't really seem to have any issues with 38 spec thru 360 DW. The 357 max doesn't like 38 specs as they kind of fall out the barrel. Too much freebore. You need to shoot it and see what it really likes before you modify it. Once you take metal out it's hard to put it back in. Mark

[Nobade]

Hi Grizz Lee,
The way I did mine was to use pin guages to first see what diameter my chamber is. It ended up at .381, but yours may be different. MSC, www.mscdirect.com I think, has decimal size chucking reamers pretty cheap. I think mine was about $12 or so. I did my barrel in the lathe like any other chamber job, it doesn't take but a second and you're not removing much metal. It's easy to go too deep. I used a guage pin to measure the depth, and stopped when the chamber was .010" longer than the brass. A little polishing with sandpaper on a stick and I was done. If you didn't have a lathe I don't see why you couldn't do this with a tap handle and the barrel held vertically in a vise, since you are barely taking a cut. When you're done the chamber has an end to it, not like the factory one where it just blends into the throat. I never shot it as a 357 mag, but I have been quite impressed with its accuracy as a Max. With full loads it is right in there with a 35 Remington as far as power, and would make a good hunting rifle. If you didn't like that you could always make it a 35 Rem, or even better the rimmed version of it where you make brass from 303 Brit cases. I didn't see any need to do that, but it would work quite well.

[jbunny]

well boys, i have been busy. here is a pic of the chamber cast, left one is factory.
i could not see this shooting very well with Jboolits let alone cast lead. that loose throat was longer than the cast boolits. so i chambered it for the max and u can
see the j-boolit is seated long and it still don't touch the rifleing. i never touched
the throat. now for a powder question, is unique position sensitive? i mean do i
have to put toilet paper to keep the powder back or use CW filler????
thanks
jb


http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/HRchambercast.jpg

this is my H&R race ready. the scope bushnell legend 5-15 mil dot. i use mil dot
on all my rifles and it comes handy for these rainbow rifles. i'm not finnished with
the cheek piece. i have to put a nice trim bead after the initial glue is cured.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/HRraceready.jpg

[TCLouis]

You are set to go now!

[jbunny]

You are set to go now!
welllll yes and no. it's still a awfull long throate. the barrel is bent where
they spot welded the forearm lug. i havent straightened it out yet.
i'm realy dissapointed in this thing. i haven't fired it yet as the wheather
is not cooperateing. the reason i posted these chamber pics is to alert
people what to expect.
regards
jb

[lathesmith]

jb, don't get too worked up about the long throat until you have actually tried this thing out first. Lots of armchair experts out there will tell you it won't shoot "very well", but whether or not that's so depends somewhat on your expectations. With plinker loads my H&R will hold 1/2" groups @25 yards all day long. Now, I realize a match shooter ain't gonna be happy with that, but for me the casual plinker that's fine accuracy, and plenty good to get the job done.

I would suggest you try one of my favorite plinker loads, 3 grains or so of Bullseye under a 200 grain+ slug. This load has worked very well for me, in either Max, Mag, or Special brass, and is good for about 600 fps in a variety of calibers and carbines. Don't worry about fillers or wads or any of that stuff, just load a SOFT slug ahead of this charge and go out and have some fun with it!

lathesmith

[badgeredd]

i'm sorry, this is brand spanking new. i just took it out of the box 1/2 hr before
posting. i have to get some medium height mounts tomorrow when in town.
i am pleasently surprised at the trigger pull. not a target triger but not bad. this has as much freebore as a whertherby. how would this much freebore shoot cast bullets???
cheers
jb

I had an older version and it loved a 200 grain bullet. I still have his big brtoher in 357 Max whick I routinely shoot a custom 235 grain in. There was a 357 max reamer for sale yesterday in the Swapin' and Sellin" section. An easy change over and you'll be very happy with the umph it has. ........................OOPS! I should have read everything before I posted. Nice job there with the conversion. I'll bet you love it.

Edd

[jbunny]

thanks for the kind words lathesmith and Ed
it realy irks me when companys put out **** like this. they know that any time
u put red heat to a piece of metal. it will pull it upon cooling. they could of
straightened it out. i bought this for shooting cast boolits and i can't see how that would of worked. i dropped a 165 gr SWC in the chamber and measured to the base
of the bullet and it was 1/8 inch shy of touching the case. wer'nt they sued for
shody workmanship some years ago. maybee this is ther way of makeing sure
that u can't build up to much pressure. the pressure loss in that big, long throat
would be as bad as a wheel gun and the gas cutting would of started before
the boolit reached the rifleing. IMHO of course.
jb

[JIMinPHX]

I've been wanting to load up some 359-190 RD RNFP boolits that are seated waaaay out there in .357 mag cases for one of those, but I'm not going to have time to get to it until Christmas. I think that with a health dose of H-110, it should make a good dear load for brush hunting.

[part_timer]

Jbunny- It looks like you did a good job of chambering that one. A friend of mine did the same thing and it shoots both Mags and Maxs well. It does seem to be a bit picky on boolits though. It likes the heavy ones.

Jim- I can't say on the mags but the 180-sil that RCBS makes works well on deer at 90 yards with H110 in a Max case.

[jbunny]

this is how i blend in the chamber extention. machine the rim of a max case,
tap it 10/32 and locktite a screw in place and i use bodyshop stick on sanpaper.
start with 320 grit and a very narrow strip. oh i turn this with an hand electric drill.
jb


http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/chamberpolisher.jpg