Contender Carbine .357 Max

[dragon813gt]

Or, both are copies of the .351 WSL.

Yep, and I have a feeling the 350 Legend will go the way of both. I never bought a gun chambered for the Max due to the brass. Now that it’s available I still don’t have a desire. Unless it was a Marlin lever action. Then I’d be all over one.

[richhodg66]

Not sure I see the .350 Legend going that way, it and the 6.5 Creedmoor indicate to me that maybe the industry has figured out how to market things. I agree with the assertion that niether of those calibers does anything many long established ones don't do just as well, but rifles in both are flying off the racks, so the makers did something right.

And, I do own a 6,5 Creedmoor now and so far have been very impressed by the accuracy, but I think it's as much the rifle as the cartridge and that is that Ruger American were chambered in 6.5x55, it would be just as impressive.

[dragon813gt]

Time will tell. In general what’s new has already been done before. And in a lot of cases it was done a lot better by a previous cartridge. The 6.5 is already being pushed out by the 6.0. So the end may already be in sight.

[ubetcha]

To the best of my knowledge they have never stopped making them. They are now owned by Remington who still makes the G2 and Encores. Haus of Arms is making the original frame.

T/C is owned by S/W unless it was purchased lately by Remington and haven't heard about it.

[NSB]

Correct, it's S&W.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

Was it the Contender .357 Max that had the long throat?

Yes it was but it still shot good with 180gr XTP

[dverna]

Unless you want to hunt with it, the .357 Mag makes more sense. It would make a nice rifle for deer at under 200 yards and for $100 you can get 250 new .357 Max cases. That would be a life time supply for a hunting rifle.

If it shot OK with .357 brass it would be a fun plinker too.

I would buy it and try it. Worse case, you sell off the .357 Max barrel and get a .357 Mag barrel.

[curioushooter]

The 357 Maximum, in a strong action with a sufficiently long barrel, is an excellent cartridge for deer. It is not, in my opinion, a good catridge for a revolver IMO, and this is the reason why I think it never caught on. It was a great cartridge and put into the wrong platform. The Contender Carbine is about as good of a home for it as I can imagine.

I have a G2 pistol (10") and have done a lot of expiermentation with 357 max in both cast and with JHPs. There is only one JHP I would reccomend...the 180 grain Hornady XTP. Other JHPs are either too light or they are designed for greater velocities of the 35 Reminington. If this carbine has a 20+ inch barrel it may be able to match the 35 Rem in which case just about any of the .358 diameter rifle bullets will work.

As far as cast goes 357 Max is a weird critter. First thing is GAS CHECK. Second is at least 170 grains. I would say really 180 grains to 200 grains is the best. And powders...2400, 296, and especially Lil'Gun work well. 300MP may be the best of all and I've tried it with no ill effects but there is no published load data for it. 1680 IS TOO SLOW, even with small rifle primers, IMO. And if charge weights are getting up into the mid twenties you are just wasting a whole lot of powder for basically no improvement in velocity.

Terminal performance is funny with max. It really doesn't have enough diameter to be expected to perform well without expansion. And it is far too fast stepping for most cast hollow points. It fragments and destroys them. At the same time it demands pretty hard alloys to simply work and these often result in no or little expansion in solids. And it doesn't (at least in a 10" pistol) really generate rifle-like velocities like a 30-30 or 35 Rem will that will assure expansion at reasonable ranges with a solid. Maybe with a carbine you'll be able to get a 170 or 180 to step up to 2000 FPS in which case you'll be fine, but the most I've ever been able to get from 10" without other negative consequences is ~1800 FPS. This is done with 21.5 grains of Lil'Gun and the bullet is crimped deeply in a Starline or Remington Max case and a small rifle primer is used. Adding more powder hardly improved velocity and worsened accuracy. Under ~1500 FPS with harder alloys needed to prevent leading I found that expansion of a solid doesn't occur so you need to be realistic about your range or go for high muzzle velocities.

The two best bullets I've found are the NOE 360-182-RNFP (which is gas checked with two pretty small grease grooves) or the MP Molds 359 Hammer bullet which is a WFN design with a big single grease groove and a gas check weighs around 172 grains.

The Hornady XTP has delivered excellent results and will expand nicely from 1800 all the way down to about 1100 FPS. It will also hold together up to about 1800 where it starts to frag. It is the only cartridge where I still use jacketed bullets.

[quilbilly]

Or, both are copies of the .351 WSL.

Honestly, I'd probably be more excited about this one if it were just a standard .357 Magnum chambering. I'd really rather not buy any special brass for anything at this point.

Mine shoots regular 357 mag cartridges accurately just as well as 357 max with minimal extra cleaning. Theoretically, it should also shoot 38 specials as well though I have never felt the need to try that. I have accumulated more than enough 357 max brass over the decades that I have tried 38 special loads in 357 max brass as quiet plinkers and they shoot just fine. My carbine has been very accommodating.

[curioushooter]

Something to consider is having Mike Bellm throat a 357 chamber long so that it you could load a bullet way out an use 357 max data (as long as same OAL is observed).