357mag Bolt action, new on the market

[cwlongshot]

no, i wouldn't buy one. But, a .357 max, now you got something - that i would buy!!

100% agreed!! Take my money!

Cw

[gnostic]

Rimmed cases don't feed well from magazines...

[Texas by God]

Rimmed cases don't feed well from magazines...

Unless it's an Enfield or a Mosin

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[clodhopper]

Followed this thread for 8 years now.
Voted yes today, bought a 77-357 several years ago.
Yep it was pricey, sucks as a bench gun.
When .22 long rifle was hard to get, this was my solution.
A wonderful rifle for walking around making quick shots offhand.
Inexpensive to reload, very easy to see impact, mild report, and recoil.

Why worry about 357 max with it's hard to source brass and rifles to shoot it from.

[clodhopper]

A forum member PMed for more info.

From sandbags it will shoot 1 1/2 -2 1/2 inches at 50 yards. with home made 185 grain jacketed bullets formed from 9mm cases. The bullets are formed in a .223 rem resizing die. then sized back down to .358 in a lee push through size die. This process is far from optimum, don't even use a core seat die.
From a bipod much worse.

The rifle is sized for someone about 5'4", I'm 6'2". Real nice for carrying, tough to shoot well from a bench.

Feeding was a problem with Keith style bullets. Jacketed bullets with a curve, positive bolt action, and winding the mag follower spring to 2-1/2 revolutions of tension has made most of those problems go away.

The poor bench showing does not translate into a poor squirrel rifle, at 30 to 40 yards ground squirrels are easy. Head shots often show daylight through them.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Couldn't get the front screw on my 77/357 out. I started by grinding a screwdriver down for a perfect fit. Success finally came by grabbing the screwdriver with vice grips for some extra torque. There did not appear to be any locktite or similar schmoo on the screw so my previous attempts at applying heat multiple times with a red hot screwdriver were pointless. Also, the large brass ferrule around the screw sucked the heat right back out of screw before it ever made it to the threads making it that much more pointless.

Once I got it apart I installed the Wolff trigger spring. It is longer but lighter than the stock spring. It virtually eliminated the small amount of creep present with the stock spring. $7.50 it cost me with shipping, it was probably worth it. I don't really need the 1-2lb trigger offered by the sear options in a knocking around rifle that the kids will be using.

[jaysouth]

Ruger RAR Ranch Rifle in .357 Max would a sweet dream.

[tja6435]

I'd love a Ruger RAR in .357 Max, but I doubt Ruger would even look at it until one of the big ammo companies begins manufacturing it again.

Starline has brass, has had it for a while now.

[Earlwb]

I was thinking that there is some demand for a .357 mag or .44mag bolt action rifle. We now have one or more states with a restrictive hunting area or season where you are only allowed to use straight sided cartridge case ammunition. So a rifle setup for these types of cartridges would be fairly popular then. Granted not a huge demand though. I can see someone rechambering a bolt action rifle for the .357 maximum too. Since the action is likely yhe same as they use for .308 Win rounds, it would not be a problem with the .357 Maximum.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I installed a NECG peep sight and Volquartsen sear/spring. Haven't had a chance to shoot it yet, but they seem like good improvements...

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Shot the 77/357 today. Mostly just zeroing the peep sight, but I was able to put 5 in 4 inches at 100 yards. Nothing spectacular, but my eyes are only good for 2-3 inches or so, it was pretty good for me. Load was a Lee 120 TC, cast out of ACCOWW, PCed with HF Red over 6.2 grains of Promo. I made to boolits for the 9mm, but it was my first time PCing and I got the powder on way too heavy, causing it to shave on the 9mm case mouth preventing chambering. So, I decided to shoot them out of the 357. I was hoping for a heavier boolit for my go to load, like the Lee 158 TL SWC but I may come back to the 120 if the 158s don't show early promise.

[psweigle]

Shot the 77/357 today. Mostly just zeroing the peep sight, but I was able to put 5 in 4 inches at 100 yards. Nothing spectacular, but my eyes are only good for 2-3 inches or so, it was pretty good for me. Load was a Lee 120 TC, cast out of ACCOWW, PCed with HF Red over 6.2 grains of Promo. I made to boolits for the 9mm, but it was my first time PCing and I got the powder on way too heavy Causing it to shave on the 9mm case mouth preventing clambering. So, I decided to shoot them out of the 357. I was hoping for a heavier boolit for my go to load, like the Lee 158 TL SWC but I may come back to the 120 if the 158s don't show early promise.

Mine likes the heavy bullets. I pc the lee 158gr round nose, and for me, thats the winner. I get 3 shots in a 1 inch block at 100 yards, and if i do my part, 50 yards is all touching. Mine came from the factory with a fantastic trigger so i have done no modifications to it.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

The new sear got the pull weight way down, but there is still some creep to sort out. Would you mind sharing your powder charge?

[psweigle]

16.5 grains of h110 and a magnum primer. Nice heavy roll crimp.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Shot a bunch of 50 yard groups over the past few days, all 5 or 10 rounds. Nearly all of the groups have been in the 2-3" range and show vertical stringing. Action screws and scope mount was verified to be snug. I switched to 180 grain XTPs and 2400 just to take cast out of the equation until I get the rifle to settle down. Groups were a touch better with the XTPs, but not much. I've got some bolt shims on the way, but I think free floating may be the answer. My goal is 3 moa for cast moving 1200-1400 fps, 10 rounds, fired with no cool off. My light Promo loads barely heat the barrel, less than the sun shining on it, so this should be possible. I found this write up were a fellow did a heap of testing on the 77/44. Good read for anyone interested.

https://rugerforum.net/ruger-bolt-ac...-gunsmith.html

[JSH]

Action with real locking lugs.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I was able to take up .002 with the bolt shims. Haven't had time for proper testing to see if it makes a difference, but don't think it'll do much.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Finally got a chance to do some shooting. I retested a 180 grain XTP/2400 load that I had shot before with no noticeable improvement. Next was a 158 grain XTP with 14 grains of 2400 which produced my best group yet. 5 shots touching at 50 yards, but in a perfect vertical string just over an inch. I'd didn't chrono the load, but I'd bet on a fore end pressure issue vs velocity/ignition issue. This pretty much rules out any return trip to Ruger as I believe their spec is 1 inch at 50, and probably only for three shots.

Good to know it'll shoot something, but on to proper boolits. Lee 158 RNFP, ACCOWW, coated with HF Red over 5 grains of Promo yielded a ten shot group with about the same vertical dispersion of the XTPs but now with 2 inches of horizontal dispersion. I tried 5 more lubed with LLA and got about the same result. Not spectacular, but not too far from my 3" with cast goal if the groups hold to 100. I did put some of the coated Lee boolits over 13 grains of 2400, but got a 6 inch diagonal string.

The rifle certainly seems to prefer the RNFP over the SWC, so I'm going to keep messing with it. I might give Herco a try for a gentler start, as well as tring to seat the boolit out a bit further into the throat (or lack there of). I'd be okay with single loading long target rounds if it aids accuracy.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Got a couple more sessions in with the 77/357. This time I seated the Lee 158 RNFP ACCOWW, HF Red coated, sized to .360" out to 1.61". They still fed pretty well from the magazine, but the first round from a fully loaded mag seems to require the slightest bolt jiggle to go into the chamber. No big deal for me.

The previous charge of 5 grains or Promo had the boolit moving a little over 1000 fps. I upped the charge to 5.5 grains and the velocity came up to just under 1200 fps. Seating the boolits long yielded an obvious increase in accuracy, horizontal dispersion disappeared (as long as the wind wasn't blowing) and groups became vertical lines on the target in the 3" range.

I tried changing my rest point, but no luck, so I wedged a business card between the barrel and the forend. I wasn't able to test much, as the wind started to pick up right about then, and time was short, but it seemed to be an improvement, tightening up the vertical dispersion to 2", or perhaps a little less, for 5 shots. It also moved the POI up a good 2" as well. It'll need more testing, but I think this could be a 2 MOA load. I wanted to work up a Promo load as I have plenty of it, but I might step up to Herco and see what I can do with it as well. A 1400 fps load would buck the wind a bit better and give a bit more of a supersonic crack to irritate the neighbors!

[dverna]

I lusted over the Ruger until I learned they do not shoot very well. I would be willing to take a chance on one, but the price is so high to make it unreasonable.

It would be nice to have an accurate cast bullet rifle in a pistol caliber. But it needs to be more accurate than the Marlin 1894’s I have.