Got My 357 Mag T/C Carbine barrel today!

[lathesmith]

Wo-hoo, it came, it finally came! My new T/C 357 mag, 23-inch, STAINLESS barrel! I have been wanting one of these for years, and I finally broke down and ordered one thru Midway. It took right at 4 months to get it, which really ain't too bad. I consider this to be the "holy grail" of T/C barrels; and since I finally got a beautiful Stainless G2 frame, it is a great match. I guess I have gotten lucky, some guys report the trigger pull on the G2 is not too good, but both my blue one and the SS G2 have very nice triggers. The stainless is not quite as good as the blue, but I expect after I have used it awhile it will improve. Anyway, off to the range in the next few days, I must try it out! The chamber on this one seems shorter than my older 10 inch 357; a 357 max will almost chamber in the old one but sticks out a mile in comparison on this new barrel. I am going to try some of those GB 175 grain Keiths loaded light at first , this should be a good match!
lathesmith

[bearcove]

Does the barrel have the forcing cone that the older barrels had or have they come to their senses and throat the thing?

[Blammer]

SWeeeeeeeet!

let us know how it does.

[PineTreeGreen]

I have ordered 3 Custom Shop barrels directly from T/C and the longest I've waited was 7 weeks. :)

[Larry Gibson]

It's going to take less powder in your carbine barrel to push those Keith bullets at 1500+ fps. Accuracy above that with a PB bullet is iffy. I'd look hard at H4227 with that bullet. 358156 (GC SWC) should be a great perfomer upwards of 2000+ fps.

Larry Gibson

[lathesmith]

As far as the chamber goes, I am nearly certain that it will have the SAAMI-spec, so-called"forcing cone" chamber. In fairness to T/C, I haven't seen anything else in factory-chambered, pistol-cartridge-firing rifles. The only way to get a "rifle type" chamber is to get a blank barrel, and have a custom reamer made to whatever your specs are. As mentioned in the original post, this chamber does seem to be held to more minimal specs than some I have seen in the past. The real problem comes when a maker really hogs out the chamber; accuracy can suffer under this scenario. I anticipate this thing will meet my criteria; my 375 Winchester barrel is one of the most accurate I have, and I got this one for plinking and such.
However, I do plan to try it with a GB 220 grain slug. As LG mentions in his post, I have had very good success in the past with 4227 (though mine was IMR), and a 158 grain SWC. That's the great thing about this caliber, there is LOTS of room to play, and if it didn't meet my expectations for accuracy, I can always re-chamber it for the Max or something else.
lathesmith

[Blammer]

I got one powder recommendation...

LilGun

in my 357, 200 gr boolits and lilgun get 2000 fps, oh and plain base bullet at that... :-D

[lathesmith]

Thanks for the reminder Blammer, I picked up some Lil Gun a year or two ago for another project and got sidetracked. I have plenty of things to try...now I just need to find the time and put a few loads together and go try them.
lathesmith