Found a 10" 357/44 B&D T/C barrel...

[lathesmith]

...it's new, in-the-box, unfired, deep blue with a screwed-on front sight, not even been on a frame. It's beautiful! Apparently from the '80's or thereabouts, it's also a TCA barrel. TCA collectors forgive me, I have NO intention of leaving it in its unfired condition! I happen to have a set of Hornady Bain&Davis dies laying around, and even have some loaded ammo. This barrel seems to have a pretty short throat--the cast loads I have won't chamber without stiff resistance, and they have less than .1-.2" of groove-diameter bullet showing above the case neck. This is MUCH tighter than many T/C barrels I have tried, it appears they got this one right.
I've been wanting to try one of these for years, but have never had the opportunity. I may even find a Ruger 357 BH and do a re-chamber if I like this thing well enough. From the T/C, it looks like some pretty hot loads can be cooked up--near 30/30 ballistics from a 10" barrel. If anyone would care to share some loads and/or their shooting experiences with this caliber, I'd love to hear them.
Blast away!
lathesmith

[BerdanIII]

I have no personal experience with the .357/44 other than getting a concussion headache from a Contender being fired at the next bench, but I will see if I can find some load data from the older manuals. The same gentleman used his to shoot Hunter's Pistol Silhouette and the targets all went DOWN.

[GLL]

Chris:

Bain & Davis is my gunsmith here in southern California ! If you ever want to get rid of that barrel please put me on the list ! :)

I will ask them about loading data.

Best Regards,

Jerry

[Geraldo]

I've got a 10" Contender barrel that I had SSK rechamber to .357 Bain & Davis. I wanted to try a wildcat but keep it simple. The starting load of 17.2gr of 2400 gave me just under 1700fps with a 158gr jacketed bullet. I wasn't into casting at the time, so I've got nothing to offer there. In the end I didn't put a lot of time and effort into it as it wasn't legal to hunt with where I lived at the time.

[HeavyMetal]

I have the complete reloading manual for the contender in front of me.

Loads from Hornady, accurate and Hodgdon are listed for the 457/44 Bain & Davis round.

I'll pull the WW296 data for the Hornady 158 grain Hp/xtp bullet Start load is 18.0 grains and shows 1600 FPS! A maximum load is 24.9 grains and shows 2100 FPS.

If I tripped over a 357/44 B&D barrel as you have I think I'd do the same thing!

However I had a freind convert a model 29 smith to to the 357/44 B&D and to be honest we were never able to duplicate any of these velocities before the cylinder locked up!

I believe a lot of guys experieced this issue in the 22 jet and found chambers and case's had to be surgically clean to prevent this condition.

No matter what my freind did he could never get the advertised velocities in his 8 inch 29 conversion and always had lock up issues. Since we were both living in Orange county at the time I just figured he had the work done by Bain and Davis but I honestly never asked him!

He ended up selling the 29 and purchased a 10 inch contender in 357/44 B&D and was a much happier guy!

Food for thought on the revolver conversion!

Hope the load data helps out in the contender.

[Harry O]

I have the complete reloading manual for the contender in front of me.

However I had a freind convert a model 29 smith to to the 357/44 B&D and to be honest we were never able to duplicate any of these velocities before the cylinder locked up!

I believe a lot of guys experieced this issue in the 22 jet and found chambers and case's had to be surgically clean to prevent this condition.

Food for thought on the revolver conversion!

I had one of the .22 Jets many years ago and can tell you that the rumors of problems are true. The only way to get it to shoot was to clean off (degrease) the cylinder chambers and outside of the cartridges before shooting them. I used carbon-tetrachloride. It worked, but it turned the bluing a strange color. After shooting, when cleaning the gun, coating it with gunoil put the bluing back to the way it should be, though.

I did not have a chrono back then, but I suspect that the velocity was far below what was listed for it. And I had to download my handloads even further to make it easier to shoot without jamming the cylinder.

I like the idea of a high-velocity .22 in a revolver. I have thought about having one chambered in K-Hornet and a couple of other calibers, but the experience with the Jet has cured me. I just think about the aggravation I got from the Jet and decide never again.

[BerdanIII]

From Hornady, Third Ed.:

110-gr. Hollowpoint #3570, COL 1.580", Reformed Federal case, CCI 350 primer

Powder - Charge weight - Velocity

2400 - 19.7 to 24.5 - 1900 to 2300
Win 296 - 23.8 to 28.7 - 2100 to 2400
IMR4227 - 23.0 to 28.5 - 1900 to 2300

125-gr. Hollowpoint #3571 - COL 1.580"

2400 - 17.1 to 22.6 - 1700 to 2100
Win 296 - 22.4 to 25.7 - 2000 to 2200
IMR4227 - 20.9 to 27.6 - 1700 to 2200
These data may also be used with the .38 cal. 125-gr. FP bullet.

158-gr. Hollowpoint #3575, COL 1.580"

2400 - 16.9 to 20.8 - 1600 to 1900
Win 296 - 18.0 to 24.9 - 1600 to 2100
IMR4227 - 20.7 to 23.1 - 1600 to 1800
These data may also be used with the .38 cal. 160 gr. FMJ and 158-gr FP bullets.

I thought I had an article on the .357/44, but I don't.

[BarryinIN]

The 357-44 B&D always fascinated me, although I have never owned one.
However, one of my AutoMags is in .357 AMP. I have often wondered how close (or far) the 357/44 B&D and 357 AMP were in capacity and how the load data compared.

[leadman]

I have a 357 Blackhawk with 2 cylinders. One is standard 357, the other is a 356GNR. That is a 41 magnum case necked down to a 357. Has a veeery short neck and an abrupt shoulder. This is a Gary Reeder design.
I can get 1,450fps with a 180gr. jacketed bullet out of my short barrel. Gary set the barrel back to .002" cyl. gap so the barrel is only about 4 1/2".
With this design there are no issues with the cylinder binding up. He has a very good website so you can check out his other designs also.
If I was going to do another revolver I would use his designs (he has many) as there are no issues with binding the cyl.
I have shot cast in my gun and even though the gas check and part of the boolit are below the neck this has not created any problems.

[lathesmith]

Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate the experiences and the info. Jerry, I did not realize that the B&D gunshop was still in business! I wonder if they do any cylinder rechambers there? I'll definitely let you know if I am not able to work on this project, I know that you are also a T/C fan, and seem to have a good eye for interesting and slightly unusual barrels...

HM and Harry, I realize there seems to be an element of risk involved in these bottle-neck revolver cartridge conversions. That 22 Jet was a totally different animal than the B&D though, it had much more slope and taper in the case. That design was doomed from the start, but some guys are still able to make those things shoot pretty well. As leadman points out, Gary Reeder has resurrected this same basic concept, and it seems to work very well for those who have the conversion done. I would love to go the Reeder route, but the last time I checked a set of dies cost about as much as the conversion, which kinda put me off. I happened to find a decent deal on a used set of B&D dies, and then stumbled onto this barrel. That got me to thinking about the revolver conversion again....
leadman, I'm glad to hear that cast bullets seem to work fine for your Reeder conversion; I was wondering about that with this B&D setup, as these have a very short neck. I kinda think that the B&D would probably be a little better with 158 grain slugs and lighter, whereas the 357 max probably handles 158 grains and heavier a little better. I could be wrong though, and that is why I was asking about personal experiences with one of these bottle-neck revolver rounds. I imagine that in the field there is probably little actual difference between the B&D and the max, but the max requires a stretched-frame to use in a revolver.
lathesmith

[GLL]

Bain & Davis is a small shop located here in San Gabriel, California. They still do the 357B&D conversions and mainly use S&W Model 28s. All they need is the cylinder and the job is rather reasonable. Somewhere I have a photo showing the 357B&D round next to one of my .22Jet rounds for comparison.

Jerry

[Doc_Stihl]

What a nice find lathesmith.