It was a product of the genius of Ruger and Remington....it was a great jump forward in ballistics for 357 bore handguns with a potential for small rifles that could only be dreamed about....the Iron Ram shooters of the nation took to it with glee....handgun hunters jumped on it....BUT a major gun writer set the stage for it’s death....and the shooting world lost a major advance. What was this wonder cartridge? The 357 Maximum! It has been gone so long now that a young shooter I spoke to the other day, told me he never heard of it......gads time flies even if you are not having fun....

At the ‘Shootist Holiday 2000' in June, at the Whittington Center in Raton N.M.

I was reminded of the 357 Maxi when one of our top custom gun builders Gary Reeder handed me a Ruger SA that was chambered for a simple but excellent wildcat 357 round of his design and development. I was so impressed with the cartridge and the custom gun work, I thought I would do a two part series on the 357 Maximum and the 356 GNR. If I had to boil it all down to one line it would be: One Gone, Another takes it’s Place. In the second part of this I will explain Reeder’s 356 GNR in much detail and the loads I worked up for the gun. But just a quick word before we go on to the Maxi.

A number of folks have always wanted a 357 caliber cartridge that would put the 357 into the power range of the 44 magnum. The 357 Maxi came close to that level. For years before the Maxi, the Bain and Davis 357/44 was a very important mid step. Now the B&D when it was first brought out in the late 1960s was called the 44/357. It had problems...set back in revolvers. When you neck down a 44 mag cartridge case to 357 the shoulder angle is critical....to B&D’s credit, they redesigned their round and called it the 357/44 B&D. And the set back was pretty much eliminated. Though with the wrong loads I could still lock up my old Ruger SA rechambered for the redesigned case.

What I did find was that the B&D was a fine rifle cartridge in a modified levergun....because of it’s efficiency in a rifle length barrel of 16 inches or more, it gives 35 Remington levergun ballistics of the original 35 Rem commercial round in similar length barrels. Running around 2200 fps with 180 grain bullets. But in handguns my personal view was the 44 case was too much of a good thing. Reeder has solved all that, using the 41 magnum case but with a very specially designed shoulder and body taper, the powder potential is right...and it surpasses the 357 Maxi in power. All this on the standard Ruger Blackhawk SA frame and cylinder.

I never thought the 41 mag case would be suitable for a wildcat 357...not thinking it would make that much difference in powder amounts over the 357 magnum case....I was wrong. The 357 mag case is a good case with 180 grain jacketed bullets up to 14+ grains of 2400....and around 1375+ fps. The Maxi case can go around 20 to 21 grains of 2400 and the 180s for close to 1520+ fps....Gary Reeder’s wildcat will go to 24 grains of 2400 and give over 1600 fps easily. These are actual velocities levels from 7 and ½ inch barrels.

The problem that raised it’s head with the Maxi and the Ruger was top strap cutting. Hot gases from the cylinder mouth/barrel gap area flame cut the top strap above it. But what wasn’t understood apparently by the writer, was that cutting would only go so deep and stop. I would have thought anyone would understand that it would take a welding torch to totally cut thru any Ruger top strap.....if we look at 44 mags that have a lot of rounds thru them we will find the same type of cutting. About the only steel that really doesn’t do that with high pressure cartridges in revolvers is 17-4 PH stainless. Even so 4140 gun steel (blue) only goes so far and stops, once the cut allows the pressure to vent out the sides of the top strap. The country’s silhouette shooters at the time were putting multi thousands of rounds thru their Ruger Maxi SAs, and none of those guns were ever red lined because of the cutting.

Lets ask a question, how many reloaders have loaded their 357 Rugers and N-Frame S&W model 27s and 28s, way above today’s 357 mags 35,000 psi level...to the 47,000 psi of the original load levels of the 1930s? Which by the way is closer to the pressure level of the original 357 Maxi ammo. I have...I don’t know how many heavy rounds have been put thru my circa 1970 Ruger 357 mag Bhawk over the last near thirty years, but it must be 10s of thousands. I don’t recommend this load to anyone...but my main hunting load in this gun has always been near 15 grains of 2400 under a 180 plus grain bullet...either jacketed or cast....yes there is evidence of cutting. No it doesn’t mean a thing to the gun’s performance 30 years ago or today. Throat erosion??? It’s accuracy hasn’t changed so I never looked. As friend John Taffin says so well..."If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!"

The real shame of the Maximum’s canceled production was more than the loss of the fine new cartridge...but also the loss of the newly designed Ruger single action. It was the larger frame/longer cylinder of the Maxi based handgun that would have allowed custom gunsmiths to build really super powered 44s. 45s, 475s etc....look what they are doing today with the normal size frame window of the Ruger Blackhawk series single actions....so much more the loss. But as stated Reeder has brought back the potential plus of the Maxi for us...so all is not lost. Lets explore the 357 Maximum. Did it make you wonder when I said the Maxi was close to the 44 magnum in power? Obviously the great 44 mag can push much heavier bullets than the 357 Maxi ever could. The Maxi really tops out with 180 to 210 grainers....the 44 goes to 300 grains easily. I didn’t say the Maxi could equal the 44 mag...just that it could get to it’s power levels. That’s of course limited...a 180 grain bullet heavy loaded from a strong 44 mag revolver will easily reach into the 1800 fps levels. The Maxi tops out at around 1600 fps.

But that is still extraordinary power for a 357 handgun. And as I found out in Louisiana in the early 1980s...it’s penetration with the long 180 grain 357 bullets has to be seen, to be believed. I shot a rather large and nasty alligator behind the left eye..the bullet went completely thru his head and exited his underside right jaw, and into the ground so deep we couldn’t find it. Body shooting one of these brutes will rarely stop them...they will escape, even when hit with very large caliber rifles, and die later. Their brain is very small and behind the eyes....

I have never had a 180 grain bullet from the Maxi stay in a black bear...let alone a deer. I wish I had XTP designed bullets back in those days. The Maxi and XTPs I bet would be a marriage made in heaven. When we have game tested the 356 GNR and the XTPs...I will report on it.

Ruger put out a 10 inch barreled Maxi and a 7.5 inch one. I had both. But my notes on the 7.5 inch barrel are used here. The powders that I found best in the Maxi in both barrel lengths was Data #9, 2400 of course, IMR 4227, H110, WW 296, WW 680. Today we have many more choices, but these are still some of the best. And I use these also to test the GNR...so we can get a good comparison.

My favorite powder is of course 2400. I find it easiest to work with and I like the ability to load down or up, without worry. Winchester Western advertises not to load their ball powder (WW296) below 90% of listed levels, since H110 is basically the same, the same requirement must be said of it also. 2400 doesn’t give the best velocities...in fact in my guns IMR 4227 did that....but it seems to be the most flexible. Also remember I am without a doubt tied to 2400 from long use and favoritism. When you use a powder for near 40 years...it does tend to stick. Also Ohler pressure/chrono equipment was not around back in the 1980s...so the loads I speak of are for my guns only. They certainly seemed safe to me...though some of them are fairly heavy. My notes state that I used CCI 450 primers for the most part. And of course R-P brass.

When you start pushing a 180 grain bullet of .357 caliber at 1500 to 1600 fps you discover the real meaning of bullet length/penetration/weight relationships. At over a half of a ton of muzzle energy we are talking a good deal of power for a handgun, but also the trajectory of a long 357 bullet is so much better than that of a 44 or 45 caliber slug of the same weight. The silhouette shooters found that out very quickly. And they were hitting ram sized targets at 200 meters....at 40 lbs of steel the Maxi still toppled them. The ballistic coefficient of a 200 grain .429 bullet is around .122, a .452 caliber of that weight is worse...the .357 caliber 180 to 200 grainers run well over .200 BC.

At 1600 fps a 180 grain/.357 bullet set to strike at 3 inches high at 100 yards will be down a scant 10 inches at 200 yards...the 200 grain .429 bullet, at the same velocity and settings will strike 2 feet low at 200 yards...with my limits on live game to under 150 yards the differences mean much easier hitting with the Maxi than the 44s and 45s.

21 grains of 2400 gave the fine Speer 180 grain silhouette bullet of the 1980s over 1580 fps. IMR 4227 with 24 grains gave 1642 fps. 23 grains of WW296 hit 1550 and H110 with the same amount gave 1535 fps. All these are top loads......

Ideal/Lyman has manufactured a round nose 190 grain mould since the turn of the 19th/20th century. It started life as an Ideal bullet...number 358430. It came in two weights listed at 158 and 200 grains. My Lyman mould drops a 190 grain in my 1 in 15 alloy. 21 grains of 2400 gives an outstanding velocity of 1622 fps....23 grains of IMR 4227 gives 1639 fps, 23 grains of WW296 pushed it to 1545 fps and H110 at 23 grains was close to that at 1548 fps. WW 680 was the slowest even with 24 grains at 1524 fps. My notes state that the IMR load was the best in accuracy with 1 and 3/4ths inches at 25 yards...and the 2400 load just slightly over at 2 inches. Both ball powders 296 and 110 were under 2 and ½ inches, but 680 was the worst at over 3 and ½ inches...that added to it’s lower velocity had me drop it early into the tests.

One of the nice things about the 180 to 210 grain bullets in .357 is that they keep their accuracy potential tight all the way out to long range. Lyman’s 210 grain Keith bullet was easy to push over 1500 fps with all the powders except 680. It was one accurate bullet in my Ruger, and I found myself able to hit rocks and such out to outlandish ranges. As I said back in the 1980s my range limits on live game was under 150 yards...today it is closer to 100 yards, with older eyes. The Lyman bullet made hitting game sized animals out to 150 yards fairly easy with practice.

Now I give wild dogs and coyotes special treatment...if I can see them well enough at longer ranges....I will certainly try and entertain them with my heavy loaded handguns. And the Maxi was very good at that kind of entertainment. Predators whether four legged or two...always have a special response coming from me. Deer, even large mule deer...black bear, feral pigs, or Russian boar...all of them can be taken cleanly at excellent range with the 357 Maxi. It’s just that the shooting public never really got enough time to learn about the Maxi round. And then it was gone...

But today we have more than it’s equal in the Reeder 356 GNR on the Blackhawk action. They say a picture is better than a thousand words....well then go to www.reedercustomguns.com  and save me about 50 thousand words, looking at all the fantastic pictures of the different types of handguns (and Rifles and T/Cs) Gary custom builds....The review on the 356 GNR will be ready in a few weeks.....

In my photo of the cartridge cases #1 is my wildcat 30/357 that cleans up old 32-20s or for more punch in 30 Carbine/Rugers SAs. #2 is an old original 44/357 B&D the design was altered later to stop setback in revolvers, #3 is the Reeder 356 GNR on the 41 mag case, and #4 is the late great 357 Maxi...next is a Lyman 210 grain Keith bullet for size comparison......