.30/30 and .357 barrels have arrived.

[jpshaw]

I've been on this forum with only an overbored .44 to play with for years.  Now the brown truck has arrived with my .30/30 and .357 barrels.  For now I'm using Flitz on them and won't get a chance to fire them for a week.  The .30/30 is to hunt with since my son has taken over my 7-08 Remington 700.  The .357?  Well I just wanted one and it is almost Fathers day.  Any tips or advice on these two calibers will be appreciated. 

[coyotejoe]

I'd be interested to hear if they have corrected the overlong chamber throat on the .357.

[jpshaw]

I'd be interested to hear if they have corrected the overlong chamber throat on the .357.

I'll let you know when I get to it.  I'm doing the Flitz thing first, then set my bullet seating depth on the .30/30 then the .357.  I snap the action closed on a case with a loose bullet to see how far the rifling pushes it back.  .10 back from that would be starting point for bullet depth and OAL.  That will also show me how long the throat is.  I didn't know there was a problem with throat depth on the .357.  Now you have me worried.

[quickdtoo]

357 barrels have seriously long "throats" with very long jumps to the rifling, even the chamber itself is long enough to use 360 Dan Wesson brass with no modification in most barrels.

Tim

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,125780.msg1098446320.html#msg1098446320

[jpshaw]

quick - I guess you couldn't load a bullet out far enough to at least regain some accuracy.  Also, how is the accuracy with these overly long chambers?

[WILD_WEASEL]

Chamber and throat dimensions aside, I’ve been having a great time with my .357 barrel.  It provides me with a great platform to experiment with 180gr jacketed and 200gr cast bullets, with 125gr JHPs (Remington) and 158gr JSPs (Federal) shooting equally well.

[quickdtoo]

As in most H&Rs with longish throats, it doesn't matter, they still shoot good, the 357 is one of the most popular Handi chamberings, accuracy is plenty good. Many hand ream to 357Max to be able to load close to the rifling, so that's always an option, reamer rental is about $30.

Tim

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,96426.msg1098239922.html#msg1098239922

[jpshaw]

I'm glad to know that.  I already had a .44 overbore with so-so accuracy I didn't need an inaccurate .357 too.  I trusting the .30/30 will be fine.

[quickdtoo]

The 30-30 is another real popular chambering, right up there with the 45-70 and 357. Current production 44mags are real popular too, when Marlin started making the barrels a little over a year ago, the 44mag moved to the popular list from the infamous list!!

Tim

[jpshaw]

I'd be interested to hear if they have corrected the overlong chamber throat on the .357.

No coyote, its still there.  I just hope it doesn't effect accuracy like quick said.

[jpshaw]

357 barrels have seriously long "throats" with very long jumps to the rifling, even the chamber itself is long enough to use 360 Dan Wesson brass with no modification in most barrels.

My crude measuring seems to say that I can use DW brass but I don't want to buy 100 cases to make sure.  So I have two questions:
  1.  Can DW brass go through standard .357 dies?
  2.  Where can you get one (1) case to make sure it will fit the chamber?

[quickdtoo]

Worst case scenario, you'll have to trim the DW brass just a little, I have to trim mine .010" or it won't eject, but I think mine's in the minority, I don't recollect many having to do that, or they just didn't check it as carefully as I did. I trimmed a section of 357 brass with a dremel cutoff  to place in the chamber ahead of 357 brass to see how much extra space I had.

Tim

[jpshaw]

I assume then that the Dan Wesson brass can be used with standard .357 Mag dies?

[coyotejoe]

Here are photos of chamber casts of the original H&R .357 mag chamber below the cast of that chamber reamed to .357 maximum. As you see, the max reamer removed very little metal, never even reached the throat, and one cannot load out to the lands even with the .357 maximum. And yes, you can use .367 magnum dies even for the .357 Maximum, in fact I know of no manufacturer who even makes a set of dedicated dies for the maximum. although many people do seem to get fine accuracy from their .357s, my rifle is not among them. I've tried a great variety of loads and some of the "accuracy tips" and best loads on best day will do no better than 3 MOA, if even that well.