Older Remington Factory 357 Max ammo

[rimfire]

I just traded for a 357 Max barrel...15" Contender.  Told a fiend of mine and he handed me 4 boxes of 158Gr SJHP factory ammo he has had in a drawer for a long time through several moves.  Probably 25+ years old and I have no idea of the specs.  I planned to shoot 180 grain XTPs in front of 20 grains H110, but I would like to know what these factory loads might be good for.

Are these loads too explosive for Whitetails...especially from a 15" fixed breech barrel instead of a revolver?  I have no experience with this bore size.  Been using 41 and 44 for a while and know a lot more about the bullets in this bore size.

   

[rockbilly]

rimfire.  A recent incident re-enforced my usual practice of not firing other peoples reloads (unless I know them well and have witnesed them load).  

My son recently bought a "TON" of reloaded ammo, primers, powder and equipment from the family of a man that was being moved to a nursing home.  The ammo consisted of both rifle and pistol of many different calibers.  The ammo looked great...........

He had also recently purchased a Savage model 99 in .243 and deceided it would be a good back-up deer gun.  We took it to the range to zero it and as he was firing I thought it sounded awful loud, and seened to have a bit of kick to it.  I didn't look at the spent cases until after he had one split in half leaving the front half stuck in the chamber.  I then picked up a couple of the spent cases and took a look at them.  All seemed to have a mark on the case at about the same spot as the one the seperated.  All of the primers were blown out where the firing pin struck them, and all were backed out and flattened.

With the stuck case we stopped shooting and took the gun and spent cases  to the local smith the following day.  He removed the case, checked the gun out and gave it a good bill of health.  He looked at the cases, and determined the problem was in the reloads.  That afternoon we checked the boxes, they were marked with the load and bullet, we then pulled a couple of bullets and tried to compare the powed to a KNOWN specimen.  It didn't seem to match.  We then poured the powder on the scale and found it to be almost double what was written on the box.  We pulled all the bullets, dumped the powder and reloaded with a load I have used for years, everything functioned perfect afterwards.

Since you don't like the bullet weight for hunting, I would pull the bullets, dump the powder, recharge, load a bullet of my choice in them and press on.

A tale I heard at a gun show a few years ago, some folks were double charging, mixing powders, etc,  giving the bullets away, or placing them where some unsuspecting person might think they found some "good" ammo.  After hearing this I deceided that I would not put anything in my gun if I didn't know the person loading and how experienced they were.  It never hurts to lean to the safe side...........

[rimfire]

Sorry...the are Remington Factory loads he bought at a gunshop going out of business years ago.

[SHOOTALL]

I still have about 10 of those in a 20 round box . They will kill a deer ok at moderate range .

[rimfire]

What kind of explansion/penetration?  I am worried about detonation on a shoulder at close range.

[SHOOTALL]

i have seen 2 recovered bullets both had the jacket and lead separated . both expanded but stayed together .Others passed thru.  keep in mind these were standard 357 mag bullets back when there were few choices . Also the deer were does around 100 lbs. which are normal in our area .I shot them in a contender super 14 . I shot them at 200 meter steel rams and 50 yard chickens, they knocked them both over well . Bullets that blow up don't generally knock the target over .
If you are concerned and reload pull them and use case to reload or use as pratice ammo .

[ms]

rimfire.  A recent incident re-enforced my usual practice of not firing other peoples reloads (unless I know them well and have witnesed them load).  

My son recently bought a "TON" of reloaded ammo, primers, powder and equipment from the family of a man that was being moved to a nursing home.  The ammo consisted of both rifle and pistol of many different calibers.  The ammo looked great...........

He had also recently purchased a Savage model 99 in .243 and deceided it would be a good back-up deer gun.  We took it to the range to zero it and as he was firing I thought it sounded awful loud, and seened to have a bit of kick to it.  I didn't look at the spent cases until after he had one split in half leaving the front half stuck in the chamber.  I then picked up a couple of the spent cases and took a look at them.  All seemed to have a mark on the case at about the same spot as the one the seperated.  All of the primers were blown out where the firing pin struck them, and all were backed out and flattened.

With the stuck case we stopped shooting and took the gun and spent cases  to the local smith the following day.  He removed the case, checked the gun out and gave it a good bill of health.  He looked at the cases, and determined the problem was in the reloads.  That afternoon we checked the boxes, they were marked with the load and bullet, we then pulled a couple of bullets and tried to compare the powed to a KNOWN specimen.  It didn't seem to match.  We then poured the powder on the scale and found it to be almost double what was written on the box.  We pulled all the bullets, dumped the powder and reloaded with a load I have used for years, everything functioned perfect afterwards.

Since you don't like the bullet weight for hunting, I would pull the bullets, dump the powder, recharge, load a bullet of my choice in them and press on.

A tale I heard at a gun show a few years ago, some folks were double charging, mixing powders, etc,  giving the bullets away, or placing them where some unsuspecting person might think they found some "good" ammo.  After hearing this I deceided that I would not put anything in my gun if I didn't know the person loading and how experienced they were.  It never hurts to lean to the safe side...........

Thanks billy for your post never thought about getting ammo from someone else that reloads that could be dangerous.

[Hank08]

Never shoot anyone elses reloads.  A friend bought some reload gear that came with some .44 mag reloads.  He tried some which cracked the cylinder on his super blackhawk.  I broke the remaining cartridges down and they contained 22 grs. of BULLSEYE and a soft cast 240 gr. bullet.  The only thing that kept that charge from blowing that gun to pieces was the powder was compressed so hard it was almost a solid.  I had to dig it out with a screwdriver.  The reloader probably thought he was using 2400 which looks a lot like bullseye.  Ruger replaced the cylinder, no charge.
H08