Thanks everyone.
My thoughts in posting this thread ...... Were about the kind of VERSATILE singleshot (SURVIVAL RIFLE, woods gun, truck/trunk gun, camp plinker, youth starter gun, etc.) that a .357 Maxi rifle might offer! (?)
along with whatever [favorite] barrel length the Maxi-owner "favored."
And consider the .45 Colt / .410 shotgun combinations one sees, whether in a Handi, Rossi, or Thompson/Center ..... Someone somewhere thought those .45 Colt and .410 pairings would make GREAT survival/scrounging, camp/truck/trunk combination guns, etc.)
Well, not to my thinking (and tastes - esp regarding the use of those two rounds!)
Although I do like that concept if a useful cartridge combination was available to my liking!
Well .... with the .38Spl, .357Mag and Maxi ...... For a survival, plinking, camping and just general use gun ......
If a fellow had some low velocity (or medium) .38's loaded with wadcutters or semi-WC, could that serve as a small game round (without tearing up a rabbit or squirrel or grouse too badly?)
And if one also had a couple .357 loads (yeah they're a little more powerful, esp if one is using revolver ammo he might be carrying if his wheelgun or sidearm is a .357) I like the idea of being able to shoot a middle round (as well as revolver fodder) .....
And then if that fellow has a favorite (or two) worked-up Maxi loads for the deer stand or hog hunting (even black bears or elk at modest ranges for that Maxi-load, loaded with appropriate bullets of course), HOW VERSATILE WOULD THAT BE!!??
Basically I could see a Handi-Maxi being the center of a modest but very decent and useful ".35 progam" when using all those rimmed rounds!
My ideas certainly aren't original, but I'm not usually concerned about trying to match weapons (Hg and rifle) to using only one cartridge!
Hence part of the reason I'd consider this more of a ".35 program" rather than a "combo" set up.
If I had a Maxi barrel, I'm more inclined to keep at 22 inches, rather than chop it.
In addition, I wondered about creating a .357 Maxi shotshell round too, but bagged the idea when I considered that a small game .38 wadcutter round might be better suited for bagging dinner (at 25 max yards or so), than fussing with a [hypothetical and silly?] concept?
Someone might chime in and ask How would one create a .357 Maxi-shottie however?
Who remembers back in the 1980's when Thompson/Center briefly offered their .357Mag and .44Mag "Hotshot" pistol rounds for the Contender?
The key to making those "hotshot rounds work (along with the .410's in the current .45C/.410 barrels), was using a special choke in the muzzle that was installed when shooting shot-rounds, but removing when shooting solid bullets.
[/color]That "special choke's" purpose was to stop the spinning charge of shot as it fired down the barrel, so when it exitted, it would exit without spinning (and the centrifical force of the spinning destroying the pattern).
[/color]I suppose a smith could install those chokes in a Maxi's muzzle, but that seems like a helluve lot of "trouble!" I cannot really see where a Maxi shotshell should perform better than a small game .38 round for collecting small game!
[/color]Of course these ideas about a Maxi shotshell are all theoretical /hypothetical/ speculative on my part! (and very un-necessary I will add)
I forgot to add, I cannot see trying to shoot more shot from a [theoretical] Maxi shot round than would be found in a .410! (thats 1/2 ounces or so ..... of #8's, #7 1/2's, etc.)
Speer offers plastic shot capsules for making .38/.357 snake loads .....
If a couple gas checks were used as over-powder "wads" in the Maxi case, then the shot was added with one of those plastic shot capsules added on top (and back end OPEN), when fired those plastic shot capsules are supposed to shatter (like glass?) once they serve their purpose.
I doubt I ever try these ideas, except for making .38Spl/.357Mag snake loads!
