Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Ideas for a .357 max rifle

A TC G2 carbine is probably the most practical rifle for this project, but I'd rather have a repeater. What action type and caliber donor rifle would be the most practical and economical for this conversion?

Marlin 1894 would be a good one, steel reciever, repeater, and accurate.
DV

I'd start with a remington .223 it's similar in case dimensions. Getting it feed will prolly be the difficult part.



Mike

I've always thought that one of the Browning Low Wall single shot .357's, with the chamber lengthened to the "Max" would be an incredibly versatile firearm.

You could shoot all .38 spcl, .357 mag and max loads in it.
You'd have tons of inexpensive plinking loads to choose from and a properly loaded Max would be an effective medium range deer, bear or boar cartridge.

Marlin 1894 is too short.

I think Win. made a Model 94 in 357 Mag. It would have the action length for the 357 Max.

Bruce

I think I've read somewhere that the Marlin 1894 action is too short to handle the max, and the rimmed case is the rub on feeding in a bolt gun, a singleshot like the Browning, Ruger, or TC might be the easiest. I don't have any info on the Winchester although I'm not a big fan of Winchester lever guns.

If you can find a Win. 94 357 mag. it will work but will require either modification or replacement of the cartridge lifter for the longer cartridge. That in turn may have a negative affect on feeding the shorter 38's and 357's who knows.A single shot would definatley be the easiest.

I'm piling on this this group.

BMT

+2

Paco Kelly on his old website speculated a great deal about this. I don't know if he ever got around to making one though. The Contender Carbine route is the easiest way to go(It is what I did.) From what I have read concerning the Indiana hunting regs on rifle cartridges it seems like some company could bring the Max back to life profitably.

I agree Blacktail. Give me a 357 in Low Wall, a max would be sweet.

For the poster, if you reload and you likely do for wanting this round.

I truly seriously consider a 358 on a 7mm BR case. 180s will likely do 2500+ no problems handguns bullets would be DEVASTATING on game like deer and coyotes, esp. broadside.

Recoil/blast minimal and bbl life indefinite! I had a 7BR that fed fine in Rem model 7. Would expect the same with a 358 BR.

Remington made the 788 in .30-30 maybe need a drop magazine of the single stack variety to get it too work!

The cheapest and easiest route the the .357 Max is a H&R Handi rifle in .357 Magnum. For $27, you can rent the reamer and hand ream the chamber to .357 Max. You don't need headspace gauges, because you stop reaming when you hit the rim cut...Bud's gun shop ha the .357 Mag/20ga Rifled slug combo set right now for $290. You could sell the 20 ga barrel and rent the reamer and still have less than $230 in the set-up...

...I've got an H&R Handi-Gun in 357 Remington Maximum and a 20Ga. swap barrel. I used it years ago as a first deer rifle for my boys as they grew old enough to break in on deer hunting. The 357 RMax has a light recoil but works well on deer at brush country ranges. 38 special wad-cutters are fine for 25 yd practice and have a report that is surprisingly quiet! Almost like a CB cap in a 22RF rifle! A nasty combo for stealthy killing along a trapline.

olhippie-- Is your 20 ga barrel the fully rifled version? I have the .357 mag/20 ga rifled barrel combo, but haven't gotten to shoot it yet. I am thinking I need to trade the 20 ga barrel for something else(.223, .243 or .308), as I don't plan to spend $3 a pop for 20 ga saboted slugs, that don't have the range or punch that I have in my .45/70.

Negative. At the time I purchased the handi-gun rifled shotgun barrels weren't available (bought it back in the eighties I think). Mine is electroless nickle plated throughout, a Swift 6X scope on the 357 RMax barrel.

You could always build a SxS on a .410 frame!

Either the CZ or the mini-mauser in 7.62x39 will work fairly easily. The bolt face is close enough to go w/o alterations and you have plenty of magazine length for rifle bullets if you want. Feeding is the biggest issue. You can use a slightly modified 223 follower in the m-m. I haven't tried the CZ, so???????

Keep the ideas coming. The Handi Rifle is the easiest to convert but the newer .357 rifles are built on the SB1 shotgun frame. It's not made for the higher pressure rounds like the Max. The little CZs would make a neat rifle if you could make it feed properly. I have one in .204 and I like it a lot.

Make a 94 Marlin into a 357/44 Bain and Davis, you will come closer to 35 Remington performance. While you are at it, make it a button magazine! Bill