Another vote for TC, in either Contender or Encore format.
Have owned a 357max (usually several at a time) for the last 20 years or so, its been pretty agreeable to load for & hunt with.... I currently have a 10" armour alloy contender barrel in 357 max, plus a 21" blued factory tapered carbine barrel, and a 24" stainless tapered TC custom shop carbine barrel.
And, also have an H&R handi-rifle that had started as a sloppy chambered .357mag; it was reamed to .357max, and was then topped with williams ghost ring sights instead of glass.
My most used load is the Hornady 180XTP seated out long to the bottom cannelure, with 22.0gr Hodgdon Lil Gun...shot those over the chrono about 2 weeks ago while in deer camp; 21" factory carbine barrel clocked at 2137fps, with 3 shot groups averaging just under an inch at 102 yards.
Back quite a few years ago , Remington did a run of 150gr .358 PSP's as a component bullet that was for the .35rem....In my 24" .357max TC custom shop carbine those were running a touch over 2400fps.
If you do go with a TC format, MGM will throat your barrel for whatever you want, if you send them a dummy round.
