Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots 357 Maximum Adventures

I've had a dozen or so Maxis in various single shots but this one continues to amaze me. A friend in CT found it and it had surface rust all over it. The chamber appears to be cut with a drill bit and it had a cracked buttplate.

I cleaned it up and Duracoated it myself. I have found quite acceptable accuracy using Fury 180gr TC bullets and heavy cast bullets.

My son used it this year to harvest his first deer. It was loaded with a MP Molds 200gr Penta HP bullet propelled to 1160fps with a dose of Viht Tin Star.

Now I have discovered that Barnes released a 180gr TSX FN designed specifically for the 35 Remington.

Here are the results of my collaboration. 😎

I believe I will start with A1680 and see where that goes. The Barnes bullet seats just a smidge deeper than the Fury but I will still proceed to load with due dilligence given to the difference in bullet composition. I'm hoping for at least 1900fps mv.

I will later test them in a box filled with wet newspapers after the freezing temps subside.

Thanks, Dinny

The dumny round assembled with the Barnes bullets plunks down into my chamber. Given the long sloppy throat/chamber cut it may not seat at this length in a better chamber. YMMV.

Thanks, Dinny

Can't beat a Fury bullet for the Max IMO. If I had 1 knock, they are too violent and will bloodshot meat

good luck with the barnes.

I am going to play with the 140 grain Hammer bullet this year. I have 2 Max's.

A lot of guys on graybeards website years back were cutting their own max chambers. Maybe you got one of those where some guy was the 20th person to use the reamer and not use oil.

I remember those guys! Luckily this one shoots.

Thanks, Dinny

Your next super lite 357 max, should be tight.

The H&R Max I had was one someone from Graybeards had reamed for me. Fortunately they did a good job. I still regret selling that rifle to this day. 😬

If I would have known Barnes was making that bullet I probably wouldn’t have sold my last Max!

You can bet I'm sending a dummy round made with this bullet to Wayne for custom throating.

Thanks, Dinny

Barnes CS says this bullet is rated for 1400-2200fps and suggests using Hodgdon's starting load data for the 180gr Speer FN.

I shot these Barnes bullets today. They show potential!

Thanks, Dinny

Next I'll try 28.5 and 29gr of A1680 before I chrono the best load.

Thanks, Dinny

Can’t find these bullets listed anywhere….

Any have a lead on where to score some?

I bought a box at Optics Planet. It was against my better judgement but they came through this time delivering them only a week later.

Thanks, Dinny

Hmmm, they are not listed on that site.

I can not find them listed on any site.

Can you please post the product number on the Barnes packaging?

Never mind, I’m a little slow….

Just saw it on the 2nd picture

You're a brave man. I made one order from them... never again. New stock for a Rem 870.a couple years ago. Something listed as "in stock" took almost 3 months from clicking order until it arrived.

Z,
They're in Northbrook. You could have driven there and gotten it faster. Of course, that is only if it was actually in stock. Sometimes I think they intentionally don't convert to a live tracking system just so they can play the float and make interest off our money while we wait for them to ship.

Today I chrono'd two 357 Max loads with this 180gr TSX FN bullet. 24gr of Lil Gun only averaged 1880 fps while 28gr of A1680 averaged 1960 fps and edged out Lil Gun for accuracy. Given their design parameters I believe they will be a fine bullet for deer hunting.

Thanks, Dinny

Outstanding! Going to extrapolate your Max data for my 350 Legend. I will probably use cast powder coated bullets out of both my Max and Legend.

Rechambering to the Max is an option for the Henry SS I have on layaway, but I want to give it a go as-is, and also want to consider just tweaking the Mag chamber for better accuracy. 19gr of Lil Gun will push 158s to 2000 in a 20” barrel and you can get 1800 with 180s, so power’s not lacking, right there with original .30 WCF loads back in the day, but with better bullets and a bigger hole to start. Trajectory for this area isn’t an issue. Good accuracy and versatility for lighter tasks is.

I may have missed this but what gun is your max in, I picked up a MGM 12” contender barrel on the fire that is very accurate. I found 5 boxes of nosler 180 partition HG bullets that shoot very well with both h110 and lil gun. Still tweeking loads

Rick,
Barnes is now making a similar bullet in .355" diameter.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1024437359?pid=877628

Looks like it might be a bit long in the nose for a Legend AR.

Rick,
I'm afraid that would be a fatal mistake on Barnes part. My intiition tells me it would be fine in an AR.

I finally got a chance to shoot one of these Barnes 35cal 180gr TSX FN into a box filled with wet newspapers. Impact velocity as measured 3ft from the box was 2026fps from my 357 Maximum rifle.

Thanks, Dinny

What does it look like with 1800 and 1500 fps at impact?

I dunno, but Barnes may have that answer. They recommend 1400-2200fps impact speeds. I don't have enough to test any more of them.

Very, very nice performance.

Does the box have any recommendations for min rate of twist? I'm guessing it's a bit longer than most 35 cal bullets. Currently I'm shooting the 180 Swift Aframe heavy revolver bullet in a .357 Max rifle. I think the rate of twist may be 1/20 on it...I have to verify...but that might be slow enough put me out of the TSX FN needed rate of twist.

No twist rates recommendations on the box but they were designed specifically the 35 Rem. Most 35 Rems are 1:16" twist. I believe 1:20" twists will be fine with enough speed. I wouldn't want to push them any slower than 1800fps mv so that at least a 1500fps impact velocity can be maintained. My barrel is a 18.75" twist and the bullets are stable at my speeds in the short distances I've shot them so far.

Thanks!