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Just picked up a very clean 1979 Marlin 1894 rifle in 357 magnum. Can someone recommend good factory ammo for this.

for plinking? Hunting? Paper punching? Any factory .357 ammo will 'work' in your rifle. Most .38 Special will also.

Thanks looking for something hunting. Some say the Federal American Eagle 158 Gr JSP does well

www.lostriverammocompany.com

He has some pretty good ammo for killing things...

Many have sworn by the Winchester white box ammo.

I can't load anything more accurate than Magtech 158 grain jacketed soft point factory ammo for my Marlin.

my remlin prefers heavier bullets in the 140 grain plus catagory. the 140 flex tips shoot ok, the 158 xtp's do great as well, buffalo bore 158 xtp shoots great. I use fiocchi 148 jhp for my everyday bulk ammo. With 357 you can really spend a bunch on ammo. it depends really on what you're doing with the gun. for me its just blasting, plinking and pest work. That fiocchi load handles all of it because its priced not much more than FMJ or cheaper than some FMJ loadings. my gun is sited for it. so I know its good to go. I bought 500 rounds of it before the scamdemic. and only have about half of it left. at the time I think I got it for $16/50.

the downside is I personally don't think the HP opens that violently. I shot a coyote and a raccoon with it and the kills weren't that dramatic. but that may be just how pistol ammo kills. it will dump a jack rabbit like a bad habit.

I would reload for it, but I am not dinking with picking up brass that is shucked out of that thing.

I don't remember if I ever shot any factory
ammo through mine or not. ( 1981 vintage)

I did make the fastest cleanest kill with it
that I did on any animal. A coyote was tearing
up a friend's dog, and I put 1 LSWC in it, and
it fell like a sack of dirty laundry.
Several deer with it also that didn't wad up
in a heap nearly as fast

Mine did best with 158gr just about anything.
I tried some 125gr up to 170-180(?) but it
just did best with the run-of-the-mill 158's

Best all around for it was Sierra #8340

Not as hard a choice as you think, there's ONLY one bullet configuration for the venerable 357mag, 158gr in whatever your flavor, as this was what the cartridge was designed for. Enjoy👍🏻

I got a Marlin 1894 in a deal about a decade ago, and I have yet to find a load that does not shoot well.

I've tried 158 grain-- jacketed and lead and powder coated
Ditto for 125 grain

My most recent experiment was with 148 grain Berry DEWCs and Lee 358-148-WCs. Both shot well, and you can load more with wadcutters.

The only complaint I have is that there is a wide difference in POI going from one load to the other. They group well, but the groups are pretty far off from each other.