I just purchased a .357 Maximum Contender barrel and want to purchase some ammo to try before investing in reloading components. Lonestar Ammunition has .357 Max ammo made by Ammo-Texas LLC. Has anyone used that ammo? Opinions? Any other suggestions for getting some .357 Max ammo? Thanks! I do have a little.357 Mag ammo so will try that as well.

Never used any factory. Wasn't any around when I got my barrels. Have a super 14 and a carbine barrel made by OTT. If you have mag dies you are good to go. Mine like 180gr bullets and are cast friendly. Lil Gun powder performs well. Small rifle primers.

Do you have a link? I can't find it listed. My H&R factory Maxi loves 357 mag ammo. I'm still working on a Maxi hand load it likes.

I could not find any link to Ammo-Texas LLC. It's for sale on Gunbroker; search .357 Maximum ammo.

https://www.steinelammo.com/product/357-maximum-180gr-flat-nose-soft-point-single-shots-only/

I had a Handi reamed from mag to Max, and it was pretty finicky for Max loads. The only powder I could ever get to shoot well from it was 4227. That's one of the only rifles I really regret selling.

Call up Michi-gun in St. Clair Shores, MI and see if they’ll ship. They had some (I think Remington) on their obscure ammo shelf yesterday.

Old70

Reeds Ammo is also good ammo and they have 357 Maximum ammo in stock

https://shop.reedsammo.com/357-Maximum_c40.htm

None of their multiple choices are currently available but they did have big selection.

Local shop had some made by HSM that I bought last year and was really impressed with it

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've ordered a couple boxes of ammo from Steinel; will report on how it does.

Following...... thinking about ordering some too.

Has anyone read the reviews about Steinel's 180gr 357 max ammo? I suspect they're using 180gr Speer bullets. They're hard bullets and tend to work better over 2200fps.

Has the ammo arrived?

It’s waiting at home 230 miles away. I’ll be looking at it by the end of this week.

The Steinel ammo is here. It looks great -- Starline brass and what appear to be Speer180 grain FNSP bullets. Velocity is listed as 1970 fps from a 14 inch barrel. Speer shows loading data for this bullet in the .357 Max of just under 1900 fps from a 14 inch barrel. However, the Steinel web site states that expansion may not be adequate at hunting ranges from barrels shorter than 18 inches. All reviews on the Steinel site are excellent but don't address the expansion issue. I will test it myself before using for hunting. My shooting at game with a handgun will be very close!

I just noticed on the Steinel site that they now have .357 Max ammo loaded with 140 grain all copper hollow point bullets that should address the expansion issue.

Muzzleloader deer season opens here in NH Saturday so it will be a while before I shoot any of this ammo.

They should work out of my 22" barrel then. With the extra 8" I'd guess 2300 fps.

Any updates?

Deer can be hard to find here in NH. I'm still looking so no chance yet to shoot the Contender.

How did they group or haven't sighted it yet?

I ordered some on Wednesday.

The ammo arrived today. Starline brass and what I assume are Speer bullets. Can't wait to try it out.

Maybe 2100fps.. Shoot for bones and the Speer will work fine. I wouldn't expect much expansion.

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/357mag.html

I've never seen 2300fps with any 180gr bullet in the Maxi and I have loaded it to the gills with the assistance of Johan Loubser back when he worked for Western Powders.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johan-loubser-68656542

Steinel makes a 140gr 357 maximum cartridge which they advertise as not fitting in single action revolvers ... but ... it does fit in a ruger 357 maximum. Has anyone shot this ammo in their ruger? Opinions? Was it a typo did they mean it wouldn't fit in a 357 MAGNUM revolver?

I loaded some Barnes 140gr bullets for my pistol with W296. They shot very good. I loaded the Barnes 140gr with AA1680 for my rifle. They shot very good.
I shot a doe with my pistol with that load.

I've been loading that Speer 180 gr. FNSP for several years in the .357 Max for my 18" Encore barrel. Even beyond 200 yards I'm getting good expansion, though I don't have any photos because the darn deer can't catch the bullets! . I'm using 30 gr. AA1680 behind it for 2050 fps from the 18" barrel. The first year my daughter hunted with that gun I had them loaded down to 1500 fps for her. She made a beautiful boiler room shot at 176 yards on her big Iowa doe and it reared up once and that was the ball game. We've killed 8 deer with them now between us, the most recent a big doe at 189 yards from my .350 Remington Magnum XP-100 at 189 yards on Monday and she one-upped dad with a great 75 yard shot with that bullet from her Max on a huge bodied 8 point buck. Performance has been stellar from 50 yards to over 200 yards. I would have zero concerns about hunting with them from your Contender. Good luck! It's a cartridge that hit way above its pay grade. Handloading for it has been very easy and my barrel just isn't picky. It's an MGM barrel, so that may have something to do with it.