357 Maximum - Unscientific Water Test

Found this season's "Deer-getterer". A wide meplat, 185gr projectile swaged in BT Sniper's dies. Ive been concentrating on heavyweight (300gr) powdercoated and suppressed 357 Maxi for a while. My relocation to Georgia drove me to return to sanity and test this round for the upcoming deer season.

Accurate Molds 32-120C core cast from dead soft lead, annealed 9mm case drawn down to .355 and then formed up in BT's .358 point form die (with skiving added). No trimming needed for this projectile. Without sorting headstamps, my finished projectiles range from 182 to 185 weight. Stacked on top of 22gains of VV N110 and loaded out to 2.2", I chrono'd today at 1911 fps from a 16 inch MGM Contender barrel, with minimal recoil and muzzle blast. Accuracy out to 125 yards is about 2.5", so its good enough for me. I could probably do better by sorting headstamps and paying attention while casting, but "Sloth" is my spirit animal....

I shot into two 5-gallon buckets of water stacked on top of each other. The first bucket the projectile passed through was all water, the second one was stacked watersoaked cardboard. Both projectils were recovered laying in the mud after penetrating both buckets.

As you can see from the photos, the jackets peeled back perfectly at the skiving notches and look pretty awesome! About 10 grains were lost along the way for each projectile. Its probably over penetration for deer sized game, but it shoots great and is easy to make so im sticking with it.

Attachment 303831

That's the real deal. I'm thinking that will do trick for white tail

Very nice!
And I think I’ll give it a try, have the dies and the contender.

Awesome, looks great. No doubt they will do the job.

Swage on and good hunting!

BT

MP, I love seeing your projectile work, it's always a treat. Hope you have great luck in the deer hunt!

Very nice work.

Nice expansion .

Outstanding

That should take apart any corn cruncher zipped through the pumping area.

I have considered this myself. I have been gifted some other calibers but never tried a 35. Very interesting.