Can anyone comment on 357 Maximum?

C

cplane

New member
My brother picked up something neither of us has ever heard of before. It's a Dan Wesson 357 Maximum. It also has "Super Magnum" stamped on it. Could someone tell us about this round? Will this revolver shoot 357 magnums and 38's also? Someone told us the Maximum round is hard to find and it is about like a 30 carbine round. We also want to know the value of this D W if anyone cares to comment . It is in excellent condition and has the heavy vent rib barrel . I beleive it is around 8 to 10 inches long. It is a handful of gun!
 
It was a lengthened .357 Magnum round, designed to get more power.

There were significant problems with "gas cutting" of the top strap due to the high pressures that the round generated, and it never really took off.

I believe that Thompson Center still makes Contender barrels for it.

Reloading information, dies, etc., are available. I think Starline still makes the brass.

You can shoot .357s and .38s out of it, but accuracy may suffer some due to the long bullet jump.
 
The 357 maximum was designed to outshoot a 44mag if I remember correctly. Most revolver manufacturers quit making guns chambered for this round due to severe gas cutting at the cylinder gap. I think it would be a fun gun to hang onto though. Dan Wessons are exellent guns.
It should make an EXCELLENT silloutte pistol. :cool:
 
Just saw a NIB Ruger Blackhawk in this caliber. Would have picked it up but for the "top strap cutting" problems mentioned in other posts. I'm thinking that some gunsmithing could mitigate this problem to some degree...
 
357 Maximum was developed between Remington and Ruger I believe, as a flat shooting revolver cartridge for IHMSA matches. IIRC a .357 Maximum will throw a 158 grain bullet at 2000+ FPS. Not bad out of an 8 inch barreled handgun.
I just picked up the twin to the gun you have a few weeks ago. Put a few factory 180's through it with limited sucess. I believe this is one cartridge that screams for handloading.
Remington is still making factory ammo and brass for the .357 Max.
The .357 Max will indeed shoot .38 Specials and .357 mags.
Dan Wessons are great. I accumulate them as they are not collectable.
Your gonna love that Dan.
Take Care

John D
Check out that Ruger. If it is one of the original .357 Maxs it may be one of the few Rugers that is collectible as they made very few before pulling it off the market.
 
strap cutting

I'm by no means an expert, but I swear I've read on sixgunner.com somewhere that yes, the gas cutting is more pronounced in the supermags/maximums than in the regulars, BUT, the cutting reaches a certain point and stops, and not far enough in to compromise the structure of the frame. Like I said, though, I cannot remember specifically where I saw this, but I'm pretty sure it was on sixgunner.

Regards,

JV
 
Vek, I've heard the same thing. Also IIRC, cutting is reduced to almost nothing if you use heavier bullets in the 180-220gr range.
 
Thanks for all the info! I can't wait to shoot it myself. This one is the interchanging barrels model, But it only came with the one barrel. I will have to check it out for any strap cutting damage before I fire it. I am glad that I posted my question here before I had a chance to fire that beast! 2000 fps with 180 gr.? :D cool!
 
Topstrap gas cutting was noticeable with these, but never a real problem. Ruger quit making them because of forcing cone erosion problems. Dan Wesson continued to make them and at one time furnished a spare barrel with them. Since the DW guns have easily changed barrels (at a reasonable cost) they didn't get that worried about the forcing cone problems. This is similar to the problems that plagued early S&W K frame .357 Mag guns, the timing did not normally "shoot loose" as so many post, but the forcing cones did erode badly, often cracking. The L frame was produced primarily to fix this, and most of the difference is in the barrel/forcing cone area of the gun.
 
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