Oddly my 357 Contender barrel will chamber 360 Dan Wesson brass

R

rickt300

New member
And with a bit of room to spare! This leads me to believe it may have been rechambered to 357 Maximum but it shoots regular 357 magnum so well I find that hard to believe. Could it be the original barrel was just chambered very deep? Throated for the "Hot Shot" shot loads?
 
I'd take a good look at the barrel and see if there is the usual "ledge" at the front of the chamber. Mine appears to have one.
 
Used a depth mike to see how deep the chamber is, looks like 2.190! Decided to do a better method. It is 1.43 to the base of a 158 gr. Sierra JSP dropped into the chamber and the full diameter of this bullet is right at .420 so from barrel face to the lands is 1.850. A Max case is 1.6 or so and that would leave .25 full diameter bullet in front of the case. Guess I need a 357 Max case to see for sure.
 
Last edited:
By ledge, I am assuming 44 AMP is referring to the cut the rim falls into (the headspace on a rimmed cartridge is defined by the distance from the breech face to the ledge it makes.

I would not expect a diameter much over 0.357" for the bullet. The length of it is 0.641" on JBM's site. So I am lost as to what your 0.420" is referring to.

I can tell you the way a 357 Magnum chamber is specified by SAAMI as follows. Note the first angle off the end of the case space is 6.5° and the angle onto the throat is 4.75°. You can see why detecting the exact corners locations is difficult without a bore scope or a chamber casting.

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • 357 Mag Max Chambers.gif
    357 Mag Max Chambers.gif
    52.5 KB · Views: 443
By ledge, I am assuming 44 AMP is referring to the cut the rim falls into (the headspace on a rimmed cartridge is defined by the distance from the breech face to the ledge it makes.
Click to expand...

No, I'm referring to the change in diameter at the front of the chamber, which on your drawing is labled "case space".

Might not be the right term, but I'm calling it a ledge, like the one at the front of a .38 Special chamber that keeps a .357 case from going all the way in.

Taking another look at one of my .357 Contender barrels, I now must admit, I'm not sure if I can see one with my old, naked eye. When I looked earlier today (and posted) I was sure I saw one, but now, I'm not so sure! :rolleyes:
I can clearly see where the rifling starts, but can't see a clear "line" at the front of the chamber like I can in a revolver cylinder.
 
Looking at the drawings ... if you have great eyes you should see 5 different "lines"
I was looking at my 357 Magnum Blackhawk chambers and could only make out 3 changes but that's a revolver so doesn't really count ... but seeing those lines with your naked eyeball isn't easy .
A chamber cast might give you something you can see and measure and thus tell the tale .
Gary
 
If there were a ledge, like 44AMP described, and as there is in the case mouth position of modern rimless bottleneck rifle chambers, it would be clear to see. But instead, it goes to a taper, as rimmed cartridge chambers typically do, and the start of that is much less distinct when simply looking in from behind.
 
The drawings provided above were for "revolver chambers" with the long throat being part of the cylinder. Using a revolver profile in other type of guns was never appropriate, but no one ever came up with a "standard" alternate profile. A lot of 357 Mag and 357 Max chambers have been made with a variety of tapers and no cylindrical "throat".

Based on the dimensions provided by the OP, his barrel was probably rechambered to Max.
 
Well I ordered a new 357 Max barrel and so found some brass for it. The actual Max brass will not chamber in this barrel. This is fine with me but a mystery solved.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top