Why in the world would you choose a rifle in 357? In the 1800's lot of guy's carried a rifle and handgun chambered for the same cartridge. Can't see one reason for it today. Other than, "I just want to". My though on a 357 is it's a good self defense cartridge but other than that, with cast bullet's it'd be a good small game gun!
On another vein from my post #14 above, I would like to note that the 357mag isn't far behind a 30-30 in terms of power at shorter ranges up to, say 100yds out of a levergun. Is that true? Could they be similar at shorter ranges? Let's compare a 150grn, 30 Cal bullet's Velocity and ME with a 158grn, 35 Cal bullet's Velocity and ME using a ballistic table and see what the results reveal. From Handloads.com's ballistics tables.
- 150grn 30-30 rd with a Muzzle Velocity of 2,390fps from a 24" test barrel (Per Winchester Power Points) produces a ME of 1,903ft/lbs at the muzzle, 1,612ft/lbs at 50yds, 1,365ft/lbs at 100yds.
- 158grn 357mag rd with a Muzzle Velocity of 2,153fps from a Marlin 18.5" barreled levergun (Per Buffalo Bore) produces a ME of 1,626ft/lbs at the muzzle, 1,300ft/lbs at 50yds, 1,039ft/lbs at 100yds.
That's only about a 240fps Muzzle Velocity difference and under 300ft/lb ME reduction across the board. That shows that both rds are capable of humanely taking medium sized game with a proper shot at 100yds or less.
HOWEVER, the barrel length used for the 30-30 test was 24", quite a bit longer than the 18.5" barrel the 357mag test in the Marlin levergun was tested with and 4" longer than the 20" barreled Winchester '94 most 30-30 rds are actually hunted with.
That means that there are differences in the 2 test baselines and the test results can not be directly compared with each other. That is important when reading and comparing the results. How important, you ask?
- My full power 357mag handloads using H110 powder, produce a higher muzzle velocity in my 24" rifle (33fps higher) than out of my 20" carbine and a higher muzzle velocity out of my 20" carbine than in an 18.5" barreled Marlin.
- I have shot Buffalo Bore loads in both my 20" Rossi carbine and my 24" Rossi rifle and they produce higher velocities in both leverguns than Buffalo Bore reported for the Marlin. In my 20" Rossi carbine, they produced 2,214fps and in my longer barreled 24" Rossi rifle, they produced 2,288fps.
So, for fairness and consistency, we should compare performance out of the same barrel lengths. As we don't have any data for the 30-30 in a 20" levergun from Winchester, we'll be forced to use the longer rifle length 24" Rossi 357mag data with Winchester's 24" 30-30 data. Therefore, comparing a 24" long barrel to a 24" long barrel, the results are:
- 150grn 30-30 Winchester Power Point rd with a Muzzle Velocity of 2,390fps from a 24" test barrel (Per Winchester) produces a ME of 1,903ft/lbs at the muzzle, 1,612ft/lbs at 50yds, 1,365ft/lbs at 100yds.
- 158grn 357mag Buffalo Bore Heavy 357mag rd with a Muzzle Velocity of 2,288fps from a Rossi 24" barreled levergun (Per my Chrono) produces a ME of 1,877ft/lbs at the muzzle, 1,477ft/lbs at 50yds, 1,187ft/lbs at 100yds.
Now the difference in Muzzle Velocity is only 100fps and the Muzzle Energy has closed as well. At 50yds, the 357mag is only 135ft-lbs lower ME and at 100yds only 178ft-lbs. However, the 357mag's larger diameter, 35 cal bullet weighs more than the 150grn 30-30 which means that the energy transfer with the 357mag's HP or RN bullet will be even more efficient than with the 30-30's. That narrows the gap between them even further.
I'm not dissing the 30-30 or it's history. The truth is that besides my two 357mag Rossi leverguns, I also have a Mossberg 464 30-30 levergun which I also really enjoy shooting, especially with some 150grn, 2,000fps plinking handloads. While neither the 30-30 or 357mag is a practical deer hunting caliber out here in the West with both large Mule Deer and typically much longer ranges than either caliber would be effective at, both are fun calibers to enjoy. In the east and south where the deer are typically smaller and the engagement ranges much shorter, either could be used effectively within it's limits.