357 mag rifle ?

D

DarianBarr

New member
i just bought my son a h&r in 357 mag and was wondering what i should zero it at for shots within 100yds. not familiar with this round in a rifle.
 
Im not an expert at this but I would say 50 yards.If you sighted it in dead on at 50 yards you would still be able to hold right on a coyote at 100 and still hit it right?
I was looking at an H&R .357Mag rifle and I wondered about that too.But thats kind of what I figured. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
What bullet weight?

It should be fast enought to zero at 100, but you'll have to check the bullet rise over sights at 50 and 75 just to be certain. If you think it's too high for your taste then try a 75 zero but I wouldn't go closer than than.
 
So much will depend on your bullet.
With a 140 grain, I would sight in at 100 yds. Then check a target at 50 to see how high it is above the bull. Hold accordingly. It is a fairly flat shooting round for those distances. I shoot that distance a lot with .357 useing .38's, mostly at 70-80 yds sighted that way. My velocity is just at 1000fps
A heavier bullet may drop a little more. At .357 velocity,
it should be fairly flat.
 
I bought a slightly used Marlin 1894c in .357 a few weeks ago. Thought it would be a neat little truck gun, light to carry and compliment a couple 357 pistols. I just bought two boxes of the CCI Blazer 158 gr HP's to get me started. Looked at some ballistic charts and took an average to get me started for a 100yd zero. Sighted it in at 2.5 in high at 25 yds, said it should be just about zero at 100....moved it out to a hundred and it shoots about 1in high and keeps 5 shots right at an inch. Was very impressed with that. Got it bloody couple mornings ago on a doe at 65 yds through the shoulders ( all I could see). I'm loving mine, try it at different yardages and see what you come up with. Good luck!
 
joshf303 i bought this for my son for deer i was wondering how affective it was on them. i wont let my sons shoot over 100 yds yet. not till they get a little older anyway
 
If I ever get mine back from H&R/Remington (it's been 6 months!) I'm either gonna load with hot 357 mag handloads or ream the barrel for 357 Maximum. I've got about 200 rounds of Max brass and just ordered some 170gr soft points. The 357 Maximum's performance is supposedly up there with the 30-30 with less recoil.

Go over to the GBO Forums, more info there than you'll want to read.
 
DB....The only experience I have with deer and the 357 is of the single doe that I spoke of. She was at 65 yds about and went through both shoulders, but ran, stumbled about 50 yds after I shot her. I would feel comfortable with it out to about 100 yds on our size whitetail. I am sure there are more guys here that have way more experience with the caliber and deer size game. After I shot the rifle a bit, and noticed its consistancy, I might turn my 7 yo girl loose on some hogs with it. Shes a bruiser with her 22 mag, but the little 357 is pretty light on recoil and I can get her up close shots at feeders. I wanna shoot some more deer with the rifle to form a solid opinion on it otherwise.
 
Quote:
If I ever get mine back from H&R/Remington (it's been 6 months!) I'm either gonna load with hot 357 mag handloads or ream the barrel for 357 Maximum. I've got about 200 rounds of Max brass and just ordered some 170gr soft points. The 357 Maximum's performance is supposedly up there with the 30-30 with less recoil.

Go over to the GBO Forums, more info there than you'll want to read.




I love the looks of the performance of the 357 Maximum... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Maybe one of those "other projects"
 
The H&R 357 is long-throated and doesn't like 125gr. bullets which is to bad as they are ideal for coyotes. Shoot heaver bullets and you will be fine. A 357 warm loaded is right up there with 30-30 modern loads. A guy chrono several brands of off the shelf 30-30 ammo and was surprised how slow they are. Likely due to worries about use in old guns. My 357 Marlin is my primary deer gun in the brush and does a good job. Quit using my 308, kills them just as dead without the recoil and blast. My favorite deer load is a 158gr XTP-FP with a max load of LiL'Gun, shoots very flat out to 100 yard+.
 
I shot 2 coyotes last feb w/ my 1894
marlin, a male about 45 pounds and a female maybe 30 pounds, same stand, couple min. apart. I was using factory Fed 158 jhp+p , both head on in the chest, found both bullets perfectly mushroomed under the skin on rear hips, no exit. Both were inside of 30 yds. I wasn't impressed, I'm re-thinking the fact that I carried that load in my S+W 28 for bear protection! Need more penetration, maybe JSP. Great on the coyotes though. Just my limited exp.
 
masshunter,
I just checked out the Buffolo Bore Heavy .357 mag 180 grain loads for you. They cost $1/shot.

Here is some of the information:

Winchester ‘94 Ranger Compact

Representative of a multitude of Winchester, Marlin and Rossi guns in this caliber, the no-frills 16" barreled Trapper-length levergun was a real surprise. Well made, finished, and good feeling, it shows reassuring feedback that Americans are building quality guns in 2004.

A new gun, Buffalo Bore was the second load ever fired in this little carbine. By no means even broken in, the Buffalo Bore fed, ejected, and other wise functioned perfectly.

A 5 round chronograph string produced the following velocities:

Buffalo Bore 180-grain .357 Magnum, Winchester '94 Ranger Compact

Velocity (fps)
1848 1725 1876 1879 1908

Average 1847 fps - Standard Deviation 71.6


Grouping over buckhorn iron sights was a surprising 1.25" inches, again for a 5-shot group. What this little levergun would do with a low powered scope or aperture sights is open to conjecture, but what it did, as is, impresses well enough. Recoil was certainly higher than with other ammunition, but entirely tolerable for most shooters.

I hope this helps you with "The Bears".

By the way, I will likely buy some of these for my Marlin 1894c in .357mag.

Merry Christmas,

Karl in Phoenix
 
I owned a Marlin 94 in .357 mag. I took several blacktail deer and a few coyotes with it out in CA.
I only used a 158 gr bullet for all my shooting. I reloaded for this gun and all were just at 2000 fps if I recall correctly. My lead SWC bullets were at 1200.
Its a perfect 100 yd gun for small/light game. I never shot anything further than 85 yd max though. All the dogs were under 50 yards.
On 100 targets all my shots were no larger than 2" which was perfect and I also had a williams reciever peep site on it.
 
I have a 357 H&R that I picked up for my wife and she has killed several deer with it without any problems. She shoots from 50 to 75 yards and it seems to do a good job. I belive I sighted it dead on @ 50yrds.
 
I've shot a lot of .357 pistol and handloaded for it. I ended up with the best bullet performance using Speer 140 gr. JHPs. I tested them into wet phone books several times and they mushroomed beautifully and were very accurate at 100 yards when we were shooting the reduced silhouette targets. Here's the 2 best loads I had for it (in a Colt Python, you could probably go hotter in a rifle but check that out first)

.357 Magnum
Bullet------------ Powder------ Primer
140 gr. Speer JHP 8.5 gr. Unique SP
140 gr. Speer JHP 18.3 gr. W296 SP Mag.
 


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