A while back, magnum mike was talking about having one off his old 357 Magnum barrel re-chambered to 357 Maximum and cut back to make a nice woodswalker carry gun. The general question was why? Mikes answer was why not. When I saw magnum mike start the post about someone testing his 357 Max shorty barrel, I thought that could be fun. So I threw my name into the hat. Very seldom do I win anything, but this time I got lucky. Mike drew my name out of the hat.

The deal was, that Mike would loan me the use of the barrel with a weaver scope mount and fifty fired 357 Max cases. I would test the barrel with different weights of bullets for accuracy using both 357 Magnum and 357 Maximum loads.

Mike had sent an old 10" 357 Magnum barrel to Mike Sirois of On Target Technologies, LLC, to have the work done. He wanted the barrel re-chambered to 357 Maximum and shortened to 6.5".

Most re-chambers are to a bigger diameter case, totally wiping out the old chamber. One concern of re-chambering a 357 Magnum to a 357 Maximum is getting the old chamber and the new chamber to align properly. Because the 357 Maximum is basically just a 357 Magnum lengthened to 1.605". The new 357 Maximum chamber is a continuation of the old 357 Magnum chamber so it is critical that they line up as close as possible.. If not aligned properly it can cause a bulge in one side of the chamber and cause hard extraction, poor brass life and possible other problems. This project, held special interest to me, as I have a 10" 44 Magnum barrel that I have been considering having re-chambered to 445SM and also having shortened. The 445SM has the same relation to the 44 Magnum as the 357 Maximum does to the 357 Magnum.

The first thing I noticed when I pulled it out of the box was how short it was. After years of using 10"-14" contender barrels, the 6.5" barrel looks really short. This would cause me some problems in the future. Overall the barrel looked very good. The shortening of the barrel was done very professionally and was finished with an 11 degree target crown.

The only blemish I could find was at the muzzle, where the front site would normally be mounted. There I found, two circles drawn in what appeared to be permanent marker. Looking at it, I assumed Mike had marked the barrel where he had wanted the front site re-mounted, but had then changed his mind. Checking with Mike he informed me the circles were not marker, but were where he had O.T.T. remove a ventilated rib and then fill the holes that were left. Apparently the heat of the welder had hardened the barrel around the filled holes. With the final glass bead blasting done, the difference in hardness, left the marks on the finished barrel.

Looking at the chamber, I could just see slight signs of the old 357 Magnum chamber. A very light ring evenly spaced all the way around. Because I was not the first person to see the barrel after the modification, I have know way of knowing if this was from the re-chamber job or from subsequent 357 Magnums being fired in the longer chamber. Either way, the old and new chamber line up good enough not to cause a problem. With all the work done, re-chambering, shorting, crowning and removing the ventilated rib, the barrel looks very good. I was amazed that an old ventilated rib barrel could look so good.

The only pistol scope I had, that was not already mounted on a barrel was a Redfield 2x-6x. It was a little long, but it would work for the task at hand. I mounted it on the barrel making sure not to let the end of the scope, hang past the end of the barrel. It did not look the best, but it would serve the purpose.

The first problem I had was that I did not have a for-end short enough to fit. I remedied this problem by cutting of a walnut aftermarket for-end. It did not look the best and the fit was a little sloppy, but it solved the problem for the time being.

The only 357 Magnum I have is an S&W 586 revolver with an 8 3/8" barrel. I have a Simmons 2x scope mounted on it. Over the years it has grown to be one of my favorites. It has sent many unlucky woodchucks to the hayfield in the sky. Even though I love to carry this gun, I have always felt it was a little light for deer. I have heard that when used in a Contender, the 357 Magnum is a horse of a different color. I thought it would be nice to compare the 357 Magnum in both pistols.

I started out using some ammo; I had loaded up for my revolver. 158 gr. L.S.W.C., over A light load of Unique for target and plinking. For hunting I had 170 gr. Speer Gold Dots using a healthy dose of H-110.

I loaded up some 357 Max ammo using 170 gr. Speer Gold Dots over 18 gr. of H-110. This was not a max load, but a good place to start. Off to the range I went. After the normal sighting in period, I was ready to start the test. At this time, I was more interested in what the crony would say, more than I was in how accurate it would be. I was very surprised with some of the results.

Using the target loads, there was not much of a performance difference between the two guns. The Contender barrel was the winner, but only by an average of 41 fps

Target load

With the 357 Magnum hunting loads, the closed breach design of the Contender really starts to shine. The Contender put out 134 fps more than the revolver.

357 Magnum Hunting Load

Not having a revolver chambered for the 357 Maximum, all I could do was compare the Magnum and Maximum in the Contender. In this caparison ,The 357 Maximum gained another 221 fps over the Magnum when shot in the same barrel.

357 Maximum

When I started this project, one of the questions I wanted to answer, was how viable would a 357 Maximum be in a short 6.5" barreled Contender. As you can be see in the charts, that question has been answered. The results are really quiet amazing when you figure that the 6.5" Shorty actually only has about 4.6" of usable barrel, the rest is used up by the chamber.

I can only assume that a 44 Magnum to 445 Super Magnum conversions would also have the same benefits.

When compared to an 8 3/8” 357 Magnum revolver, the closed breach of the Contender, really shines and moves the pistol rounds into a whole new arena of performance.

Part two will be on the accuracy and handling of the Shorty Max Contender
By Jeff Welch

Back To SP Articles

Back To SP Home