357/44 Bain & Davis

[FyrepowrX]

SSK is on a roll, next one arrived early...stainless fluted 18" fluted bull carbine, 6 hole scope base D&T...will scope it tonight, its probably going to get topped with either a VX-III 1.7-6x, or a Vortex 1.75-5x.

https://i.imgur.com/9XeXoDL.jpg

[Blue Avenger]

Nice! I find the brass easy to form with out hardly any loss. Not sure that is the norm.

[sunnysmarine]

well hows it shoot, dont tell me your waiting till the weekend... not you

[FyrepowrX]

yup, i'm actually waiting till Sunday (hopefully, unless weather turns crappy)

I settled on the Vortex 1.75-5x for glass, mounted in Leupold bases/rings. That scope reminds me of the leupold short tube 1.75-6x in size,
and glass seems pretty decent for a scope in that price range.

Prepping some cases tonight, & will probably start with the usual stuff like H110/296/etc, with 158/170/180 gr bullets.

Throat does seem overly long, i loaded up a dummy round with the Hornady 180 XTP seated out long in to the bottom cannelure to see if it'd chamber, and
that was a no-go on that. The speer & sierrra 170's chambered fine when seated to their cannelures, as did all 158's.

It did however chamber the Hornady 180 Single Shot Pistol bullets with those seated to the cannelure.

from loading the .357max & .357herrett, i had also stashed back some Sierra 170JHC's and the Sierra 180 FPJ silhouette bullet; at carbine speeds those both worked pretty well for me in a 357max carbine. so those will get a try.

https://i.imgur.com/KIg4ZTy.jpg

[BobT]

I'm anxious to see how this one shoots! I have always had a mild interest in the cartridge but I have never actually seen one in person. I have been leaning toward the bigger bores in new barrels the last few years, with all the component shortages I decided that having cast bullet friendly hunting rounds couldn't hurt anything.

[FyrepowrX]

article from Handloader a while back..data was from a 15" barrel:

https://i.imgur.com/dOme17h.jpg

[Normrep55]

That looks like a winner. I would be interested in how the bore and rifling looks and what kind of accuracy you get. I am thinking of ordering a "Hunter" barrel from SSK and wondering how much they differ from their "Premium" barrels - besides the cost of course.

[FyrepowrX]

Always seems stuff like life, work, etc has a knack for getting in the way of important stuff like loading, shooting, hunting, fishing, etc.

Barrel has been here 6 months now...and i still aint shot it yet.

I had made a few more dummy around with various projectiles, and found that quite a bit of my brass was tooo long for this chamber...i had formed it for a 10" .357B&D from the T/C custom shop some years ago, some had a couple of firings under its belt. Seems that SSK has chamber specs on the tight side, as compared to TC chamber specs.

must confess i loathe case trimming, and had put it off quite a while; when we moved i spent quite a bit of time getting the new man-cave set up, but never mounted my case trimming setup. So, the B&D brass, plus a whole pile of .30herretts, and some .270REN's, all were waiting patiently on me to take care of trimming. I get restless once September comes, since in my mind it should be cool & pleasant out...but that is not the case, and shooting with 100+ degree heat indexes takes a lot of the fun out of it. Next best thing was to get ready to shoot, so been on a loading frenzy the last 2 weeks.

Finally got my old Bain&Davis brass trimmed down, left me with a bit over a hundred cases. Since trimmer was already set up, i also grabbed a couple hundred pieces of Federal .44mag brass i had stashed back, and formed another 200 cases. With about 350 cases now, should not have to worry about cases for a good while.

did some googling, and also found links to some old .357B&D data, so copied that & will paste it below. Have a pretty good batch of assorted test loads finished now , using 4227, 296, & AA9, and i'm also curious enough to see if powders that have come into favor with blackout shooters may be of use. (SW-BO, CFE-BLK, 11FS, AA4100, etc)

Old data below, and the usual cautions apply...especially since this data was probably compiled & published before some more modern pressure testing methods have come into use:
(apologies for the scaling, just noticed these pix are on the huge side)

https://i.imgur.com/vJBNfnd.jpg






https://i.imgur.com/LLmdbzh.jpg

[BobT]

Well Gerald, you've had it nearly a year now, have you shot it yet?

[Blue Avenger]

Well Gerald, you've had it nearly a year now, have you shot it yet?

What he said! LOL
I have a re-barrelled AR almost as old that is not test fired yet ;)

[FyrepowrX]

I did finally spend some time working with this one; i should have updated thread but i've had a whole pile of unfinished projects that i'm slowly plowing through, and i need to upload & resize a trainload of hunting & trail cam pix from the fall hunting season.

I tested several assorted bullet weights, including 158's, 170's, &180's, and was kind of hoping it would like heavier bullets. But, that just didn't happen...158's of various brands shot well. However, i've shot enough deer with my .357max carbine to see some instances of over-expansion of regular .357 pistol bullets when launched at over 2000 fps.

I had some 158 bonded Speer JSP's that have held up, and found those shot better than the FP-XTP, another bullet that does seem to plow deeper without blow ups when they hit shoulder bones. It also did OK with the Sierra 158JSP, but it did not much care for the Sierra 180 FPJ, the Hornady 180XTP, the Sierra 170JHC, or the Hornady180 single shot pistol bullet. Only bad part, after i plow through those, gonna have to work up some alternatives as i dont think the bonded speers are in production any more.

Anybody ever had any luck using the Sierra 158 JSP's at over 2000 fps on game??

Another thing, this one has a quite short throat/leade, and not the usual long toilet bowl forcing cone throat that was common on factory barrels. In fact, if seating a 158XTP to the cannelure, the ogive of that bullet is far enough forward to where it bottomed out in the chamber & resulted in a crush fit with it jammed in the lands...if i seated it to where you could barely see cannelure visible above the case mouth, it was good.

As for powders , i tried H4227 (yup, still got a bit left!), along withIMR4227, Win 296, and AA9. I have not yet tried Ramshot Enforcer, but that is on the to-do list. And, just because i like tinkering with this stuff, i wondered about the results of a casefull of slower burning powder like CFE-BLK....so may powders, so little time.

The glass i chose (Vortex 1.75-5x) turned out to be very agreeable to myeyeballs, and very happy with that one.

I did bust one smallish pig with a Speer 158 at about 60-70 yards...i was up on a ladder stand, which was on a slight hill above him, so i was probably 25 feet above him...high shoulder shot on my side, and it exited mid shoulder of the off side. Pig was probably only 70-80#,and it rolled him over in his tracks. Pigs have been a wee bit of a problem...meaning i'm buried in 'em this year:

https://i.imgur.com/X4FvvZ9.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jFjI3yT.jpg




Been kind of a love/hate relationship, they're fun to shoot, and as long as I keep a few feeders running that are placed AWAY from my food plots, the haven't torn up as many fields this year. (yet).

In all, i'm digging this barrel, recoil is mild, and it doesnt eat a whole lot of powder. The 18" barrel is short & handy, and it balances well. My .357max carbine is 22", but that extra 4"of pipe makes a difference & the 18" B&D just seem to carry better.

some groups from the 50 yard line:

https://i.imgur.com/v7F6X1C.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/R3Gb50X.jpg

(stray .22 hole in taht target i noticed, from me being to lazy to go down & reset targets...had just spent the day plowing & seeding plots, and was pretty much used up!)

I might have asked for a touch longer throat in that barrel, but not sure if SSK even chambers to customer specs. Been happy with the 6 or so carbines i've had them make in the last couple of years, but have never been able to actually speak with anyone in production, and eventually gave up trying to have the ladies who answer emails relay messages to whoever runs the machines.

Will add some updates as i get time to fiddle with more powders &bullet weights. Hope all had a fine fall, great holidays, and an excellent hunting season!

G~

[Head Shot]

Hello FyrePowrX
That is one fine looking t/c
I just got in a set of reloading dies and form die plus trim die in rcbs and have formed some cases plus searched and found load info.
But no gun no bbl :-(
I see your post is recent in time and was wondering if you got the bbl or complete setup from t/c or where.
Id like to purchase eigther a bbl for my t/c encore in 357-44 B&D or maybe a complete setup.
Do you have any contact info or know of anyone that can do rechambering with H&R or NEF Handi Rifles or T/C ?
Or obviously a complete setup would be perfect too.
Thank you
Head Shot Eklb1156@gmail.com

[FyrepowrX]

My barrel was bought from SSK, and they offer it as a regular chambering.

Link:

https://www.sskfirearms.com/

Not sure who does any work with Handi-Rifles any more, though that would be a fine platform for it as well.

Glad you got the dies as that is sometimes a challenge.

SSK and Match Grade Machine both offer the caliber for custom barrels.

Best Regards-

G~