Back to the Max, again

[Ed K]

I too shed my Max barrel in favor for the 35 Rem. Like yours the Rem was no dog. In fact it has an interesting history relative to this thread. Back in the day, that is to say the VVCG era, I was on the phone with Steve looking for a barrel. He mentioned having a Max barrel lying around which had its' chamber buggered up with a burr while reaming. Steve offered to have a 35 Rem cut for me with a counterbore for Krag brass and shipped with two extractors all for a sweet deal. When I received it it checked out well and had that mirror finish of the Shilen blanks they were using as standard at the time. While I could use 35 Rem brass, 20 years later the rimmed extractor has never been out while using both 30-40 Krag & 303 Brit brass and it has become one of those "never to sell or trade" barrels. What started as a Max for some customer became my 35 Rem. I've thought of going back to the Max but haven't yet.

[BobT]

Tagging in to this one! I recently acquired a 21" Max carbine barrel and I'm anxious to see what it can do. I had some 180 grain XTP's loaded for my 12" Hunter barrel and shot a few of them in the carbine to get the scope dialed in. The load showed promise but I didn't get serious. I did come home and lay in a pretty good supply of those XTP 180 grainers though!

[Blades]

years back had a 357mag 10" with internal choke tube barrel re-chambered to rem 357 max by Bellum some time in the early 80's, sight set on it from factory was less than adequate for sillywet. I was just getting started in a sillywet and the TC addiction. Shot a deer with it. Came across a great deal on a 35rem 14" ( poor man's 35 Herret) barrel never looked back. Pretty sure I sold that barrel about 10 years ago. Now if I remember correctly when Elgin came up with it the case was a .10 longer than what Remington brought out. Not much was said about that as everyone was happy that there as factory brass. And it would reliably take down the rams. Recoil was a lot more manageable than a full bore 35 rem also in the single shots and of course same can be said about it vs the 44 mag in revolvers. Not over bore like the 35 Rem and no hassel making the Herret brass. Fast forward to Hornady introducing there new 357 leververlution cartridge which is a dang close if not right on to Elgins original idea. That extra .10 that Rem dropped is back on the hornady item. Course the max got a bad rap with the top strap etching deal in various revolvers, which kinda killed it. That all was a very long time ago and I doubt that I still have any of the write ups from back in the day.