Way back when TC first introduced the .357max as a contender carbine, i got pretty interested in that combo, and ended up with a 21" tapered blued .357max carbine. Shot a few deer with it, and liked the performance without too much recoil. Then somewhere along the way, it got traded off when i picked up a .35rem carbine that shot spectacularly well (that barrel never heard that thin whippy tapered carbines were not supposed to be benchrest guns).

With the .35rem shooting so well, i kind of didn't miss the .357max carbine, since i still had the max in a pistol tube. Then, maybe 15 years ago or so, or thinking back maybe a bit over that , Ed took in a BADLY fouled stainless tapered .357max carbine that was a TC Custom shop barrel. Filthy, grubby, so much lead & crud in the bore some spots looked like the rifling was absent. Can only assume someone was shooting undersized soft lead lightweight bullets at nuclear speeds, then when things went sideways they traded it off. It was priced pretty cheap so bought it , and wore out a few brushes getting the crud out, and after some work it looked better than i thought it would. And...it shot well, and killed stuff nicely, just like the first one did. Throat was excessively long, and it doesn't care much for lightweights, but 180gr XTP's, and the old Remington bulk 180JHP's, and Sierra 180FPJ, all shoot well when seated long.

This last fall i spent a bit of woods time sneaking around with a .357 Bain & Davis carbine, and found it to also be a fine meat-making tool. Unlike my .357max, the new .357B&D carbine does like 158's, much preferred them in fact, and after shooting it some it reminded me the 357max should get more attention, since they pretty much do about the same thing.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago....when Craig posted the list of VanHorn barrels, he had a 16" tapered carbine in .357max, which seemed like it might make a cool shorty carbine. It wears factory irons, and had a weaver style Warne base on it, onto which i parked a Leupold 1.5-4x with "hunt-plex" reticle...kind of a modified German #4.

Turns out that one was one of the "transition" barrels; when TC closed down, Match Grade Machine finished out some of the remaining factory blanks and did the final crowning/finishing/chambering...and it does not have the excessive long toilet bowl throats of some factory barrels.

Will get a pic or 2, weather has turned surprisingly nice, and i'm getting the trigger finger itch. Whenever i do get to take it for a test spin, will be sure to shoot it along side my other .357max pipes for some speed comparisons, still have a 10" Armour alloy, a 13" magnaported custom shop tube, and the old 22" stainless tapered.

More info as this one gets a work out.

G~