Craig Boddington was the senior contributing editor of our modern gun and ammunition caliber dictionary. Craig was involved in the development and testing of many of these and writes from first hand experience. This dictionary was written exclusively for Wholesale Hunter with unique information found nowhere else.
GUN CALIBER DICTIONARY
Handgun
357 Maximum
Based on the popular .357 Magnum case extended to 1.9902 inches, the .357 Maximum was introduced by Remington and Ruger in 1983. Propelling a 158-grain bullet at a very fast 1825 fps, the .357 Maximum is one of the flattest-shooting of all revolver cartridges. Although developedprimarily as a silhouette round, it had the potential to become an awesome handgun hunting cartridge for deer-sized game. Shortly after introduction it was discovered that pressure and heat were causing unacceptable gas-cutting on revolver top straps. Manufacture of revolvers in .357 Maximum was soon discontinued and the cartridge is nearly obsolete. This is regrettable because, without punishing recoil, it is extremely effective, and of course is suitable in closed-breech designs such as the T/C Contender. — Craig Boddington