.357 Carbine

[Halo]

(quote) One of my favorite rifles is my Rossi 92 SRS Trapper style carbine in .357 magnum. It's a direct copy of the Winchester 1892, but with a 16" barrel. About 5.5 lb loaded. Winchester 92s have the slickest lever action design of the lot, lightning quick and solid lock-up. (unquote)

From many previous gun threads, I've always remembered this quote from Widewing.  And for about two years, I've been admiring that .357 carbine, now a Puma, in gun shows.
Finally I bought one.  Yep, immediately bonds with you like a favorite pet. 

At chuckhawks.com a chart of Rifle Cartridge Killing Power at 100 yards has the .357 Magnum (in a rifle barrel) at 12.7 compared to .30 Carbine at 7.4 and .223 Remington at 6.3. 

I've never liked firing .357 Magnum in a revolver, but I'm sure enjoying shooting it in the Puma Model 92 lever action carbine with 16-inch barrel. If you're looking for your first or another home defense and plinking firearm, be sure you take a look at the Puma 92. 

[Maverick]

That's a good little carbine and behaves well particularly with the right loads. Be careful of velocity with even hard cast lead slugs. They will lead it up in a heartbeat with the higher velocity from the closed longer tube. You can also shoot .38's in it but be aware that the shorter cases can leave a fouling ring that can interfere with shooting the longer .357 cases later.

You should get the best performance from long bullets, unfortunately you won't be able to use anything but blunt tip styles which will limit the ballistic capabilities. It's not a really bad choice for close in white tail but I'd consider it a bit marginal.

If you are thinking about cowboy shooting competition it's a great choice.

[Toad]

You can use the pointed Hornady LeveRevolution bullets if you handload.

Oops. My bad. I was thinking they were selling those bullets for handloading. Figured a .35 would work as it's a .358 bullet, just a thousandth off.

Apparently they are not making them available to reloaders as yet.

[Halo]

Thanks, Maverick, that's really good advice.  From past experience I've decided that with dual caliber firearms (e.g., .357/.38, .22 WMR/22. LR), I'm going to fire only the longer cartridges because of the shorter cartridge fouling that you mention.  That first became very apparent to me when I traded for a used Ruger Security Six .357/38.  Ruger was great about replacing the barrel and fixing a couple other problems -- free, except for shipping. 

In all firearms I'm also trying to never shoot bullets that aren't plated or coated because of the excessive fouling you mention.  Of course copper fouling can be a new problem in itself, but also treatable with the right solvents. 

[Maverick]

Your'e not too likely to get copper fouling of any real amount at the velocities of the carbine. If you get much at all over 2000 fps you are pushing the limit of the cartridge case a lot. Even though the action is stronger than a pistol it's still only a pistol cartridge case.

[lazs2]

Just shot my lever gun yesterday at the range... testing some loads.

It is a Henry in 44 mag.. my brother shot his marlin in 44 mag.  we tested a lot of handloads.

The lever guns seem to have slow twists to them and that means not too heavy a bullet..   the 240 jacketed hollow point with 22 grains of 296 or so worked very well.

I shot some cast slugs..  I shot some 300 grain truncated cone bullets at about 1400 fps and some 240 grain lee cast slugs I made out of wheel weights...

No leading and about 2.5" groups from all loads at 50 yards.. that is about as good as I can see with open sights these days anyway.. some of the groups were like an inch with one flyer.

The 44 will make you flinch after about 75 rounds or so from a bench but I bought a slip on recoil pad for bench work..  the brass butt is fine for anything else.

No leading at all..  I fire jacketed slugs last tho to scour out the bore.   I cleaned the bore with a couple of passes with a hoppes bore snake.

The funny thing is.. my mini 14 in 223 didn't do any better at 50 yards.

lazs