Review: Federal .357 Magnum HammerDown Ammunition
BY Herschel Smith3 years, 8 months ago
As the velocities of metallic cartridges increased and as rifle cartridges become significantly more powerful than handgun cartridges, things begin to change. If a shooter wanted a rifle, they generally wanted a rifle cartridge that would drastically extend the reach and hit harder than a handgun. Still, some revolver cartridges continued to be popular in rifles. With modern munitions, however, a popular revolver cartridge like the .357 Mag.—delivering about 1,200 to 1,400 fps out of a 4-inch revolver—will push the same bullet as much as 400 fps or faster out of a 16- or 18-inch-barrel rifle.
This created a problem for bullets. Modern projectile technology would allow ballistic engineers to create a bullet for .357 Mag. that could perform quite well at handgun or rifle velocities. What was challenging was to create something that would deliver expansion, maintain its weight and deliver decent penetration when fired from a short-barreled handgun as well as a rifle. You see, velocity is the driving force behind terminal performance, and bullets are typically designed to work within a certain velocity range. Extending that performance range so acceptable terminal performance can be had at impact velocities as low as 1,000 fps and as high as 1,800 fps has, at least until now, been similar to the search for Bigfoot.
I found myself trying to solve this conundrum of ammunition selection when I began working with a Ruger 77/357 bolt-action rifle I wanted to set up as a general-purpose rifle and as my companion to a concealed-carry and a general-purpose revolver.
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Out of a snubnose revolver, the HammerDown load penetrated 15.5 inches and deformed with a frontal diameter 1.5X caliber. Out of the 4-inch revolver, the bullet penetrated 20 inches and across the front it measured 1.6X the unfired bullet diameter. And, out of the 18-inch barrel of the rifle, the 170-grain bonded bullet pushed to 22 inches and had a recovered frontal diameter that measuring 1.3X its original diameter. Unlike Critical Duty, which only showed a 400 fps (38 percent) velocity increase between the 2- and 18-inch barrels, the HammerDown load jumped from 1,102 fps out of the snubby to 1,773 fps out of the rifle, a 61-percent increase in velocity.
The point of all this is that if you’re a fan of the .357 Mag., and if you would like a single load suitable for hunting, predator defense and personal protection—a general-purpose or Bigfoot-capable load—you now have a fantastic option.
Left unmentioned are two things. The first may be just an editorial preference, and that is that the ammunition design also incorporates certain features like chamfering at key parts of the cartridge to reduce misfeeds.
The second is the important one. This is a designer, boutique ammunition, and the difficulty at the moment is finding ammunition at all.
Finally, just try to located a Ruger 77/357 or for that matter a Ruger 77/44 today. They’ve been discontinued.
Oh, so then look for a Henry X Model in 357 magnum or 44 magnum. Nope. Cannot be found either.
On February 12, 2021 at 1:42 am, TRX said:
> discontinued
“We’ll make something that people have been asking for, but we’ll bump the price up beyond what the market will bear, and then we’ll discontinue it rather than find the price point where it sells.”
On February 12, 2021 at 10:18 am, Ned said:
I recently retrieved some photos of a New Mexico deer hunt from 30 years ago or so. I had lent a 44 mag rifle to a friend who didn’t have a rifle to hunt with and he supplied the ammo. He shot a big mature mule deer broadside, with a factory 240 grain hp load.
The round hit just behind the shoulder and left about a 3″ exit that’s visible in the photos. This was a standard old cup & core hollow point.
All the deer I shot with non-modern bullets with the 44 mag rifle dropped right there. Never recovered a bullet from a 44 mag rifle to see if it worked properly.
On February 12, 2021 at 12:58 pm, Don Curton said:
Two weeks ago I picked up a nice Rossi model 92 lever-action in .357 mag. They had two more in stock, plus a couple of Rossi’s in .44 mag. Also a nice selection of Henry’s in various calibers. Rossi’s ran right at $600 and the Henry’s were closer to $900 (thus my choice of the Rossi).
Point and Shoot store/range here in south Texas.
Rifles are out there, but no ammo.
Also Cabelas down here had a whole rack of the Ruger model 77/44 last year. A little pricey, but had I known they were discontinued I might have picked up one anyway. Doubt they are still there.