Peter M. Eick
Member
I was out blasting with my 2 357 Magnum Redhawks today showing a coworker different 357 Magnums and reloads. The Redhawk is really starting to grow on me as I am starting to really learn how to shoot it well. The trigger is still heavy and yes I still have a mild constriction in the bore that needs to be polished out. But the targets are getting better and with Pachmyer grips on both of them, it is a lot easier to shoot well. I really need to take new pictures with the grips, but since they are both cleaned and packed away maybe next time.
I was trying reloads in them and was playing with 296 and 158 grn Rem JHP's. My standard 2400 load of 14.5 grns is just like shooting 38's in my Diamondback. Not much recoil but enough of a bump that you are not worried about sticking a bullet in the barrel. That same load in a Pre-27 is enough that you have to deal with the recoil. So I worked my way up to a load of "cough, cough" grns of 296 (a few tenths of a grain over max load from Winchester's 1997 manual) and it was fun. The brass still just dropped out of the cylinder and most of the time I did not even touch the ejector rod. They would fall out on their own which I interpret to be a reasonably mild load. This load is a bit past current manual max but it was a fun one to shoot in the Redhawk. Out of my Pre-27 it was definitely toward the top end of what I would be comfortable shooting out of a collectible N Frame.
No chrono or target data as it was rainy wet and the paper targets were falling apart by the time I was done.
So bottom line. 357 magnum Redhawks are fun. I really should get another as a spare. I think another 7.5" makes a lot of sense.