After much consideration, the obvious answer for me was the .357 Maximum. The 1.605” case is .315” longer than the .357 magnum. The case length allows room for much more powder than the smaller magnum case and is still under the Indiana maximum requirement of 1.625”. It can withstand much more pressure than the magnum offering and should easily handle the 180 grain Hornady bullets that I have grown fond of over the years. I should elaborate. The use of Hornady’s 180 gr. Single Shot Pistol Bullet was as important to me as the choice of the chambering I chose. In fact, I would not be happy using any other bullet for this project.
In the early 90’s I hunted deer in Indiana with a Thompson Center Contender single shot pistol. It had a 14” barrel and was chambered in .35 Remington and was topped off with a Leupold 4X pistol scope. With this combination, I was able to achieve 3-shot groups at 200 yards that measured 2.5” at 200 yards when fired from sand bag rests. This was an extremely effective combination for me and I took several Indiana whitetails with it, including a very nice 8 point that scored 123 pts and field dressed at 160 lbs. The 8 point was taken at 100 yards and a double lung shot dropped him on the spot. None of the other deer that I shot with this setup traveled more than 50 yards, after receiving a Hornady 180 grain slug through the boiler room. My specific load with the .35 Remington/Contender achieved just over 1900 fps from the 14” barrel. The 180 grain bullet has more of a pointed design that carries a higher ballistic coefficient than the round nose and flat nosed bullets usually associated with the .35 Remington as well as the hollow point pistol bullets that are typically fired from sabots in muzzle loaders. This allows more retained velocity downrange which converts to a flatter shooting projectile that delivers more energy on longer shots. After much research, I was convinced that the .357 Maximum, when chambered in a 24” rifle barrel, should exceed the velocity I was getting with my 14” T/C Contender barrel in .35 Remington. Something I was uncertain about is how the accuracy of a straight wall pistol cartridge that headspaces on the rim would compare to a bottle neck rifle cartridge like the .35 Remington.
The .357 Maximum with a Hornady 180 grain single shot pistol bullet is at far left. In the center is the .357 Magnum and the .38 special is to the right.
