A fellow shooter here in Australia has a Ruger 77/44 it's bore was ruined got his gunsmith to fit a .357 barrel on it and chambered it into a 357 Bain and Davis looks the goods!
http://www.australianhunting.net/index. ... ic=81062.0
This is Short & Fats posting on Australian Hunting Net quoted as he posted it.
I finally got the latest Short and Fat wildcat home for xmas.
OK so the story is I had a nice Ruger 77/44 and I stuffed the barrel, so its been out of action now for about 2 years, I had the barrel removed and have been slowly looking for alternatives and options.
I was a bit limited with the Ruger rotary magazine and bolt face already at 44 Rem mag size so I searched high and low for my options.
Now Con had just completed his 458 B&M on his Stainless Ruger 350 Rem MAg and he had his as new 350 Rem Mag barrel sitting at home collecting dust. We got talking and I did a bit of sniffing around and came across the 357 / 44 Bain and Davis, which was a popular conversion in the USA for .357 Revolvers.
So for mates rates Con handed me the stainless 350 barrel, it needed the old chamber cut off and a bit of thinning down around the knox form and barrel profile was close, it would work, so I set about turning the 44 into a 357/44.
I posted a wanted ad on the AR Forum in the USA and a nice fella over there said he'd send me a reamer for nothing all I had to do was look after it and send it back when finished.
I also got one of our resident US forum members to buy me a set of dies out of the US as well and send them over.
While the Gunsmith had the metal work, I stripped the stock back and oiled it, now that was a pain in the butt, the clear coat on those Rugers is stronger than steel.
Got the phonecall a week ago, it was ready, and with a bit of work it fitted in well, even got the factory Ruger wording on the barrel on top and it looked like a standard factory issued rifle. It's light and topped with my old faithful Japan 2-7 tasco world class, balances very well.
I form the cases by running standard 44 Rem Mag brass into the full length die, it swags it down to 357 and puts a gentle shoulder on the case, it's really that simple, the case needs a mild trim because it grows in length
I have shot off about 10 rounds and it's a bloody noisy bastard, recoil not noticeable, I'll do some load development over the XMAS break but I think 27g of 2205 behind the 125g Hornady XTP will be the load of choice. I'm guessing a velocity of 2450fps out of the 20.5 inch barrel, a trajectory similar to the 22 Hornet, and good to 150/175 meters
The new rounds feed slick out of the Ruger rotary magazine, all in all a very easy change over and will make a thumping fox gun over the summer and a nice introduction to big bores for the boys.
Here's some pictures for you guys to look at
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