Hi, there it is me again with a new question. I have recently bought an 357 mag marlin 1894 and I like this nice carbine very much. For target shooting I use some 158 grain soft points from magtech and sellier&bellot. But I want to also use the marlin as an home defense carbine, so I am looking for some nice rounds.
Unfortunately it es very hard to get decent 357 mag jhps here in austria. With a lot of look I can get some speer gold dots and some hydra shok rounds from federal. That’s all. Other decent rounds are virutally non existent in the austrian market. The magtech first defense copper loads would also be obtainable.
I am ware that soft points are not cosidered as good sd round when fired from a sixgun. But what about using them in a rifle? Would the expand due to the extra velocity of the longer rilfe barrel?
Or shall i stick to the few jhp rounds available for self defense if they work well, when fired from an carbine…
The much greater velocity of the .357mag from a carbine makes the SP loads actually tend to expand, in my experience.
One of the Gold Dot loadings would be a better choice, but I wouldn’t be worried about using the SPs. I would water test one of the SPs you have and confirm.
Thanks for the good advices. Then I’ll try go get some federal gold dots and I will also try to water test the soft point rounds.
aguila327 Well using some 38 special rounds would be a great idea to reduce the ammo costs, but as the 357 mag the ammo supply with dandy sd rounds could be much better here in Austria. Only 38 special ball rounds rounds are widely available. The other obtainable 38 special rounds with some use for home defense would be some 158 grain semi wadcutter rounds. But I don’t know if these rounds will work properly in my marlin…
Buffalo Bore with 158 gr Speer Gold Dots have been my absolute favorite from my Marlin 1894C. I’ve killed many big pigs and a nice Texas 10 point from 75 yards with the 357 lever action using them. Dropped that buck like a sack of taters.
The buffalo bores damn near cut bowling pins in half too. I’d not hesitate at all to use them as HD rounds.
With a .357 carbine a very real issue is that bullets made for handguns are being driven well above their design velocity. I have crono’d Remington 125gr JHP from a friend’s Marlin at above 2200fps, as an example. At that kind of speed the average JHP will fragment like a varmint bullet and fail to penetrate.
The SPs often don’t expand from a 4 or 6" revolver in gel testing, but add 500fps or so from your Marling and you should be in business.
Very good point. If you have ever seen the 158gr GDHP…it’s really NOT a “Hollow Point” as the tip is really just a lightly divoted soft point. There’s no mouth or cavity…and I have always wondered why they called it a “HP”. It’s a soft point with the front being slightly concave.
There’s also the option of using a .38spl +P load with Gold dots, either from Buffalo Bore or Double Tap Ammo.
Pick whichever 357 mag that feeds the best in your rifle. Marlins are often cartridge length sensitive.
Be careful using regular 38 spl in a rifle length barrel, particularly w/ jacketed bullets. There is a real possibility on some loads that there isn’t enough powder to get the bullet out of the barrel. Never had that problem with lead bullets though.