S&W 350 - - - .357 Max?

[alfsauve]

An enthusiastic article in Feb American Rifleman about Smith’s new 350 revolver for the 350 Legend.

Only problem is S&W warned users not to fire .357 Mag rounds in it because the bullets are too big.
[edit]  S&W didn't say the bullets were too big.  The author, Kelly Young, assumed that was the reason.

  SAY WHAT?

The bore and grove dimensions on the .357 Mag and the 350 Legend are the same. And the case diameters are within a whisker.

But my mind wander a little further afield.  Is this a suitable platform for .357 Max?

If some one wants to loan me one of these I’ll be glad to test it out.  Michael? Kevin?  Anybody?

[Big Frank]

I only read the captions on that article. I'll give it a shot too if someone loans me a gun. I still have several boxes of Max. ammo. Will the cylinder even close with a rimmed cartridge in it?

[alfsauve]

Will the cylinder even close with a rimmed cartridge in it?

The author tried and yes, the cylinder will close and lock.  I'd guess he'd might have actually shot some rounds but with liability issues and S&W having tell him "NO", he didn't say in the article. 

The author assumed it had to do with bullet size which was wrong and he should have known that.  And he shouldn't have just let S&W tell him, no, but he should have gotten the real reason from them.

Now the .350L despite being called straight wall, has a little taper, like many semi-auto rounds, to aid in insertion and extraction.  So the back of the chamber is about 0.01" bigger than it would be for a .357mag or max.  This might bulge the cases, or split them, OR it just might fire form them.

[Big Frank]

I wasn't sure the rims would fit where the moon clip goes, but thought they likely would. It doesn't really sound like it would be a problem if the head is only .001" too narrow. It's not as if it's an ultra-high pressure cartridge and it's going to explode.

Maybe the next big thing will be a 360 Buckhammer revolver. BMF could do it to compete with the S&W 350.

https://www.remington.com/360buckhammer.html