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This new and improved version of the .3571.44 Super Magnum hypes up someimpressive ballistics and overshadows the .357 S& W Magnum.

By Dr. Ralph C. Glaze

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sen Reloading the Bobcat Magnum car-ffi tridge is the handloader's dream.3 Unlike many wildcat rounds, this.~ potent performer is easy to prod-~ uce and best of aI/-it works in~ the field and range. The high qual-en ity three-die set is readily a vail-5 able from RCBS and sells for $36.50.I11.

• Since the earliest days of the re-volver, shooters have sought new waysto increase the power of their handguns.The various methods used to achievethis result have included very largecases, and longer than normal cases.The trouble with very long or extra-large cartridges is that they must beused in over-sized revolvers that gener-ally prove to be unwieldy and awkwardin use. A bottle-neck case in a revolverpresents an added problem: gas flowaround the case neck, plus less effectiveobturation can allow the fired case tomove rearward with enough force tojam it against the breech face and recoilshield, which prevents normal rotationof the cylinder.

The Smith & Wesson .22 MagnumModel 53 was one of the very few re-volvers using a bottle-neck cartridgeever to reach the f!-Illproduction stage.

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A standard .44 Magnum brass casecan be necked down to .357 caliberin one pass through the RCBS die.

The ever-popular Ruger Black-hawk convertible in 9 mm and .357Magnum is an odds-on choice.Boring out the 9 mm cylinder is aneffective, easy-to-do conversion.

GUNS & AMMO/MARCH 1979 57

Feeding the sleeved .44 Mag. cases(inset) into the Ruger posed no prob-lems. The Bobcat Magnum is nereta-:ed as the most powerful .357 Mag-num-yet the recoil is comparable tothe .41 Remington Magnum round .

.3571.44 BOBCAT

Chambered for the .22 Remington Jet,the Model 53 featured cylinder chamberinserts that allowed the use of .22 rim-fire ammo as an alternative. The .22 Jetfrequently jammed the cylinder, how-ever, and the Model 53 was subsequent-ly withdrawn from production becausethis problem could not be overcomesufficiently to provide reliability.

Some years ago, Keith Davis andDan Cotterman developed a cartridgethat was known as the Bain and Davis.44/.357. This was a .44 Magnum casenecked down to .357 by way of a verysharp shoulder. Although it possessedexcellent ballistic properties, there weresome problems with case set-back, ex-traction, and even case separation withextremely heavy loads.

Recently, the Bain & Davis .44/ .357has been redesigned with a shorter neckand a more tapered shoulder. The newround is designated as the Bain & Dav-is .357/.44 Dreadnaught. This newestcartridge has been adapted to the RugerBlackhawk, whereas the original sharp-shouldered .44/ .357 was used in aSmith & Wesson Model 27. Althoughthe latest version suffers less from caseset-back than the original design, cylin-der lock-up still exists with heavy loads.

Now, there enters onto the big-borescene a new cartridge that delivers

58 GUNS & AMMO/MARCH 1979

Shooting the 125-grain loads was anexcellent compromise between veloc-ity and accuracy-sub two-incherswere achieved at over 1,800 fps.

Before reloading fired cases, thereusable sleeve must be removed.A RCBS .44 Special die is utilizedwhich grips the plastic sleeve whilethe case is withdrawn from the die.Running the next shell through thedie pops the first sleeve throughthe opening at top of the die.

round. This makes it possible to shooteither regular .357 Magnum cartridge orBobcats as one wishes. The .357 Mag-num cylinder will also handle .38 Spe-cials, of course, which makes this set-upvery versatile indeed.

Not only are the Bobcat ballisticshighly impressive, but everything func-tioned just the way the maker claimed.There was no more tendency to "lock-

continued on page 84

every bit as much punch as the Bain &Davis rounds with virtually none of theattendant problems. This new round isknown as the Bobcat Magnum. It wasdeveloped by Bob Booth of 2560 SanCarlos Ave., Castro Valley, CA 94546.

The unique feature of the Bobcat de-sign is a plastic sleeve that fits over thecase neck, taking up the difference be-tween .357 and .44 calibers. With thesleeve in place, the case, including thesleeve, has the same dimensions as a .44Magnum case-even though it fires a.357 caliber bullet. Confusing? Not real-ly, when you think about it and take alook at the photographs. The rear por-tion of the Bobcat cylinder is bored outto .44 Magnum specs, while the front

RELOADING DATA FOR .357 BOBCAT MAGNUM

••• - 8UWT 1Ium.E ElEIGY IIum.E m.ocmHllO 27.0 Sierra 90·gr. 840 foot pou nds 2,050 feet per sec.HllO - .....

26.3 Speer 110·gr. 885 foot pounds 1,900 feet per sec.W296 -...... 26.4 Speer 110-gr. 835 foot pounds 1,850 feet per sec.HllO .~.. 25.0 Speer 125·gr. 965 foot pounds 1,865 feet per sec.W296 - 25.2 Speer 125-gr. 955 foot pounds 1,850 feet per sec.2400 - 20.6 Speer 125-gr. 815 foot pounds l.715 feet per sec.W296 23.5 Speer 140-gr. 995 foot pounds l.790 feet per sec.HllO

_.23.0 Speer 140-gr. 905 foot pounds l.710 feet per sec.

Blue Dot - 18.0 Speer 140-gr. 1,005 foot pounds 1,800 feet per sec.W296 - 22.5 Speer 158-gr. 995 foot pounds 1,685 feet per sec.HllO

-- 22.0 Speer 158-gr. 960 foot pounds 1,655 feet per sec.2400 - 19.0 Speer 158-gr. 815 foot pounds 1,525 feet per see,Blue Dot 17.3 Speer 158-gr. 895 foot pounds 1,600 feet per sec.

Above loads are at or near maximum and should be approached WIth caution. Loads were tested In a Ruger New ModelBlackhawk with a 6'h·inch barrel. All bullets. used were jacketed hollow points. Hard-cast lead bullets may be used withthe Bobcat cartridge but gas-checks should be applied and velocities kept below 1,600 Ips.

Applying methylene chloride to the neck of the casesoftens the polycarbonate sleeve for better adhesion.

A plastic tube is part of the die set and a light tap onthe tube will firmly set the sleeve against the shoulder.

cylinder section remains sized for a .357caliber bullet.

Because a .357 Magnum must bebored out to .44 Magnum size to con-vert it to Bobcat dimensions, only a fewrevolvers have sufficient "meat" aroundthe chambers to leave enough strengthfor the hot-loaded Bobcat. Of the gen-erally available guns, Bob Booth haschosen only the Smith & Wesson Mod-els 27 and 28, and the Ruger Black-

Without delay, the plastic sleeve/collar should be affix-ed to the case neck by hand-these sleeves are reusable.

The entire operation takes more time to explain than todo-and it's an easy, fun way to make a new, hot wildcat.

hawk as being suitable for conversion.Bob says the Colt Single Action Armyin .357 Magnum caliber could also beconverted, although he has not yetmade one.

Our test gun is a Ruger Blackhawkconvertible that came from the factorywith two cylinders; one chambered for.357 Magnum, and the other for 9 mmPara bellum. The 9 mm cylinder hasbeen bored out to accept the Bobcat

GUNS & AMMO/MARCH 1979 59

.357/.44 BOBCATcontinued from page 59

up" the cylinder than might be expect-ed from any .44 Magnum-there is al-most always a slight "drag" from caseset-back when using super hot loads inthe big .44. There were absolutely noextraction problems. While the emptycases didn't exactly fall out on theirown, it took only a slight push on theejector rod to poke them out of thechamber. There was, of course, no signof case separation. In short, the Bobcatfunctions pretty much the same as anystraight-case cartridge such as the .44 or.357 Magnum would, using loads devel-oping similar pressures.

The Bobcat is a high-pressure round,for sure. It will average 300 to 400 feetper second higher velocity than anyother comparable load fired in a re-volver. It develops practically the samemuzzle energy as the .44 Magnum, butwith about twice the penetration. Recoilof the Bobcat is comparable to the .41Magnum-a bit more push than the.357, but not quite as harsh as the larg-er .44 Magnum.

We tested several loads with a varietyof bullet weights that included the Sier-ra 90-grain Hollow-Point, and SpeerHollow-Points in I to, 125, 140 and 158grain sizes. The Sierra 90-grain bulletsare intended for use in pistols cham-bered for 9 mm Parabellum or .380ACP and, consequently, are sized .355instead of .357. The slight difference indiameter makes no practical differenceat close range, but accuracy falls tonothing short of terrible at distancesover 20 yards or so. Part of the problemhere is with the bullet weight, since theIIO-grain round was also quiteinaccurate-although slightly better thanthe 90-grain.

The most accurate bullet we testedwas the 140-grain Speer HP. Averagegroup size at 25 yards from sandbagrest was I Ys inches. When pushed by 23grains of Winchester 296 Powder, thispotent pill left the 6Y2-inch barrel at1,750 fps.

The 158-grain Speer HP was almostas accurate as the 140-grain. Averagegroup size with the heavier slug was 11,4inches. Muzzle velocity of the 158-grainloaded ahead of 22 grains of Winches-ter 296 is 1,650 fps.

Group sizes opened up a bit with the125-grain loads, averaging almost twoinches. Our test load for the 125-grainSpeer HP was 24 grains of HodgdonH ltO for 1,805 fps.

The Speer IIO-grain bullet, driven by26.3 grains of Hodgdon H 110 produceda muzzle velocity of 1,900 fps. Twentyseven grains of H 110 pushes the 90-grain Sierra HP at an almost unbelieva-ble ratp of 2,050 fps. As mentioned be-fore, accuracy falls off drastically withthese lighter projectiles.

84 GUNS & AMMO/MARCH 1979

We did not perform any tests forpenetration, however Bob Booth claimsthe 140-grain bullet will penetrate 18layers of Kevlar, the material used inbullet-proof vests. This represents overY3 more penetration than any othermagnum load tested.

With the very large number of bulletsavailable in .38 caliber, the possibilitiesfor Bobcat loads seem almost limitless.There are many propellant powders thatare suitable for loading the Bobcat. Per-haps the best choices would be Win-chester 296, Hodgdon HIIO, DupontIMR4227, and the old reliable 2400.Highest velocities were achieved with296 and H I to, although it may well be

Even experts gouge up a shell once ina while. Careful and safe reloadingtechniques are always a must!

that accuracy could be improved usingsome of the other powders at lower ve-locities. This would be an interesting re-search project. Working up loads fornew cartridges is certainly at least halfthe fun of developing something a bitout of the ordinary.

Cases for the Bobcat are easilyformed in the special loading dies avail-able from RCBS. All that is necessary isto run a .44 Magnum case into theBobcat full-length sizing die, and thenecking-down and sizing are accom-plished in one operation. The Bobcatcase is then primed, loaded with pow-der and the bullet seated in the usualmanner.

After the bullet is seated (andcrimped, if necessary,) the plastic sleeveis applied. A plastic tube is providedthat slips over the bullet. A light tap onthis tube will seat the sleeve firmlyagainst the case shoulder. As an alterna-tive method, the loaded cartridge maybe placed bullet down in a .38 caliberloading block. A light tap with a plastichammer applied to the base of the case(not the primer) will seat the sleeve. Inorder to be sure the sleeve stays whereit should, the outside of the case neck

should be roughed up slightly with\ medium grade emery paper. When us-

ing sleeves that have been removedfrom fired cases, Bob Booth recom-mends dipping the loaded case, up tothe shoulder, in Methylene Chloride, asolvent that will soften the inside of theplastic sleeve, causing it to adhere morefirmly to the case neck.

Bobcat plastic sleeves are made frompolycarbonate plastic material that hasa very high impact resistance. Ham-mers, kinetic bullet-pullers, and bullet-proof windows are made of similar ma-terial. The sleeves may be used formany reloadings. In fact even if theyare cracked, they will still work effi-ciently if properly secured to the brasscase. Sleeves must be removed fromfired cases in order to re-form the brassand seat the bullet correctly.

Sleeves may be removed from firedcases by running them into a .44 Spe-cial sizing die that is included in thespecial RCBS Bobcat die set. When thefired case is run up into this die, thesleeve is squeezed tightly enough sothat, when the case is removed, thesleeve remains in the die. As each

.successive case is foreed into the die,the used sleeves are pushed out of thetop of the die body where they are re-covered for further use.

With the exception of the very simpleinstallation and removal of the plasticsleeves, reloading the Bobcat is carriedout in the same manner as with anyother cartridge. This is not one of thosetricky operations that are so often nec-essary with many wildcat rounds. It'ssimple, it's easy, and it works. .

Bob Booth claims that the BobcatMagnum is the world's most powerful.357 caliber revolver, and the authorknows of no reason to dispute thisclaim. The Ruger New Model Black-hawk test gun performed perfectly and,with a set of Sile oversize grips in-stalled, was quite pleasant to shoot. Ac-curacy with 140 and 158-grain bullets isabout as good as one could expect fromany handgun. Muzzle energy developedby the heavier loads approaches 1,000foot pounds, which certainly places it inthe super Magnum class. The Bobcatoffers all the advantages of two guns inone, and would be an excellent choicefor anyone who wants a real power-house that will also handle plinking ortarget loads.

The cost of the Bobcat Magnum isquite modest by today's standards. BobBooth will re-chamber your Ruger cyl-inder for $59.95, or he will provide amodified cylinder complete for $94.95($7 more for stainless steel). Smith &Wesson Models 27 and 28 may be al-tered for $59.95, or a new cylinder sup-plied for $114.95. The Bobcat die set(three dies) runs $36.50, and plasticsleeves are $6 a hundred. Booth canalso supply loaded ammo through deal-erchanne~. ~