Remington .357 Magnum 158 gr. Metal Point
 

Recently I was given most of a box of Remington .357 Magnum 158 gr. Metal Point ammo. I pulled one out of the box, looked at it and was surprised to find that the bullet was pushed down deep into the case with only part of it sticking out. I thought it was defective, but then I noticed the rest are just like it. Is this normal? Why would the bullet be seated so deep into the case? The bullets appear to be held in place with a heavier than usual roll crimp.

Dave Sinko

if they are anything like the Winchester metal point loads the "metal" only covers the point and down to maybe the crimping groove. the rest of the bullet is just the exposed lead portion.

I see... I have some elderly ammo that is half jacketed but I didn't expect it with this newer stuff. I guess I'll pull one to take a look at it and then shoot away the rest. It sounds like this stuff has no redeeming value.

Dave Sinko

If they are Remington factory loads, that is probably correct. These bullets were sometimes refered to as metal capped, because none (or very little) of the bearing surface is jacketed. The exposed lead is very soft. If you shoot them, be prepaired to do a little bore scrubbing.

These things were directed at the highway patrol and rual police market to give improved performance against auto bodies.

We read constantly about "new" bullets that give improved performance against targets protected by intermediate barriers. We tend to think that we are dealing with new issues that came to light only after that sad business in Miami, and other such incidents. The truth is that the latest "wonder bullet" is just another attempt to solve problems that have been recognized since the 1930's.

Depending on manufactured date, etc., they might have a little collector's value.

Tex is right I would bet the ammo is 20yrs old they do some major damage to 1/4 in steel
also the the bullet vests

I pulled one of these and mangled it to find out just what it is. The part hidden inside the case is basically a soft swaged WC without the hollow base. The lead is swaged up into the "metal point" with the base of the metal point crimped into the lead. If this load has any kind of real velocity I'd expect severe leading. The "metal" is just copper so I don't see how this bullet can have any special penetrating abilities. The only real benefit I see here is to Remington's bottom line, considering how cheap this bullet would be to produce. So there was really a time when people paid money for this and thought it was something special?

Dave Sinko

I have some old Western ammunition handbook(20th edition , 1954) and their loading of this bullet had a muzzle velocity of 1,430 fps out of a 8.750 barrel

At least some vintage loadings that worked fine are now considered unsafe in the very guns the loads were developed in. Detuning a load for increased safety margin is good theory, but in practice I'm fairly certain they went farther than necessary.