10+ years ago, when I decided to have my 500 Long built, I did a little shooting with the base gun before sending it off, and I've wanted a 357 Max to keep as a shooter ever since.

Last month, Mom & Dad presented this to me for my birthday:

This one started life as a 10.5" gun (bull barrel with a screw-on sight). A previous owner has cut it back to 6.5" and remounted the sight. With the heavy profile, it handles like a longer-barreled gun, while being much handier. It's a full .100" fatter at the muzzle than a factory 6.5" 357 Magnum. Probably not a configuration I'd have come up with on my own, but I couldn't be happier with it.

The only fly in the ointment was the front sight. The gun shot around a foot high at 25 yards. Fortunately, there were a couple of Ruger Mark II's in the safe with screw on sights and the same barrel profile. The one from Nikki's scoped slab-side was the perfect height.

I couldn't find our set of feeler gauges, but a piece of .0035" brass shim stock is a snug fit in the b/c gap. A healthy charge of W296 will easily push a 200 gr. Cast Performance WLN to 1500 fps or more. I shot five of those at the target on the left today at 50 yards. The one low shot was all me -- I watched the front sight dip just as the trigger broke.

The target on the right is 3 rounds of the old Remington 158 JHP factory load (which run ~1535 fps out of this barrel).