What’s with the steel charging handle? I have a power spring but just stock charging handle. I’m assuming it can break?
Upvote 0
Benjamin Benjamin Bulldog M357 Impression
- Thread starter Ezana4CE
- Start date
Figured that’s what it was. I still need an extended reservoir, de pinger, and possibly a regulator. Not sure how much more power these will provide but I want to get it as powerful as possible first. I’m using all pitbull parts, everything I’ve heard has been good.
Upvote 0
Spike down. First Whitetail deer with my Bulldog M357 shooting NSA 110 hollowpoint slugs. About a 55-60 yards shot.
I’ll post more in the hunting forum.
Click the link below for more photos and details on this hunt.
www.airgunnation.com
I’ll post more in the hunting forum.
Click the link below for more photos and details on this hunt.
Whitetail Spike Taken Christmas Eve 2023 With Benjamin Bulldog M357
T'was the evening before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except I..... I was playing a game with a football game playing in the background (Cleveland vs Houston I think). That's when I'd looked out of a window and noticed a deer grazing in the yard. I'd been...
www.airgunnation.com Last edited:
Upvote 0
Those JSB's tickling 1,100 FPS have me taking a second look! What is the maximum "minute of raccoon" accuracy potential for this combo?
Upvote 0
@Hal4son I’d honestly tune it down for raccoon around 820-920 fps and I think it would be fine. A domed pellet traveling 1000+ fps would likely blow through a raccoon. The JSB .35 pellets shoot well from my .357 Bulldog out to about 55-60 yards before dropping. I haven’t done a lot of pellet shooting with the M357, but from my testing I suspect that they will perform consistently out of this platform within 50 yards. It may have the ability to stretch out to longer distances to its little brother. The truth is that I really can’t say for sure. I’d have to check an old hard drive to look at shot string data for velocities out of my .357 Bulldog, but that velocity range works fine. I used to stack pellets within 40 yards with the .357 Bulldog.
Upvote 0
@Greg_E I’m late as all get out getting to this, but I finally made time to test some of the slugs you sent shooting my M357. I shot two different slugs, the red hollow points and the green round noses. I have several photos to post and some shot string data.
I also tested some slugs that @karl_h sent. I thank you both for your kindness. Give me some time and I’ll get the info together to add to this thread. Again I apologize to both of you for taking so long. I didn’t forget.
Last edited:
Upvote 0
06/21/24 edited to provide accurate details about slug used and corrected shot string data.
Benjamin Bulldog M357 shooting some Hornady .38, 158 grain knurled, flat base, hollow tip semi-wadcutter reloads. I’m still unsure about the actual the weight of these. This is the weight I was told and that is listed on the product description. @karl_h sent these. I didn’t weigh them to verify the weight. They seemed to range in diameter, .3555 - .3576 which also seems sort of consistent with what other say in the product reviews.
It took a couple of shot strings to get a feel for these. I was pleasantly surprised. They performed to my liking. I’d like to work with these more. But the weight is still in question. They perform at velocities very similar to the way that 165 grain Griffin boattail slugs shot from this gun.
Can knurling reduce a projectiles velocity when shot from big-bore airguns?
Shot string data:
Here’s a few groups from 50 yards. Nothing spectacular, but considering my setup and abilities I know that I can work with these. I have decent DOPE so I’m thinking that things can only look up from here. Shots touching work for me and two almost in the same hole in the bullseye? All things considered, not bad.
Thanks Karl. I maybe shot 25-30 of these. I need to find out where you got these so I can look for some more. These seem to work to my satisfaction. I still have to try the other sample.
Benjamin Bulldog M357 shooting some Hornady .38, 158 grain knurled, flat base, hollow tip semi-wadcutter reloads. I’m still unsure about the actual the weight of these. This is the weight I was told and that is listed on the product description. @karl_h sent these. I didn’t weigh them to verify the weight. They seemed to range in diameter, .3555 - .3576 which also seems sort of consistent with what other say in the product reviews.
It took a couple of shot strings to get a feel for these. I was pleasantly surprised. They performed to my liking. I’d like to work with these more. But the weight is still in question. They perform at velocities very similar to the way that 165 grain Griffin boattail slugs shot from this gun.
Can knurling reduce a projectiles velocity when shot from big-bore airguns?
Shot string data:
Here’s a few groups from 50 yards. Nothing spectacular, but considering my setup and abilities I know that I can work with these. I have decent DOPE so I’m thinking that things can only look up from here. Shots touching work for me and two almost in the same hole in the bullseye? All things considered, not bad.
Thanks Karl. I maybe shot 25-30 of these. I need to find out where you got these so I can look for some more. These seem to work to my satisfaction. I still have to try the other sample.
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Now for some of the slugs that @Greg_E sent. First up I shot the red powder coated hollow tip slugs. These felt more 130-135 grain, but I can’t recall the weight I was told. I’ll have to review some old messages and weigh them. They mostly measured .357 in diameter. I measured the diameter of 4 slugs.
Shot a couple groups from my M357 using a single-shot tray. At first I shot from a Caldwell Lead Sled, but I ditched it for my Caldwell Turret Rest because the turret is more comfortable for me to use.
Some shot string data. I entered the weight as 135 grain. I need to verify this.
I was not able to get these to group well.
This is embarrassing.
These were another batch of round-nose powder coated slugs courtesy of @Greg_E. These mostly measured .356 in diameter. I guessed the weight to be 135 grains, but these need to be weighed as well.
A shot string
Not the best group
Shot a couple groups from my M357 using a single-shot tray. At first I shot from a Caldwell Lead Sled, but I ditched it for my Caldwell Turret Rest because the turret is more comfortable for me to use.
Some shot string data. I entered the weight as 135 grain. I need to verify this.
I was not able to get these to group well.
This is embarrassing.
These were another batch of round-nose powder coated slugs courtesy of @Greg_E. These mostly measured .356 in diameter. I guessed the weight to be 135 grains, but these need to be weighed as well.
A shot string
Not the best group
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Im glad your testing all these slugs! I have a whole bunch of misc 357 slugs bought off the classifieds. I have quite a bit of 130 gr round nose slugs and was wondering how the m357 would push them. However iirc they are sized .358. Keep up the good work.
Upvote 0
I will post it on this thread. I'm wanting to set this gun up for closer distances maybe 25-35 yards maybe 50. I got my fixed sights on it but haven't gotten out the boresight to check it out. I'm contemplating wrapping the stock and getting a fill nipple cover and ditching the factory cover. I'm thinking some barrel supports are in order but other than that and perhaps a cerberus prism scope this gun is set..
Upvote 0
Still working with these 158 grain SWC-HP slugs. A sample size of about 10 slugs from a new batch measured .3575-.3585 in diameter. No chronograph or tables. Shooting off of a bucket and using Primos trigger sticks bipod at 50 yards. Shooting untethered and from the magazine. They fit nicely in the mag although the dry lube gets on and in the mag. I figure a toothbrush can be used to clean it. Anyhow, I had to check my DOPE, adjust my scope, and figure my holds for various pressure levels. So far the best group of the day.
Here’s that entire target. Not sure what happened to the 5th shot on the bottom two. I heard them strike metal. In fact I’m tearing up my trap. I’ve broken some welds. These hit pretty hard.
You can see the weld on the left side is of the bar is broken and the back plate of the trap is getting dinged up pretty decent. If you look closely at the edge of the rear plate it has a hump from a number of hard hitting impacts high on the plate. Also the seam on the left is separating (below the piece of tape). Time to get this welded up when I empty it.
Here’s that entire target. Not sure what happened to the 5th shot on the bottom two. I heard them strike metal. In fact I’m tearing up my trap. I’ve broken some welds. These hit pretty hard.
You can see the weld on the left side is of the bar is broken and the back plate of the trap is getting dinged up pretty decent. If you look closely at the edge of the rear plate it has a hump from a number of hard hitting impacts high on the plate. Also the seam on the left is separating (below the piece of tape). Time to get this welded up when I empty it.
Last edited:
Upvote 0
The group measurements where I could find 5 holes. This ain’t YouTube. I admit it, I'm not a great shot. I don’t throw out shots and give you a long speech about “what if” or “I had a mosquito biting my balls when I took that shot.” I love to hunt and all sorts of stuff happens on the hunt (yes your balls can get bitten or worse). We gotta deal with it the way that it happens. If I threw or pulled the shot or if I didn’t clean my barrel, that’s on me. This is real world stuff and I am liking these bullets!
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Have you tried the 156 gr slugs from pro slugs? I'm thinking about ordering a big box of 500 for $120 plus shipping.
Upvote 0
I didn’t have much time to shoot yesterday. After time with the family and other duties I had about 3-4 hours to play with, or so I thought. Once I’d set up my trap and target, I realized I’d forgotten to bring a couple of things like: my bucket to sit on and my tape to affix the cardboard and targets to the trap. I made due with tape left on the trap and cardboard from my last shooting session. I could probably use a bubble level for the scope, but I don’t own one with a 34mm ring. I’m pretty sure I was shooting canted. And I stood leaning against my truck tailgate in attempt to brace myself to be more steady while shooting off of my bipod. I had my Primos Trigger Sticks tripod, but I use it to hold my spotting scope. My goal was to work out more DOPE out to 100 yards with this gun shooting three slugs that I had tested previously. I started at 75 yards. It was 92F, relative humidity around 68% and I was pretty sweaty. Ultimately an approaching thunderstorm caused me to call it quits once the lightning moved too close for comfort. There wasn’t much wind at all.
Rushing to take this photo before leaving the rangefinder read 73 yards.
How it looks to target.
I was able to work for about 50 minutes standing shooting from behind my Primos Trigger Stick bipod. I only got around to shooting the no-longer-produced 140 grain hollow-point boattail slugs by Griffin Airgun Ammo. At first I held dead center with settings I’d adjusted from my 50 yard zero. I still have to review my DOPE. My shots were consistently hitting right about 1”-1.5” and I threw a few shots being impatient. Real-world target. This was not a good result, but I felt like sharing anyhow. It should at least serve to contrast how I expect these slugs to perform (based upon their performance at 50 yards and things I’ve read) once I get have time to work on this some more and am properly prepared. I can’t guarantee these slugs will do what I want out to 100 yards, but I saw enough in this session to have an idea of what to expect.
10 shots from the magazine. The marked shots are from the first mag. I started holding dead center on the fist shot which is the lowest. Then I tried holding over when I thought I should be and the second shot hit too high. By shot 5 I was closer to where I wanted to be.
On the second mag I adjusted the elevation on my scope some until I realized that I didn’t recall the reticle subtensions.
Edit: Below are the subtentions. Apparently there is 0.2 mil distance between the hashmarks.
I didn’t want to continue to dial guessing how many clicks to adjust the elevation so I continued to shoot using holdovers. Lackluster performance, but I know how I want to approach this next time out. Until then……
Rushing to take this photo before leaving the rangefinder read 73 yards.
How it looks to target.
I was able to work for about 50 minutes standing shooting from behind my Primos Trigger Stick bipod. I only got around to shooting the no-longer-produced 140 grain hollow-point boattail slugs by Griffin Airgun Ammo. At first I held dead center with settings I’d adjusted from my 50 yard zero. I still have to review my DOPE. My shots were consistently hitting right about 1”-1.5” and I threw a few shots being impatient. Real-world target. This was not a good result, but I felt like sharing anyhow. It should at least serve to contrast how I expect these slugs to perform (based upon their performance at 50 yards and things I’ve read) once I get have time to work on this some more and am properly prepared. I can’t guarantee these slugs will do what I want out to 100 yards, but I saw enough in this session to have an idea of what to expect.
10 shots from the magazine. The marked shots are from the first mag. I started holding dead center on the fist shot which is the lowest. Then I tried holding over when I thought I should be and the second shot hit too high. By shot 5 I was closer to where I wanted to be.
On the second mag I adjusted the elevation on my scope some until I realized that I didn’t recall the reticle subtensions.
Edit: Below are the subtentions. Apparently there is 0.2 mil distance between the hashmarks.
I didn’t want to continue to dial guessing how many clicks to adjust the elevation so I continued to shoot using holdovers. Lackluster performance, but I know how I want to approach this next time out. Until then……
Last edited:
Upvote 0