South Africa started manufacturing the 357 Magnum during mid-1980’s. When the Manual on South African head markings was published in December 1985 it did not yet contain any detail on the 357 Magnum, so it is therefore assumed that production probably started around early to mid-1986. The BOSS specimen below has a date marking on the inside flap dating to September 1987 with cases manufactured by PMP, so PMP would have been in full production by early 1987.
First specimen below is a laquered display dummy, second is a proof loading, third is a load used to test against kevlar jackets, as per the “KEVLAR PROOF” stamped on the case.
BOSS
BOSS Ammunition was a company that loaded cartridges for the commercial market during the 1980’s. They used mainly PMP components. The blue primer annulus is indicative of BOSS.
The above specimen is also a COBRA load, similar to the 38 Special listed on the RSA 38 Special page. It is speculated that these cases were manufactured by PMP for an unknown export contract. These cases were also found on ammunition from the Hansen Cartridge Co. and it may be that some of the overruns from the PMP order were sold to Hansen. The 6/92 is in all probability a date and not a lot number.
The AMT headstamp was by a company called AmmuTech from Wierda Park. a suburb in the city of Centurion which is situated halfway between Pretoria and Johannesburg. It was only known with a 1997 date.
NGA
Below are the various types of bullets encountered from NGA. Most of these were done on NGA headstamped cases, however there were PMP as well as IMI cases also used.
