Posted on 07/20/2006 3:41:02 PM PDT by Melinda in TN
My husband bought this .357 Magnum for me from a man that said he couldn't shoot it because it was too powerful. It came with a box of 110 grain .357 Magnum hollow points and a box of 158 grain .38 Special LRN. I can shoot both sizes with ease so I don't know what his problem was. My question is, will the 110 grain .357 Magnum HP be effective in it for self-defense or are they practice quality only? I want a weight that is effective but not more than I can easily handle since this is my concealed carry gun.
I have a .380 semi-auto that I keep in my truck along with two loaded clips that is very accurate but I figured the revolver wouldn't be as accurate. The .357 should be good for self-defense because that would be closeup shooting. If they are far off I don't figure they are a big threat. I plan to carry the .357 in my purse or belt so it needed to be small.
I keep the .357 on the table by my bed but my weapon of choice for home defense is my Overland Stage double-barrel 12ga. It has side by side barrels that are only 21 inches long, twin hammers, and it won't miss. :-) It might wreck the house some but I guarantee it will hit anything in it's path. A man came in my house once (thought nobody was home) and I was standing in the kitchen with the shotgun pointed at him. It didn't take him long to back out the way he came in. He didn't come back either.
.....good for you.....I usually recommend a 12 or 20 gauge pump....usually Mossberg or Remington with 18 or 20 inch barrels.....when you let them hear you "rack" a round....then know you mean business....but what you have will do just fine......*smile*
May I suggest that you purchase a new box of ammo. You don't know how old the stuff you got with the revolver is. A .357 is most effective with either a .357 Magnum 125 grain HP or a .357 magnum 158 grain HP. The .38 Special ammo is considerably lower power than the .357 due to it's smaller case capacity. Practice with the .38 Special stuff to get accurate then with the .357 to make sure you don't flinch. With a short barrel like that, you should see quite a fireball with .357 magnum.
Unless it was in some sort of harsh environment, like under water or something, Ammo for the most part has no shelf life. I have rounds that are 25+ years old that fire just as accurate as new.
I can do that. I'm sure I don't want to go over 158 grain but I didn't know how bad that weight would be in the .357 magnum. I saw quite a fireball with the 110 grain so I can imagine how it would be with the 158. I will probably start with the 125 grain. That sounds like a good weight from what I'm reading in here. I don't mind buying several boxes of different weights as long as I can handle them. I'm not a bit gun shy but I'm sure there are limits to what I can do.
You can get surprising accuracy out of a snubby revolver. I can easily keep a group of five from my Smith on a paper plate at 15 yards, and I don't consider myself nearly proficient enough with it yet. Obviously it's not your first choice for long range shooting, but all the crap you hear about not being able to hit anything with a snub is, well, crap.
If you're comfortable shooting it, great. Just get out and practice.
EXACTLY!
I love shooting it. It's a lot more fun than my .380 semi-auto. I normally shoot on the farm but I plan to take it to the indoor range to do some real practicing with it.
I really like the air-weights but I doubt I could handle one. This one is heavy enough at 21oz. but still small enough to conceal.
I carry the same rounds in that one as I do in my S&W M66 357. Federal Premium Personal Defense .38SPL +P, 129 gr.
For a snubbie, I'd go with Glaser, MagSafe or RBCD in the .38sp+P. Low recoil and low flash. In a traditional type of round, I recommend the Hornady TAP or the 110gr Hydra-Shok. But stick with the 38sp. Also make sure you stick a set of tritium sights on her. MAYBE a set of CT lasergrips.
True, but the ammo could have been in the trunk of a car, sprayed with solvent, who knows. Why take a chance when one's life is at stake. I have plenty of WW-II ammo left to shoot. Do I carry it in my service weapon...not on my life.
125 grain would be my choice. I use 125 +p in my 2" .38. 158 in my .357 model 19 6" bbl.
The 125 grain loads are the hottest .357 rounds of all. In LE usage they were proved to be some of the best "man stopping" rounds you can buy, right up there with the best .45 acp and .40 S&W HP loads. But the recoil and muzzle blast in that small frame snub nose gun will be pretty bad with those hot rounds. I have a 2-1/2" barrel K-frame .357 that weighs 30 ounces, and even in that gun with a much larger and heavier frame than yours the 125 grain HPs are quite a handful. If I were you I would definitely stick with the milder 110 grain loads in that little J-frame size revolver and use the .38 spl lead bullet stuff strictly for practice or recreational shooting. After they're all gone try some .38 spl wadcutter target rounds for practice, they're very accurate and also very easy on the hands and ears.
For decades street cops were required to use this very load. It gathered a gruesome nickname: widow maker. It took the lives of a whole lot of good cops to get police administrators.....and mayors and other spineless politicians to come around to the benefits of the JHP. Then things started to get better when the semiauto's started to take hold as a potential police sidearm. But I'll bet the 38sp lead round nose was the standard for........mmmmmmm..........35 years? Maybe 40 years? Even the military was using it pre 1911 and you can guess what replaced it. In part because the military switched to the 1911 is the reason politicians used for NOT going to a semiauto in a respectable caliber like the 45.
I have a .357 that I load with Jacketed Pre-Fragmented (JPF)slugs. Basically it's bird shot in a copper jacket. They expend all of their kinetic energy in the target.
Yes. Brand names: Glaser Safety Slug or MagSafe.
Try the blended metal variety: RBCD and check out the muzzle energy factors. This is the one instance where I'd go with the 357 in a snubbie. Look at some of the test mediums and muzzle velocities. This stuff ain't CHEAP but even at $50 a box of 20rds, I put that value on my life. I have a box in the .40 and love it. I bought a couple of boxes to make sure they'd feed (they do) and where they hit as to various ranges (point of aim at 7yds).
"The 125 grain loads are the hottest .357 rounds of all. "
Not all of them are hot. The Remington Golden Sabre 125 grain is just slightly hotter energy-wise than the Winchester White Box 110 grain(dunno if that's the 110 she's been shooting but it's a pretty low powered 110. Wouldn't recommend a steady diet of full-powered 110 because the gases are hard on guns.) Think a lot of people like the Golden Sabres in 357 Magnum snubbies.
Another mild 357 load is Speer's Gold Dot Hollowpoint Short Barrel 135 grain. It's even milder energy-wise than Rem Golden Saber 125 or WWB 110. Designed for snubbies, so it's another option if someone prefers a bit heavier bullet but doesn't want heavy recoil.
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