Designed by the famous Bill Jordan of the Border Patrol who cajoled s&w to take a K frame .38 and beef it up a bit to handle the .357 magnum. It’s light and a little whippy but shoots full house loads accurately (but not meant for constant magnum pounding) so I shoot .38 +P equivalent lead loads in .357 brass for most target shooting.
Nice revolvers. I had at least one. I like the K frame .38s a bit more. Actually, Taurus made a seven shot ported .357 magnum in Titanium that I thought was about ideal in 6.5 inch barrel. It was ported. The barrel, weight, and porting made up for the lack of a great trigger in double action... though it was decent.
They do not make them anymore.