[Grut]

My idea of "fairly small shot" is #1 Buck.

I'd say #4 Buck, but my main point is that a .357 has 'way too much penetration for a high-density suburban environment.

[mlbford2]

If your intention is to shoot and wound, make sure you have a lawyer on the sidelines to field the civil law suites filed by the perp and his family. Dead men tell no tales.

[IGOTMINE]

Bump for the record!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

And, she had two .357s...

[MediaMole]

In addition, she didn't seem to be able to control the .357. She would have been better off loading it with some good .38 special rounds.

[Mackey]

...a .357 has 'way too much penetration for a high-density suburban environment.

Here's my thinking on overpenetration:

First order of business is, you gotta stop the assailant. To do this effectively in the case of a determined bad guy you need to cause massive damage to a vital area such as the brain, spinal cord, heart or aorta. You will be shooting through the perp's clothing, maybe through a heavy leather jacket. You need enough penetration to reach a vital area in his center of mass.

If you only wound some drugged-up psycho with a low-penetration round and he goes berserk and charges, the chances of him killing you are pretty high.

If you fire off 6 rounds from a .357 and some miss the perp, the chances of one of those rounds killing a neighbor in the next house are much less.

I want to make exit wounds in my assailant.