357 ammo

[JShirley]

Pyro, that's a true statement, but some of us are reluctant to use rounds that are easily capable of penetrating all the way through the average torso and killing someone else.

John

 

[Lost Sheep]

Pyro, that's a true statement, but some of us are reluctant to use rounds that are easily capable of penetrating all the way through the average torso and killing someone else.

John

True. The prudent person loads with ammo designed for the most likely threat. In the deep woods, heavy, solid bullets with a flat meplat. For urban environments, hollowpoints more suitable for thin-skinned game. In wintertime,, perhaps a bit heavier to get through thick outer layers.

Lost Sheep

 

[NoirFan]

They should work, but keep in mind that these rounds are extremely downloaded from what the .357 can really do. They are ballistically equal to a hot 9mm, which is fine for defense, but my feeling is that you could just buy a 9mm semiauto and have 15+ more rounds on hand if you're going to shoot at that power level. If I was using a .357 revolver for defense, I'd play to the gun's strengths and train to shoot the full house 125 gr. loads.

 

[JShirley]

Again, the beauty of really powerful rounds is that a light-for-caliber expanding round going really fast typically penetrates less than a slower, heavier round, while simultaneously being more effective. This is why a carefully selected rifle round is the best home defense cartridge: stops the threat decisively while being less of a danger to anyone you didn't just deliberately shoot.

For example, after trying out some .223 Federal American Eagle 50 grain JHP, I found that these rounds had extremely violent expansion but considerably less penetration than 9x19mm defensive loads.

John

 

[easyg]

but my feeling is that you could just buy a 9mm semiauto and have 15+ more rounds on hand if you're going to shoot at that power level. If I was using a .357 revolver for defense, I'd play to the gun's strengths and train to shoot the full house 125 gr. loads.

I like revolvers and prefer them over autoloaders.
And I happen to think the 4" .357 magnum is probably the most versatile handgun that one can buy.
But when it comes to ammo selection it's like this for me:

I don't have much faith in the .38 special+P for quickly stopping aggressive humans.
But I'm not so wild about firing the most powerful of .357 magnum rounds off inside my small bedroom in the middle of the night, with no hearing protection.
Plus I can make quicker followup shots with mid power loads.

Luckily for me, it doesn't have to be either the weakest or the hottest...there is quite a wide selection of ammo available.
Mid power rounds have their place too.



Easy

 

[hgte2001]

BRAND FIRST NUMBER SHOOTING AND SECOND NUMBER ONE SHOT STOPS. the 125gr is JHP is the king of the 357 mag. This data is from hand loader dot com.

http://www.handloads.com/misc/stoppingpower.asp?Caliber=5&Weight=125

Remington JHP 431 414 96% 0.58" 12.3"
Federal JHP 641 615 96% 0.74" 11.1"
CCI JHP 183 170 93% 0.69" 13.1"
Winchester JHP 101 88 87% 0.72" 10.4"

Good placement counts!

 

[B!ngo]

If you can place the bullet where it needs to go then there's not enough difference between loads to even worry about. I would pick a load you can hit with every time and have quick follow up shots with and call it good. IMO too many people believe their ammunition choice will give them some advantage. It really doesn't.

Amen. It's my strong belief that the difference in ammo performance only matters when the shooter is so able to make their poi = poa (impact = aim) that the subtleties of bullet performance can be compared. And I suspect that virtually no civilian (and most anyone else) caught in the need to use their weapon gets to that point.

B