.38 Special+P vs. .357 Magnum

[ArchAngelCD]

Loading a 38 in a pistol marked .357 brings into question your intent. For the same reason you "can't" load rock salt in a 12ga.

Ummm, I think you are a little confused here. A .357 Magnum round is more powerful than a .38 Special or .38 Special +P by a good margin in most cases. You have it backwards. Just because 38 is a bigger number than 35 means nothing this time.

 

[bullseye308]

Buy a box of every 38 & 357 round you can find. Shoot some of each and see which one you can control the best and shoot the most accurately. That will determine everything. If you can't control it & hit anything with it, trade it in for a club. Realistically getting hit with any 38 or 357 placed well should do the trick.

 

[Guy de Loimbard]

By enough of both to find out if they are accurate and decide from there. My Security Six will shoot low powered .38 ammo and full house .357 just fine, but it does not group worth a darn with .38 +p type loads. If you get good accuracy from both and don't mind the extra flash, blast, and recoil, ( I don't ) .357 magnum is for you!

 

[jkulysses]

I know there is nothing wrong with shooting .38's in a .357mag. That is one of the great things about getting something chambered in .357mag.

Yurko
That was meant to be two considerations for a concealed carry weapon, not for a .357 load, perhaps I didn't word it clearly.

And the other part was from my concealed carry class, and the cases they cited I didn't bother to write down. But some of the points were...

Loading a 38 in a pistol marked .357 brings into question your intent. For the same reason you "can't" load rock salt in a 12ga.

And the hippy liberal idea that if you use a round marked magnum, well that just means you REALLY want to kill someone.

THESE ARE NOT MY IDEAS, these are maggot infested hippy liberal ideas that can be used to put blame and doubt on you in a court, and I wouldn't trust a prosecutor not to.

Personally, I don't think there would be anything better than to carry a .357mag with whatever load you like the best. I know both of the ideas are retarded, and don't make any sense, but they were brought up in my class and I would rather error on the side of caution, and not find out in court how liberal the people in my county really are.

jkulysses
To your question, I think, legally, using a .357 in it would be best for carrying that revolver.

Wow I didn't know this thread was still alive. I do understand what your trying to say but I just don't see how that would apply in this case. If anything I would think it would help you in court if a perp was shot with a .38 special or +p because it would show that I could've loaded up magnums but instead went with the "less lethal" specials if I dare to say that. I know I know a +p in a 2" revolver can be every bit as deadly as a .357mag but bare with me here . I do know that in my conceal carry class the instructor highly discouraged reloading your own ammo or anybody else's home loads. He said at least when your carrying factory loads are the safe bet.

I actually sold my .357 mag revolver last week but this is still good info to know because I will buy another one sometime soon just a different brand. Thanks for all the replies everybody and pretty much confirmed what I was thinking about using the .38+p's.