5 inch J-Frame/the real .357 mountain gun???

[jonsidneyb]

I remember when I first started seeing the mountain guns come out.

I pictured a mountain gun as being one carried alot but shot little or less than a standard gun.

I thought of it as carrying the most in the least I suppose.

I understood the 629 mountain gun is .44 magnum.

I kind of understood the .41 magnum but thought this should be a 5 shot in an L-frame without the full lug.

The .357 magnum on the L-frame on a mountain gun confused me, the Model 19 I thought was already more of a mountain gun than this.

After seeing the J-frame in 5 inches, I thought, there is the .357 mountain gun. Small in bulk but with eough barrel to get some good velocity. The truth is if it was a 4 inch I wouldn't be able to resist but I might have to break down and get one of the 5 inch J's.

In another post, I saw the ballistics on some of the heavy loads for .357 I can shoot 125 grain stuff at 1450 all day but the loads I see below would scare me to death to try and shoot out of a small frame gun. I don't know how bad the recoil of this would beat on me but it is probably more than I want to try and take on.


Buffalo Bore ammunition

-125 grain JHC @ 1,700 fps
-158 grain JHC @ 1,475 fps
-170 grain JHC @ 1,400 fps
-180 grain LFN-GC @ 1,400 fps

I will not try these loads in a J-Frame, to much for me I am afraid, but I am curious.

I am guessing these loads were created with the L and N frame in mind. Would these loads even be safe in a 5inch J-Frame???

 

[Jim PHL]

I thought the same way you did at first. A j-frame is a pocket gun. Why put a 5" barrel on a pocket gun? But I've come around to thinking it's actually a pretty neat piece. Small and light enough to carry nicely all day long on the trail, but with enough barrel length and steel to make heavy, full-house magnums tolerable. Good sites on a long barrel make for great accuracy, too. I'm no expert but I'd think that a 5" barrel would produce the same ballistics whether it is launched from a J-frame or an "N". I had the chance to shoot a few rounds through one a few weeks ago and was pretty impressed.

 

[Richard]

M60-10

This is my 3" S&W M60-10 and with these grips it a perfect woods gun. It isn't even bad with 158gr 357 Mags. Regards, Richard

 

[jonsidneyb]

I have the 3 inch version. I find to longer one interesting for the woods.

 

[Old Fuff]

To be a true Magnum the cartridge needs enough barrel length to burn the powder. This is especially true when heavy bullet/slow powder loads are used. So far as the cartridge is concerned it can't tell the difference between a 5" J-Frame and the same on a K, L or N frame.

So yes, for packing in the woods a 5" J-Frame does make sense. The problem with the stock model is that S&W wasn't smart enough to put a decent set of hand-filling stocks on it - preferably of the rubber kind. This is easy and inexpensive to correct though.

Would I shoot a steady diet of heavy-bullet/maxed out .357 loads through one? No way! But the number of rounds you might have to fire in an emergency would not be enough to hurt the gun.

Smith & Wesson had a good idea, but they didn't execute it very well. I suspect a lack of actual experience.

 

[Cosmoline]

The real .357 mountain gun isn't made by S&W. It's the Ruger SP-101 or GP-100 with the 3" barrel. It's packable but has sufficient weight to absorb recoil of heavy 180 and 200 grain loads. Plus with Hogue grips its far easier to handle than the small-framed J's.

 

[jonsidneyb]

hmmmm,

When I am hiking, barrel length never seems to be as much of an issue as frame sized. I would think that a mountain gun would be lighter then a hunting gun or shooters gun.

I have some 3 inch guns and would more consider those as street guns rather than mountain guns or hiking guns. I think of mountain and hiking guns as being almost never shot but when needed, accurate shot placement is needed.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I handled one in a gun shop. It was definitely funny-looking, but handy.

 

[Cosmoline]

A carbine.

 

[JNewell]

There's almost always a fly in the ointment...

The real .357 mountain gun isn't made by S&W. It's the Ruger SP-101 or GP-100 with the 3" barrel.

...and in this case I really wish Ruger would offer the SP101 3" with fully adjustable sights in .357M. The problem, especially in this context, is that I'd really like to be able to adjust POI for different loads, especially heavy cast bullet loads.

 

[jonsidneyb]

On my Mountain gun I want at bare mimimum a 4 inch barrel and at maximum 6