Anybody Not Like Shooting .357?

[zxcvbob]

I like .357 in a SAA or my old Security Six. They are both pretty heavy.

I load them kind-of-hot (max loads but not 2400, #9, 296, H110, or Lil'Gun) and use 158 grain cast bullets.

Probably 8 grains of Herco is my favorite load. I never found a Blue Dot load that I really liked, but that NATO surplus power (similar to AA#7) is better and a lot cheaper.

 

[foghornl]

Heavy Duty .357Mag loads??

Easy to shoot out of my Vaquero and Blackhawk.

Not so good out of a Shooting Budd's "Ultra-Lite-Tanium" S&W snubby...I don't remember what model it was, but that snubby was way less than 1Lb empty. The 158-gr Gold Dots were absolutely brutal to shoot out of that gun

Although a full cylinder of them about doubled the weight...

 

[BlindJustice]

Yup...

I have a S&W 686P 4" Bbl. with Hogue Grips
WIth full house .357 Mag ammo it has a LOT of recoil
Muzzle blast and repeat shots are decidedly slowed
I think a better platform is the original S&W N frame
with a minimum of a 5" Bbl. if one were to carry it
on the belt, or for hunting a 6" or longer Bbl. with a
shoulder rig.

I also have a Model 60 3" Bbl. .357 Mag. - I limit it to
.38 SPcl +P 125 gr. Speer Gold Dot and it's much more
manageable in all respects than the aforementioned
combination.

I prefer my 1911/.45 ACP & CZ 75B 9MMx19

Randall

 

[Cosmoline]

I think part of the dislike of the .357 comes from the absurdly tiny and lightweight magnums on the market. Out of an SP-101 or a Speed Six with good grips the round is a lot of fun to shoot. I also find that the "high vel" 120-ish grain magnum loads are a lot less pleasant than the standard loads in the 158-grain range.

 

[grimjaw]

I love shooting .357 out of a larger framed revolver. You can keep the snubs, though.

jm

 

[ArmedBear]

let a guy with a .357 show up on the range, and there'll be a number of people around him who don't enjoy it either.

What range would that be? Do those people want some cheese with their whine?

Never been to such a place, myself. I've seen people whine about things like really heavy magnum rifles indoors with muzzlebrakes, but not about a mid-range handgun caliber like .357! Actually, people even tend to laugh, not whine, when I dump a cylinder of black powder .44 as fast as I can shoot it, and the targets aren't visible for a half minute or more. Maybe the sulfur smell improves people's sense of humor or something.

Hell, I shoot .22's a lot, but I sure don't complain if someone is shooting a big centerfire on the same range. It's good training for focus and concentration.

I don't much enjoy .357 in an Airlite, but in a steel gun 4" and up, it's a great round, fun to shoot, not too loud, not too much recoil.

Unless you have an injury or something, if you think .357 is hard to shoot, you haven't tried a serious round. (Again, I'm not talking about an Airlite, here.)

BTW this exercise is excellent, but I do it both ways (rolling the stick overhand and then underhand, several sets) and I use a larger piece of PVC pipe so it doesn't get too easy.

http://bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?Name=Wrist+Roller

 

[machinisttx]

I figure you realize that this makes no sense. LSWC, JHP, semi'jacketed, hard cast lead or soft makes no difference as far as noise goes or felt recoil or actual recoil. Bullet weight, charge, pressure, etc. have more to do with it than the type of bullet fired.

tipoc

Actually, if you shoot cast bullets and jacketed bullets side by side, the jacketed stuff has a sharper muzzle report. I don't know why that is, but it's there. Recoil won't be any different between the two, no, but that's not what I said anyway.

 

[weisse52]

It's a pain in snubbies...and I do mean PAIN! It is fine in the big N frames .

 

[williamthedog]

i love em!
snubbie
long barrel
i dont care.
i also reload so i make all sorts of different loads .
but i do always end up whipping up a batch of full house loads.
i like recoil!


i better shoot em now while i can before i get too old.
that was my reasoning behind the impulse buy .454casull raging bull.






last saturdays toys

 

[Hawk]

Most of my .357s are big kerlumphing things that absorb recoil well - N frames, 1 Python, that sort of thing.

It is decidedly less pleasant in the "K" frames and my singular "J" predates the time when magnums were even an option.

I suppose there's a certain joy in shooting .357s out of a weightless gun but I got most of that out of my system with a lightweight .416 Rigby rifle. Now, I like comfort. 686s and Pythons in .357 are pretty comfy.

 

[anotherinkling]

I agree that barrel length and weight make a world of difference, but WHERE you're shooting makes a big difference, too. Shooting .357Mags at an indoor range is not so much fun, but outdoors it's not a big deal. Same goes for many guns.

 

[Meowhead]

I rather hate it.
Mine is a Smith 65 with 3" barrel... the recoil doesn't bother me much but the blast, oh man.

 

[Pat Cannon]

When I got my first 1911, I took off my earmuffs and fired a round, just to hear the report of a .45 ACP round really sounded like. I have no temptation to do that with my .357s!

Nonetheless I love the .357. I did go buy the Hogue Monogrip for my 2.25" SP101, the day after I first fired Magnum rounds through it. That, and 32 dB NRR earmuffs, make shooting the 'full-house' loads a breeze. There's still a definite thump, but that's fun, especially at an IDPA match where almost everybody's shooting 9mm or .45, and you hear people behind you say, "*** was that?"

 

[Feanaro]

My usual shooting range is indoors and has four stalls. Ain't very big. Touching off a .357 Magnum, even with my hearing protection doubled up, produces an annoying blast. Outdoors, it's a pussycat.

 

[easyg]

I can shoot a .357 well enough in a 4" or longer barrel revolver, but I really dislike snubbies.
And out of all the pistols and revolvers that I've fired, the .357 magnum is probably my least favorite.

 

[Youngster]

I can take hot .357 all day long {in an L frame or heavier} as far as recoil goes but that piercing blast starts to gnaw on me after awhile.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Custom fitted earplugs worn under quality ear muffs.

 

[tipoc]

It's discouraging at times to see that there are so many who don't know that the .357 comes in a variety of commercial loads from the mild, just above 38 Spl. +P, to the full power which are best used in lever action carbines or Ruger Redhawks. Not to mention handloading which allows one to get the same.

Hunting loads or the hot 125 gr. loads, don't work well out'a alloy framed snubbys at least not on the shooters end. It's a little discouraging to have'ta tell folks that.

tipoc

 

[HM2PAC]

.357RM?

In my snubby SP101 it is not so fun.

In a large revolver like my brothers S&W or a friends King Cobra, I could shoot the things all day.

 

[Sun195]

I can shoot .357 out of my 4" S&W 686 (6-shot) all day long. When it comes to my 3" S&W Model 60 steel j-frame, I can go maybe 20 rounds before I want to do something else. 38's out of the Model 60 are just a pleasure.

 

[halfbreed808]

I personally love shooting .357 rds. Not out of snub nose though. But a full sized revolver, ahhh what a feeling. I love shooting smei autos too. But the dependability, solidity and power of a .357 is just simply something I can't get tired of, and wish I could shoot 'em all the time Aloha.

 

[Orange_Magnum]

The .357 magnum is not healthy for your cartilage, period. For self defense, sure. Practice with, no. And I don't understand hand gun hunters. Why don't you guys just chop off your wrist with an axe and have it over with?

 

[Archer1945]

Used to have a 4" Model 19 and never could get used to the recoil of full house 357 loads and don't even want to think about 357's in any of the small or lightweight guns, such as the Scandium frames from S&W. For what it's worth my CCW instructor, who eats and breathes big guns with heavy loads, said the most uncomfortable gun he shoots is the light weight 357 snubby he carries as a backup. I would like to try a 357 in either a Model 27 or 28 Smith with a 4" or longer barrel or a Ruger GP100.

 

[Defensory]

Even Massad Ayoob avoids the "airweight" type snubbie .357's. They're simply brutal when firing "full house" defensive loads.

If I had a job that required me to own a .357, I'd probably get the large (N) frame Smith Model 627. Stainless steel, 9 5/8" long overall, 4" barrel, unloaded weight 42 ounces, rubber grips.

 

[sixgunner455]

Depends on the gun. I don't like shooting it out of anything shorter than 6" barrels, and will only shoot it out of all-steel frames of at least Kframe size. I like the GP100, Lframe, Nframe, and Colt Python best.

Even on a GP100, a 4" barrel takes a lot of the fun out of shooting .357.

Oh, the Blackhawk with an 8" barrel is a lot of fun, too!