Is "K is to L" like "L is to N"?????

[Brian Williams]

Ok everyone knows the 586 and 686 were made cause folks were "shooting apart their K frames" by useing heavy loads. Where the supposed method of use is "shoot 38 all day and carry 357s" , and there fore we have the L frame.
Now being that the N frame is "so heavy" and we needed the K frame for light weight, and we end up with the L frame.

2 questions:

1 What are the limits of the L frame and has anybody using reasonable ammo shot one to junk?

2 Is it reasonable to think I can shoot 357s all day and load occasional "Hellnndamnationfirebreathingloudenthunderboomers"

 

[Albert Shear]

One of my favorite and most often carry guns is my 686+ 3". Over the last 5 years I have put well over 8k rounds of only 357mag. The vast majority being 110gr or 125gr full power loads. To date it is as strong and tight as day one.

 

[MonkeyMan]

I have heard from more than one "reliable source" that Cor-Bon uses a Ruger GP-100, equivalent to an "L" frame, for load development. If they can't blow one up then I'd say they're pretty tough.

 

[Tamara]

I don't shoot .38's through my L-frame guns, and they seem to hold up just fine.

 

[Nightcrawler]

Depends on what you mean by "full power". "Full power" today isn't what it used to be. 125 grains at 1400 feet per second isn't all that hot. .357 Magnum can easily push a 158 grain bullet to the same velocity.

Unless you put maybe thousands of rounds of Cor-Bon and Buffalo Bore type hunting loads, though, I doubt you're going to hurt your L-Frame with factory .357.

 

[Tamara]

Nightcrawler,

.357 Magnum can easily push a 158 grain bullet to the same velocity.

That's the kind of stuff I shoot through my L- and N-frame .357's. As a matter of fact, my PC627 has never shot anything but Georgia Arms Deerstoppers.

As an aside, to help your revolver-fu grow strong, it is exactly the 125gr/1400fps load that the L-frame was designed to stand up to. The earlier K-frame .357's had a forcing cone that was very thin on the bottom; it was this thin part that was liable to crack under the repeated firing of high-velocity 125gr loads...

 

[C.R.Sam]

What Tamara said.

I have worn out a 686, but it was not from heavy loads.

Sam