Factory .357 125 gr. loads are certainly effective, but pretty brutal in terms of recoil and blast. They are typically loaded to fly at 1450 fps from a 4" barrel. VERY hot.
The 158 gr. loads are also effective, but have a lot of recoil and typically are designed more for hunting than personal defense. These are loaded to fly at about 1250 fps from a 4" barrel.
110 gr. loads in .357 can get the job done also, but they're really too light and can tend to over expand and underpenetrate. Plus, they cause much more rapid erosion of the barrels forcing cone... not good for your gun over the long haul. The 125 gr. loads can also cause significant forcing cone erosion with lots of continued use.
I think the best factory option for .357 is Winchester 145 gr. Silvertips. Slightly downloaded from full .357 potential, it's still very potent and quite controllable. Light enough for excellent speed from a short barrel (leading to good expansion) and heavy enough to provide good, deep penetration. These typically fly and perform very well at 1250 fps. Shooting this load is not at all uncomfortable in a 4" revolver. I'm really surprised this load wasn't in the poll.
From a 2" .38 spl. revolver, I think Speer's new 135 gr. +P Gold Dot is the best choice. This load was designed specifically to perform optimally (fully expand and give good penetration) at just 850-900 fps which is exactly what results when fired from a 2" barrel. Looking at the huge hollow cavity in these bullets tells you that they're designed to expand very easily without having to be pushed quickly.
From my 1 7/8" S&W 642 it clocks at 872 fps (center of the sweet zone for this bullet)
From my 3" GP-100 it clocks at 954 fps (still good, but beginning to go beyond the design specifications for the bullet)
From a 4" barrel I would expect another 60 fps or so = 1010 fps
At 1010fps, this Gold Dot bullet will likely begin to disintegrate the petals right off the base of the bullet and may also underpenetrate.
DHart