Shot 357 Magnum for First Time

[Von Fourche]

I bought my first semi-auto handgun back in January, a Sig Sauer SP 2022
in 9mm. I've enjoyed shooting it and learning how to oil/grease it and
clean it and all that. I'm not as accurate as I would like to be though.

Anyway, my brother let me borrow his "broken" revolver. He told me many
times over that it's a broken revolver. I asked him who made it and he said
he thinks Smith and Wesson. I said give me the revolver and I'll call Smith
and Wesson and see if they would fix it or something. He said when the
trigger is pulled half way back it will not fire and he once put six
cartridges in it and tried to lower the hammer and it went off!

So my brother finally brings me his revolver (He lives in Tennessee, I'm
in Indiana.). I look at it and it's a Italian Colt replica cowboy
revolver! There's nothing broken on it at all. lol. It's chambered in 357
Magnum and weighs around 40oz.

I fired 38 Special from it last week and enjoy that. 38 Special did not
kick much in the revolver. I've been reading about other calibers and of
course the famous 357 Magnum round. I've wanted many videos online of
people shooting the round and how powerful it is.

I bought a box of Remington Golden Saber 125 grain ammo on Friday and
tried it out Friday evening. I first fired five rounds of 38 Special then I
loaded one round of 357. I will admit I was a little scared. I half
figured the revolver would kick so hard it would fly back right into my
face. I put my finger on the trigger and pull - Bang! Then I look back at
my brother and say "Is that it?"

That revolver and round kicked a lot more than 38 Special and more than my
9mm. It kicked a lot. But I could handle it pretty easy. I put in five
more rounds and fired those. Then I fired five more and quite.

I have to admit that 357 round is a real lethal powerhouse. And it
kicked/recoiled really good. I guess you could say it was a "mans" recoil.
I can see why this round is such a great one shot stopper. I also will
admit there is no way I would shoot a 357 in one of those featherweight
revolver. I would shoot 38 Special and maybe 38 Special +P (I have not shot
that yet). But no way would I shoot 357 in a snub nose revolver.

Does the 40 S&W and 357 Sig kick less than a 357 Magnum?

Also, I can't believe the disrespect 38 Special gets. I would not want to
get shot with a 38 Special and it looks as lethal as any other
caliber. I think a small revolver in 38 Special would be the perfect carry
weapon.

Lucky for me I've found a local gun store that has a good supply of ammo
every time I visit (about once a week). So next week I'm going to pick up a
box of 38 Special +P and try it out.





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[Frank]

Others could furnish the technicalities but felt recoil is highly
dependent on the weight of the gun. The heavier the gun, the less the
felt recoil. A small .38 spl may kick more than a .357 magnum.

My first revolver was a S&W model 19 with 6 inch barrel in .357 magnum
and like you I started with .38's and worked up to .357. Since I
decided to reload, if I could not have handled the .357 recoil, I could
just load down. And, as far as handling the gun, I discovered that the
hard wooden grips were hurting my hand from shooting many rounds and
replacing these grips with rubber ones made a tremendous difference.
Then bought a .357 snubbie and it is quite a handful as you would expect
- much lighter, kicks more.

For self protection, you need also be aware that shortening a barrel of
a revolver less than about 4 inches gives considerably lower muzzle
energy to the round.

[Mike Fontenot]

Some previous comments I've made about my experience with my S&W360sc
.357 scandium/titanium snubby (and some addendums and updates):

1) I've found weight to be extremely important in "carry-ability".
I've got a S&W 360 (scandium/titanium .357 snubby) that weighs
11 Oz empty and 14 Oz fully loaded, and I wouldn't want it to
be ANY heavier. [addendum: wrt to pocket carry.]

2) I'm willing to shoot up my carry rounds (5 rounds) at the
beginning of each practice session, but I certainly wouldn't
want to shoot a whole box of them. I spend the rest of the
practice session with .38 non-plus-P (American Eagle 130 gr).
They seem pretty mild, especially after starting with the
158 gr .357's.

3) Shooting the 158 gr .357's is little like catching a baseball
in a glove with no padding, on a very cold day...not very
pleasant, but not a show-stopper either. After shooting 5 or
10 158 gr .357's, I usually have some bruising the next day
between my thumb and index finger, but it's gone in a few
days. I probably wouldn't want to shoot any .357's several
days in a row. [addendum: I got a few cuts from the hammer in
the web between my thumb and 1st finger ... the 360sc is an SA/DA
with exposed hammer. I also once lost about a square inch of ski
from that same area, but I THINK that was acerbated by pro-actively
putting a piece of mole-skin there ... bad idea.]

4) Being able to hold on to the gun is surprisingly not an issue. I
generally
try to use a VERY relaxed 2-hand grip, with relaxed and bent elbows,
and have never had any
problems hanging on to the gun, or having my hands hit me in the
face, because of the recoil. I've also shot it several times
one-handed, with both strong and weak hand...again, no major
problems, but not pleasant either.

5) I previously had a S&W337.38+P titanium snubby with wood grips.
I have found the rubber Hogue grips on the S&W360 to be MUCH
better (although they're not as pretty, of course).

6) If you ever needed to use your gun to stop a really bad guy,
and if, right before you shot, time could be suspended, and
someone asked you how powerful a round you'd like to shoot,
I think most people would say "give me the biggest one that won't
quite blow up my gun".

7) I'm willing to violate the conventional advice to practice with
what you carry...for me, the advantage of easy carry combined
with a very potent round is worth it. I shoot enough .357's
to know that they hit about 2 inches higher than the American
Eagle .38's at 10 yards.

8) What other gun is so light that you almost forget you're carrying
it, and yet will penetrate 9" of wet newspaper, and expand to
0.6 inches? That's worth all the disadvantages to me. The
S&W360 is an engineering marvel.
_______________________________________

RE: the "short barrel with .357" issue ... here's some chrono data I
measured:
I chronographed my S&W360 .357 snubby at 1044 ft/s and 382 ft-lbs,
versus 773 ft/s and 209 ft-lbs for my S&W337 .38+P snubby. That's
35% greater velocity, and 83% greater energy. (Both results were
with 158 gr JHP's. The .357's were Federal JHP "Hi-Shoks" (NOT
Hydra-Shoks). The .38+P's were CCI Lawman JHP's. The Hi-Shoks are
adversized as 1240 f/s, I assume with a 4" barrel. So the 1-7/8" barrel
loses
SOME performance, but it's STILL a very potent round.) [addendum: I
recently
discovered that the Hi-Shoks, while powerful, are not nearly as powerful
as some of
the Underwood .357 loads ... I would NOT want to shoot ANY of those in my
360sc.]

An update: About a year ago, I went to the opposite extreme: I bought a
full-size,
all-steel 10mm 1911 (Kimber Eclipse Custom II), weighing in at about 39
oz (about 3-1/2 times heavier than my 360sc!). I'm able to carry it
full time in a homemade under-the-shirt vertical shoulder holster. I
still carry the 360sc in my front pocket, as a BUG.
I bought a S&W60-15 Pro-Series 3" all-steel J-frame that handles those
.357 Underwoods OK, although there is a LOT of flash with those rounds.
The 3" 60-15 is too big for pocket carry, but I carry it in my 1911's
shoulder holster whenever the 1911 is out-of-service for any reason.

--
Mike Fontenot

[Gunner Asch]

Sounds like you need that weapon far far more than your brother
does..and can use it better.

The 38+P will likely kick about as hard as the .357 Golden Sabres
(which are a VERY good self defense round btw)

The .357, to a beginner, probably does have some recoil..but its
mostly the noise and pressure wave that catches your attention more
than its rather mild recoil.

Gunner, who carries a .41 Mag most of the time

[Wayne]

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:03:50 +0000 (UTC), Mike Fontenot
<mlf...@comcast.net> wrote:
# 2) I'm willing to shoot up my carry rounds (5 rounds) at the
# beginning of each practice session, but I certainly wouldn't
# want to shoot a whole box of them. I spend the rest of the
# practice session with .38 non-plus-P (American Eagle 130 gr).
# They seem pretty mild, especially after starting with the
# 158 gr .357's.

Similar to my experience. I shoot the S&W lightweight only to keep
proficient. The recoil seems more than with a Ruger 357 GP-100.

Personally, I don't think a lightweight snubbie is a good choice for
an only weapon, but it is good for its intended uses.

[Stanley Schaefer]

The reason that the .38 Special gets little respect isn't really
complicated. For decades, the standard police load was a lead 158 gr.
round nose bullet wafting along at about 750-800 fps. Really easy to
control, less than perfect for stopping power. Some target loads had
more energy than that. Loaded with modern bullets at much more
realistic velocities, it's a decent caliber. Probably more so than
9mm. The 9mm got a rep as being so powerful because it far exceeded
that old police loading. Not so much now.

The other two auto cartridges you mention run at much higher pressures
and will have muzzle blast to match. Recoil should be manageable out
of service-sized pistols unless you've got small hands. A .40 out of
one of the mini-autos will be a might snappy.

Stan