Marvin Knox

Speer Gold Dot .357 "short barrel" (135gr. easy opening hollow points at about 1000 fps from a "snubbie"). Low light flash powder formulated to burn faster than most powders.

You get considerably more velocity as you increase muzzle length. No reason why they shouldn't be used in any barrel length gun.

I shoot this is my S&W 340 M&P at 13 oz. No big deal at all, although I use 130 gr. regular .38's for practice.

The same "Short Barrel" Gold Dot's in Speer's .38+p kick less.

One could easily make the argument that the speed of these cmparatively mild .357's would be duplicated with most manufacturers +p's (certainly by the "hotter" loads in +p). However I need them for the very short barrel of my gun. It's hard to beat the "Gold Dot" projectiles. Pretty well proven.

Therefore these give me two choices of power in a round with easy opening Gold Dots and low flash powder that pretty much burns up in my short 340.

Superhouse 15

Federal lists a 130gr Hydra Shok as a "Low Recoil" load, but the performance numbers look pretty close to the full power stuff.
Federal Premium Ballistics
My personal preference is for the Gold Saber in a lighter .357 load, and the 125gr full power JHP from Federal or Remington for more power.

Marvin Knox

S0 - are you a firefighter?

31 years Portland, Oregon Fire Bureau retired!

MARV

msb45

GS are slightly downloaded. My other favorite .357 was the Remington 357M1 which was a 125gr SJHP. I haven't seen it in a while but it was a good round.

Precision

recoil is cause by a number of factors, velocity need not be one of them.

by using a slower burning powder the sharpness of the recoil can be dampened while still providing similar muzzle velocity. I know it doesn't seem like much but adding a few thousands of a second to the burn time makes for more of an extended push, than a snap back.

to be clear. Using 9 gr of Unique will have more recoil than using 8 gr of Unique and will have a higher velocity. But by using a slower burning powder with the same end velocity may create a lesser perception of recoil. Thus "low recoil" but very similar velocities and energies.

Hope that made sense and helps.

user

Here's a chart with a bunch of different cartridges, by way of comparison:

http://virginialegaldefense.com/Stuff/cpr357.pdf

The concept of "hit points" is a rough guide to how lethal the cartridge is likely to be. Hornady suggests that anything less than five hundred should be adequate to kill small game weighing about fifty pounds or less.

I think this reinforces my opinion that anything less than .38+P is too little, and anything greater than .357 Mag. is more than is necessary (particularly considering factors such as price and availability).

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