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Seems like a new ploy crept into the self defense ammunition offerings a few years back; the marketing of various watered down .357 Magnum loadings. These are shamelessly advertised as lowered velocity, less recoil, mid-range, or "short barrel" loadings. It's the "kinder gentler" .357 Magnum. What are ammunition makers doing? Trying to regress to .38 Special with a sort of "-P .357" load? Or is -P .357 Magnum ammunition and +P .38 Special really the same breed of cat? It seems that the lines are becoming blurred.
Two loadings that come to mind are the Speer Short Barrel 135 grain load and the Remington Golden Sabre 125 grain load. Besides these two there are more but I can't call them to mind. For one of these loads, the maker enthuses that it is a whole 130 FPS faster than its own similar +P .38 Special using bullets of the same weight. Well, yippee.
I suppose that the advent of the light, small frame .357 mighty mite revolvers is the cause for these loadings. A fellow purchases one of the stunted .357 Magnums, fires some he-man full bore .357 Magnum ammo through it, and determines that he doesn't want any more of that kind of whipping. He can't just retreat to .38 Special in any form because that would admit to a certain unmanliness, so the ammo makers cater to his needs with "special" .357 Magnum ammunition. He can't be seen with a cylinder full of lowly +P .38 Special so the 1/10-inch longer case effectively saves his macho ego.
The Ruger SP 101 was the first such revolver as I recall but it isn't quite so small and recoil is more manageable. Smith & Wesson must have created an instant market for the J-frame sized .357 Magnum upon introduction of the type. The buyers of the small .357 Magnum revolvers would have been well served with existing models of .38 Special J-Frame revolvers and their derivatives but desire that "Magnum" designation. And it is all put up in a revolver that may be more difficult to shoot well ... but sure is easy to carry.
Give 'em what they want! The watch fob .357 Magnum revolver may be an instance where the buyer got exactly what he wanted but not what he really needed. Hence, the .357 Magnum is reduced to the duplication of .38 Special capabilities. So we have two cartridges and superfluity of available types of ammunition that all deliver the same basic performance.
Two loadings that come to mind are the Speer Short Barrel 135 grain load and the Remington Golden Sabre 125 grain load. Besides these two there are more but I can't call them to mind. For one of these loads, the maker enthuses that it is a whole 130 FPS faster than its own similar +P .38 Special using bullets of the same weight. Well, yippee.
I suppose that the advent of the light, small frame .357 mighty mite revolvers is the cause for these loadings. A fellow purchases one of the stunted .357 Magnums, fires some he-man full bore .357 Magnum ammo through it, and determines that he doesn't want any more of that kind of whipping. He can't just retreat to .38 Special in any form because that would admit to a certain unmanliness, so the ammo makers cater to his needs with "special" .357 Magnum ammunition. He can't be seen with a cylinder full of lowly +P .38 Special so the 1/10-inch longer case effectively saves his macho ego.
The Ruger SP 101 was the first such revolver as I recall but it isn't quite so small and recoil is more manageable. Smith & Wesson must have created an instant market for the J-frame sized .357 Magnum upon introduction of the type. The buyers of the small .357 Magnum revolvers would have been well served with existing models of .38 Special J-Frame revolvers and their derivatives but desire that "Magnum" designation. And it is all put up in a revolver that may be more difficult to shoot well ... but sure is easy to carry.
Give 'em what they want! The watch fob .357 Magnum revolver may be an instance where the buyer got exactly what he wanted but not what he really needed. Hence, the .357 Magnum is reduced to the duplication of .38 Special capabilities. So we have two cartridges and superfluity of available types of ammunition that all deliver the same basic performance.