.38/.357 Ammo Question

[johenz]

I picked up a Taurus Model 66 the other day. It's a nice gun and a good shooter. It's my first revolver and it's not something I intend to carry every day.

I pretty much bought it so that my daughter (14 yo and 90 lbs soaking wet) would have something to shoot. I'm a .45 ACP devotee and, while the weight of my 1911's wasn't an issue for her, the recoil of the .45 wore her out. My thinking was that she could shoot .38 Special through it and if I ever wanted big bullets I could have .357 magnum.

Now the crux of my quandry. I'm totally confused by the variety of .38 special/.357 magnum ammo, not so much for the range, but for carry purposes. Are .357 magnum hollow points too much for EDC? .38 +P? Hollow points or soft points or semi-jacketed soft points?

Any ideas or feedback? I'm SO confused. Thanks.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

Define "too much for EDC"...

The advantage in energy from .38+p to .357 Mag is nothing to sneeze at.

But it comes at a price: Both in cost to purchase ammo and in the amount of recoil.

MANY people carry .357Mag snubbies stoked with .357. MANY people carry .357 snubbies stoked with .38+p.

That all depends on how comfortable you are in shooting the ammo you intend to carry.

 

[eldirector]

.357 hollow points too much for EDC? Surely you jest. That actually sounds about right to me.

My in-laws have a Ruger 357 for the exact same reasons. My MIL has a hard time with heavy recoil, so practicing with .38 works really well. It is also cheaper, so they can shoot more. However, it is loaded with a good .357 defense round at home. Nothing short of a Howitzer is "too much" for self defense!

 

[thekuhnburger]

I can testify that if she is going to practice with it that I would use 125 grain .38 specials, or lighter. You can shoot those all day. Is .357 too much to carry? I don't know what that means... but no. I would use hollow points I don't see the benefit of anything else in this case.

 

[Leo]

A strong handed, experienced shooter may not have recoil control problems with a .357 snub nose. There is another factor. I have had the "opportunity" to fire a .357 snub nose in a house in the dark. The two foot long bright white light from the muzzle flash was like a flash bulb, leaving me unable to see for a few seconds. That is not what you want to happen in a fire fight. A .38 defensive round and some of the light bullet 38+P rounds have a small orange puff of muzzle fire, much easier to recover from. What ever you decide to carry, find a way to test it out in real life conditions.

 

[AverageMidwest]

Kind of a copout, but - it depends. The best round is the one that the shooter is most comfortable with and can shoot accurately. If the heaviest happens to be 38+P, then go with it. I'd rather be able to hit consistently with a 22lr round than miss one out of three with a 44 mag. Of course, best of all is to hit consistently with whatever you shoot.........

 

[BlueEagle]

Good job on buying the .357; having some ammo flexibility can't hurt.

I second the notions of most of the other people here; practice with .38's, carry .357's.

 

[T-Mann]

I have a Ruger SP101 that I use as a carry sidearm. I use std .38 158 LSWC reloads at the range, because they are cheap...(er than .357mag rounds).

I also run about 100 rounds of 125gr .357mag JSP through it about every 6 weeks just to maintain the feel of .357mags though the 2.25" barrel.

I carry 125gr .357mag or 125gr .357mag in it for personal protection.

My thinking is this, out of a snub nose, a .38spc +P is going to act like (have the velocity of) somewhere around a std .38spl round. While those .357 say they have a muzzle velocity of somewhere around 1450fps, I'll bet I'm getting somewhere around 1100-1200fps due to the short barrel. That puts my .357mag into the .38spc +P range as far as projectile velocity. I'm fine with that, but when using these shorter barrels, I want as much velocity as I can get. In my home, I use a 1911 Gov't for PP, but when out and about I carry the SP101.

Just my $0.02 so it's worth about what you paid for it. Just remember that these shorter barrels don't generate the muzzle velocity that the longer barrels do.

 

[OiRadio47]

I also practice with .38 and carry .357.

 

[gunman41mag]

I also practice with .38 and carry .357.

I have to change the spring in my 357 MAG to shoot 38 SPECIAL

 

[CandRFan]

I bought my first .357 snubby a few weeks ago myself...also a Taurus, but a model 651. I hit up this website just to start reading up on .38 spl/.357 ammo:

Ammunition For The Self-Defense Firearm

I'm not saying that it's correct or accurate or anything like that, but the info worked for me in terms of that basic info of what weight round I might want to start at when I ordered .38 spl, .38 +p, and .357 mag for my snubby.

I'll be totally honest here. Shooting .357 mag out of that snubby was a good time. But, it definitely was a handful. It's like my P3AT...shooting such a small gun requires practice in and of itself. Shooting a powerful cartridge like the .357 mag from a small handgun is going to require a lot more practice.

So for me personally, I am going to carry .38 +p until I can get more practice time in with the .357 mags. While I have no doubt that I can put 5 rounds of .357 through paper at the range, no way am I going to carry that round until I get more practice practice practice with it. And even though I put three times the number of .38 and +p rounds versus .357 mags through my snubby...50 rounds of .357 isn't anywhere near enough practice!

.38 +p JHP is what I've got it loaded with right now. I don't think .357 HPs are to much for EDC but it's going to wait until I put a few more magnum rounds through the gun. In terms of HP vs SP vs JSP...you can't go wrong with a quality HP. The only soft point ammo I have is SP .30 carbine for my M1s. Heck...I guess you can't go wrong with a quality SP of JSP either...but I just keep it simple and go with HPs.

 

[johenz]

I've pretty much decides the same thing as far as practice goes CandRFan. It's good thinking until I get the control I want with the .357 ammo.

 

[wolfman]

I have to change the spring in my 357 MAG to shoot 38 SPECIAL

Mmmm why ???

 

[johenz]

After reading up some and doin some testing on my own, I've decided on .357 125 JHP.

 

[NickL45]

I like the Gold Dot .38 +p 135 hollow point or 158 gr. lead semi-wadcutter hollow point + P for .35. For .357 I like 158 or 125 gr. semi jacket hallow point.