180 gr 357 for defense?

L

Longbowshooter

New member
I like to carry the 180 grain Winchester load as a general purpose self defense/outdoors load. I was reading a self defense book yesterday and it stated that in 357 one should not use the 180 grain bullets because they will penetrate too much. Does anyone have information if they are suitable for personal defense?
 
Seems like overkill to me. I've always thought of the 180gr .357 as sort of the .357 equivalent to the 300gr .44mag. Primarily a hunting round. I think there are SD loadings in this bullet weight though.
 
If you're speaking of the 180gr. Partition Gold the you are well served. Too much penetration, in my opinion, is overrated. Depends on your surroundings. But, several field reports using the 180gr. Partition Gold, indicated that in did not exit on most deer and hogs but worked very well. I think the gello results in a 4" barrel were 1,000fps and 17", fully expanded.
 
you are responsible for every shot fired and if it goes through your target(whatever that is) you could wind up being asked a lot of questions from a lot of people. a 180 gr bullet in a 357 may be fine for hunting but serves no purpose for anything else
 
I'd also worry about over-penetration with a 180gr .357 round. And then there is the recoil. You are obviously not shooting this out of a alloy J-frame snubby unless you like pain!

The 125gr JHP to about 146gr JSWC rounds seem to be close to ideal in the .357 Magnum loads. Recoil is low enough in most guns to allow a fast follow-up shot if necessary and the penetration is generally very good.
 
Jonathon brings up a good point. With a marker of 17" of gelatin it shouldn't be that bad of a problem. That's only 2" or so from the .38 +P LHP load and most .45 or .40 offerings. I imagine good ole' .45 ball is still being used by many with nearly twice the penetration as the 180gr. .357 HP's. But again, as Jonathon stated, I tend to worry about the 4 that miss as opposed to the one that hit. BillCA also has a good point. Those 180gr. Partition Gold loads have a lot of muzzle jump in a K-frame S&W.
 
Big ol bullet

I have never fired a 180 gr. 357 out of anything, but I guess it's use would depend on what kind of threats you think you might encounter. What kind of dangerous animals might you meet in your vicinity? Otherwise I myself would go with something lighter, maybe 158 gr. max. in that gun. A larger cal. might be a solution in some cases. Bigger bores can be downloaded to plinking power or light defense, but can be loaded for more power at the top end too.
But I think the 180 is a bit much for say, the suburbs unless you need to stop cars! Might be just the deal for my Marlin carbine, though.
 
In my Marlin 1894C, the 180PG is by far the most accurate, and my preferred hunting load. Out of my 3" S&W J-frame 60, it's pretty stout, though not uncontrollable, but for some reason, it tumbles. This topic started "Outdoors", and for that I'd say it's a great load. For "indoors" or "in-town" maybe something else would do.

PS - I also like shooting the heaviest arrows I can build, out of my longbow for the same reason, penetration.
 
I have been using 180 gr 357 Magnum for a few years. In my experience it works fine. I have used it in Winchester and Rossi LA rifles for hunting. I have always found an entry wound without an exit in hogs, deer and even a cow. I have had through and through on coyotes and feral dogs. I have had the almost exact results with my 4" 65 from the 4 wheeler too. When I carry my Colt Lawman MKIII 2:, I stoke it with Winchester 180 gr 357 Magnum. I have not experienced tumbling.
 
For max tissue damage a 125 gr. hp in a 357 can't be beat,now if you need to shoot thru a car from front to back thats something different.
 
I too use the 180gr bullets for outdoors carry. I load mine to 1300fps. They are a handful. That said, if I were going to carry them for SD, I'd use Remington's SJHP and load it to 1000fps-1100fps. The soft lead nose will deform easily at lower velocities than tougher bullets.

For outdoors use, I use the 180gr Hornady XTP.

Chris
 
ammolabs did an independent study on all loadings for just about every caliber imaginable. They found for the .357 with their own conclusive tests the most reliable self defense round is the Winchester Silver tip 145gr. I do not recall seeing a 180gr tests run, but do recall that the 158's were not nearly as reliable due to over penetration. Note these tests conducted are for hypothetical self defense situations and not hunting; your results of course may vary.
 
180gr.

I carry 180gr. Corbon bonded core soft points whenever I am outdoors/hunting type stuff, but I mostly stick to Winchester 145 Silvertips any other time. the Silvertip does a fine job on meduim size game at close ranges as well, but not as good as the Corbon.
 
I tend to agree that the 180 grn soft points are good for
hunting deer or black bear at close range, but they are
probably too heavy and over-penetrating for optimum
use on smaller critters, or for SD against malevolent
humans. 125 grn HP are still statistically the best
SD round as far as humans and smaller animals
are concerned, though fortunately I have not had to
prove this last point yet.
 
Thanks for the replies. I usually carry a ruger 5 or 6 shot. The round is stout in the lighter guns. My reasoning of the higher weight is 2 fold. 1) the blast is not nearly that of the 125 gr. loads. At least to me. 2)I like the idea of a single load so I don't have to wonder what I have loaded in a given situation.

There are black bear where I hike. I also figured the round has similar ballistics, 180gr@1000fps as the .40 cal. so I didn't think penetration would be a problem but wanted a few other opinions when I saw it may be in the book.

Thanks again.
Steve
 
I vote for the Win 145 gr. Silvertip. The 158 gr. Speer Gold Dot is excellent also, but will penetrate more as it's a quasi-hunting quasi-defense load. The 180 is definitely a hunting load and not very well suited to defense use. I avoid 110 gr. and 125 gr. as I prefer the penetration offered by heavier bullets and they're less wearing on the gun than the light bullet weights.

Penetration is vital in defense scenarios and fast/lightweight JHP's have more of a tendency to expand quickly and possibly penetrate less than the slower/heavier bullets which tend to expand more slowly and penetrate more deeply. You never know when you might have to penetrate an arm or two before getting to the torso, then you might have a few layers of clothing, and then possibly a bunch of layers of fat and muscle before your bullet even has a chance at getting to vitals. That's why I trust the 145 gr. and 158 gr. the most.
 
i have abox of 180's i have had and never shot. the only .357 i own are snubs im yet to grow the stones to try them out
 
you are responsible for every shot fired and if it goes through your target(whatever that is) you could wind up being asked a lot of questions from a lot of people. a 180 gr bullet in a 357 may be fine for hunting but serves no purpose for anything else.
Click to expand...

Please post one newspaper article where a citizen was arrested, charged or sued for hitting someone with a bullet that "overpenetrated" an assailant after a justified self-defense shooting. Just one.
 
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