.357mag back woods choice,SP or FMJ?

T

Tropical Z

New member
If your'e carrying a six shot 4" out where you could encounter anything short of a Grizzly which would you prefer? I guess the best choice would probably be to stagger soft points with full metal jackets,but maybe a hollow point or two could also be beneficial.
Assume that all are 158 grains.How would you proceed?
 
I think a 158 grain semi-jacketed soft point would be about right, maybe saving the hollowpoints for the speedloader. (If you have to reload you probably ain't dealing with critters.) Federal makes a cast-core lead 180 flat point which might be a good choice. Or the Winchester 180 grain, or the Speer 170 grain. Cor-Bon even makes a 200 grain "penetrator" but it's pricey.
 
If your'e carrying a six shot 4" out where you could encounter anything short of a Grizzly which would you prefer?
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I assume by saying "short of a grizzly", that you are implying you might run into a black bear?

If so, you need to use the heaviest bullet in that caliber for penetration.

I would go with all six chambers loaded with Cor Bon 200 grain load personally. YMMV
 
I don't have much of it left, but my favorite "older" ammunition for my deep rural .357 used to be the Norma 158gr FMJ truncated round rated at 1450fps. It was stout, but my Rugers are ported ... Don't know if it's still available. Wouldn't mind storing away some more boxes if it was ...

I only carried the .357, though, when my activities didn't require I anticipate the type of problems that would be better resolved with one of my .44's ... The latest heavyweight rounds in this caliber are great, although I used to rely on a stoutly handloaded 252-255gr hardcast LSWC, loaded to about 1300fps, or even the same bullet "downloaded" to only 1150-1200fps ...
 
I like the 180gr Winchester load. Had good luck with it.

Never tried the Cor-Bon stuff. However, 200gr sounds pretty good!

So long as you're not worried about 2-legged problems and your gun will handle it.
 
Yes,i could run into a black bear and .357mag is as powerful as it gets for me.I like having a revolver in that situation as i'd rather have .357mag even though .45acp or 9mm might do the job just fine.I'm thinking more and more that HP's would not be a suitable substitute for SP's or FMJ's.
 
I carry a .357 some and for out back use. I like the 170 Keith and 15 grs. of H-110. Another good bullet is the 180 Saeco FP.
 
LAH we even shoot the same .357 load: 173 hard cast Keith with 15 grains of H-110! This load goes 1150 in my 2.5" model 19, 1250 in 5 inch mod 27 and 1300 in 6inch mod 66 and 1400in 7.5 inch Blackhawk. I have no doubt about it going thru skull of black bear.Or even of getting thru vital on body shot. Anybody want a 3/8 hole drilled thru 2 feet of what ever this is it! LAH please E-mail your address to me for T/C barrell.:)
 
I use Creekers 170gr Keith too, although my load is a bit hotter. I prefer the original 15.5gr of 2400 load for 1386fps from my 4" GP100.
 
JohnK: obviously he has not seen the penetration of this load! I used to use that 2400 load in the N frame but it had lots of unburned powder and was real hot. I think a 3/8 thru everything beats a 7/16ths hole of insufficent depth or glances off rounded bone of cranium as stuff under 1000fps tends to. But a 240grain or heavier .44 bullet at 1100fps+ will do it too,even better no doubt.:D
 
gordo b. I'm sorry about the address. Thought I'd sent it. I'll jump right on that.

John K. and his GP 100. The man loves that sixgun.

Gila Jorge the big bore guy. I'd rather have a 44 any day for bear but you can do a lot worse than a 38-170-K at 1200-1300 fps.

Truth is I find the .357 a very useable cartridge in the field. It's very flat from the crown to 100 yards for varmits and such. Very little recoil in heavy guns also. The main draw back is noise but I rarely go anywhere without a set of muffs. You can do better for bear and boar though. Just my two.
 
John K. and his GP 100. The man loves that sixgun.
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Can I help it if Ruger made such an outstanding sixshooter? :) If S&W would put a longer cylinder and bull barrel on the M27 I might be convinced to switch teams - hehe.

I agree that a 250gr 44 @ 1,200 fps would be better than the 357, but you can sure do a lot worse than a hot hard cast 357.
 
You want a hardcast with a big flat nose, something like a Keith type or with an even wider flatter nose. Anything between 158grain and 180 should be fine in 357, moving at 1,300+.

If they make a fully jacketed non-roundnose load with basically the same shape, fine, otherwise a roundnose of any sort is a bad idea, too "gentle" in pushing aside flesh.

JohnK's load is perfect, and can indeed stop a black bear.
 
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