Best cheap .38 or .357 factory defense ammo?

What about .38 fellas?
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148 grain target wadcutters are not bad, especially in lightweight guns. Light recoil, and they penetrate well. They don't expand, but they cut a full-size hole. And they are relatively cheap. Biggest problem with them IMHO is they are slow to reload, so make sure your first 5 or 6 shots do the job.
 
zxcvbob said:
148 grain target wadcutters are not bad, especially in lightweight guns. Light recoil, and they penetrate well. They don't expand, but they cut a full-size hole. And they are relatively cheap. Biggest problem with them IMHO is they are slow to reload, so make sure your first 5 or 6 shots do the job.
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Only focusing on advertised defense ammo. While I agree wadcutters aren't bad for the job, they're not advertised as anything other than target ammo.
 
I've found the Remington green box 125gr. sjhp .357 mag ammo to be good. the wwb 110gr. jhp .357 mag ammo is decent for personal protection since youre not in LEO type activity. both are found at walmart for low prices.
 
What a wadcutter does that a JSP doesn't do, I've never read once. What this mythical advantage is over a JHP, doesn't exist.

And no one is recommending flat JSP...

Additionally, bullet meplats are too small in 357 to matter. So it's not the shape either.

One of the largest myths ever.
 
What a wadcutter does that a JSP doesn't do, I've never read once. What this mythical advantage is over a JHP, doesn't exist.
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It does the most tissue damage you can get if the bullet fails to expand. (I'm not saying that's *much* more than a round nose bullet, I don't know) And from a short barrel .38, I'm not sure that expansion is reliable for any bullet, and if it is then penetration might be lacking.

That Federal .38 +P HST looks interesting. But the ballistics tests I've seen on it suggest it needs 800 FPS to expand. A snubbie might or might not make 800. OTOH, if it fails to open up you still have a wide meplat like a wadcutter :)
 
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That article doesn't seem to say what you think it does:
http://www.gsgroup.co.za/articlepvdw.html said:
Secondly – opt for the shortest possible solid of sufficiently good quality and design. A 500-grain brass wadcutter of .458 calibre is shorter than a round nose of the same weight, material and calibre and that in turn is shorter than such a spitzer. The late Elmer Keith introduced us to the improved wound channel and energy transmission properties of the wadcutter. This is confirmed by Duncan MacPherson in his work Bullet Penetration – Modelling the Dynamics and Incapacitation Resulting from Wound Trauma, based on the research of the world’s leading wound ballistics expert, Dr Martin Fackler. By opting for this shape one would incorporate as much punch into your solid as possible.
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They are talking large caliber rounds. I have not found a 500gr 357 round yet...

If you follow those others as you listed by my link, they say the same thing. 44mag and up is where meplat matters. Lower, it doesn't.
 
Please, for all that is holy, could we bookmark this link so people would stop repeating this?
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LOL! Good luck there!
Since roughly 1998, I've been repaeting the same line "If wadcutters made good defensive loads, every manufacturer would make one - the simple fact that none exist for that purpose tells the whole story".


But - rest assured, somebody will come along in a few days and say they carry wadcutters - or even worse, wadcutters loaded backwards so there's a giant cavity. I just gave up.... ;) .
 
Haha. Well I am still in dispelling this myth because there is so much documentation on why meplat only matters on huge hunting rifle rounds or 44 and up bullets.

Now those references aren't gel tests, those are big game hunter labs using documented math. That's just cool.

That said, even the imagination can't create a situation where a wad cutter performs better than a poorly expanded hollow point. Slow is good? Sharp meplat edges? flat cross sectional density? If even true (they aren't), the hollow point wins every single argument.

HST 130gr 38 special opens to about double the size of a 45acp FMJ. Golden Saber in 38 opens to 2xs the size of a wad cutter at nearly the same penetration.

Wad cutter? Bottom of the pack for performance.

https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/revolver-ballistics-test/

To add, I would recommend the new Prvi 158gr hollow point as the best cheap 357 round. It's a huge mouth. It probably is a bad bullet that will fail, but it's the best bad bullet at the overall lowest cost for 357 hollow point.

That's a deal if stocking up.

Fiocchi anything hollow point will be cheaper and will be quality too.

There just aren't many types of 38/357 bullets out there. So the pricing isn't wild between them all.
 
Buckeye, you didn't answer your question at all. The video is of the old style scalloped jacket HP bullet ammo. The targetsports ad is for the newer semi-jacket HP bullet ammo. Aside from that difference, there is an approx. 50 fps difference in velocity (6"barrel) with the older ammo being faster. You might as well be comparing Winchester to Hornady.
Remington, in their infinite genius, is discontinuing the scallop jacket bullet for reasons unknown and unexplained. As seen in the video, the older scalloped jacket bullet is an outstanding performer.
 
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thread-hijack-jpg.71501


:(
 
wild cat mccane said:
Be aware, Remington 125gr SJHP is a known round for hammering the forcing cone.

Look up. I bought a 1,000 rounds at one point before finding this out :)
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Never heard of that. While it's well know than hot 110 grainers will eat away at the forcing cone, I have yet to see anything about 125ers. 125 JHP/SJHP are what most folks recommend for SD/HD outta a .357 and those Remingtons are not really hot for 125s.
 
DWFan said:
Buckeye, you didn't answer your question at all. The video is of the old style scalloped jacket HP bullet ammo. The targetsports ad is for the newer semi-jacket HP bullet ammo. Aside from that difference, there is an approx. 50 fps difference in velocity (6"barrel) with the older ammo being faster. You might as well be comparing Winchester to Hornady.
Remington, in their infinite genius, is discontinuing the scallop jacket bullet for reasons unknown and unexplained. As seen in the video, the older scalloped jacket bullet is an outstanding performer.
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Thanks for the heads up !!!
 
I like 158gr jsp 357 out of my 4" barrel SP101. It is what I carry in the gun. I don't know about expansion but it pokes holes in paper without a problem. I read somewhere before the internet was invented that you needed at least a 4" barrel to get the most performance out of the 357 magnum round. I don't know how true that is but I have used that nugget of information as my standard for a lot of years.
 
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