General Purpose Woods Round--.357 Magnum SJSP or SWC??

S

Southern Shooter

New member
From a 2 3/4" barrel, .357 Magnum revolver, which would be the better choice? 158 grain SJSP or 158 grain SWC?? And, why?

**I have these two items already in the home supply. So, I would like to stay with one of these two choices. Same weight, just different bullet styles.**

Thanks
 
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cost v. accuracy

My woods/utility loads are SWC's. Here's why:

-generally, I can buy, load and shoot SWC slugs cheaper than JHP
-I expend more ammo in plinking and general blasting
-I used to load lead SWC, then ran onto a supply of JSWC, which I have about
shot up. Back to lead w/ the next batch.
-I run my utility loads about +P+ velocity, hotter than .38 +p, but not full bore mag. This is easier on my ears and nerves, and wear and tear on the revolver. Reducing the velocity eases the leading problem w/ LSWC's, commercial versions which are notoriously soft.


My SD loads are JHP and full house. I can tell at a glance if I've got a midrange utility load or full power ctg, by bullet type. LSW equals utility/woods load +P+. A JHP equals full bore mag ammo.

With your snubby, I wonder if you'll get enough velocity to benefit from a JHP anyhow???

Finally, all this out the window if JHP's are just super accurate in your revolver, and SWC so so.
 
duh

See that now. Thanks.

My system still stands, JHP for SD, SWC for utility. My favorite .357 bullet was the 160 SWC half jacket, now defunct. Sort of a semi jacketed soft point, with a SWC profile.

Regards semi jacketed soft points, I'm betting they'd act like a round nose and not expand particularly at snubby velocities. So....why pay for the jacket.
 
Depends on what you encounter - for two legged creatures the expanding bullet will work good but if you need penetration - i.e. black bear etc. then the SWC is a better choice.
 
SWC is in all of my guns all of the time except self defence guns(HP). SWC cut a full caliber hole and penetrate like nothing else.
 
It is really pretty academic. A toss up.
I would suggest the SWC especially if you reload. Then you can take a bunch of them along and do some fun plinking at the same time without spending a lot of money.
 
Woods for what? A 2 3/4" barrel is for defense against 2 legged predators. They don't change. Four legged creatures aren't interested in you.
 
Which 158 grain is best?

Most of the time I would choose the SWC bullet. In my experience, these shot best out of my .357 Model 19.
But you should always choose the one that shoots best out of YOUR pistol.
 
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