loads
I bought my Marlin .357 lever carbine back in the early 80's. I've been all over the chart regards loads I've used in it,and the revolvers that I paired with it.
After a few years, one thing became pretty apparent, I seldom, if ever, carried both at the same time. That led to the practice of having different loads for different guns. One issue was that I enjoyed shooting the .357 revolvers with 3/4 powered ammo, lead SWC's at about 1000 fps. But that load in the carbine was a far cry from what was needed as a medium game, deer or hog gun. If the carbine was zeroed for the midrange load, I would have to rezero to take the carbine for deer, then rezero again back to the midrange plinking load to match the revolver for general shooting. And full house jacketed .357 loads in the revolver were not as pleasant to shoot, more expensive, and unnecessary plinking at stumps, rocks, paper and cans.
The solution to the issue ended up having two aspects. One was that I acquired more than one .357 revolver. I could zero one hand gun with LSWC and use it as GP shooter. I could zero another with full house JHP ammo and pair with the carbine, if ever needed, and have an all up
SD revolver when I wanted. Before the AR/ 5.56mm patrol carbine days, I even carried the carbine in my patrol rig, paired with an issue L-Frame and 125 gr JHP ammo. Outside of policy, but comforting given the dismal performance accuracy wise of slugs and limited reach of buckshot in my issued Win 1200 18" bead sighted shotgun. Thankfully, I never got in a confrontation with my unapproved lever carbine.
The second side of that story was I learned that if I zeroed the revolvers with 125 JHP ammo, that both the M27 and the Ruger B-hawk shot 148 gr .38 spl 148 gr WC's to the same point of aim. And the carbine was not that far off either, but had to be single loaded. So I had 2 revolvers, and a carbine, that with two loads on opposite ends of the power scale shot to the same point (well almost ,in the carbine's case).
Well, it was not a "one load" arrangement, but it allowed one sight setting, which solved the rezero issue. And .38 spl 148 gr WC was pretty darn anemic power wise and did not measure up as a GP load when stacked against the 158 LSWC at 1000 fps. Further, I did not see the 125 JHP as a deer load in the carbine, too much velocity and not enough slug to my way of thinking. But I was not hunting the lever carbine for deer anymore anyhow, and I had a vast supply of .38 WC, so I just let it be.
Revolvers were replaced with autos for issue handguns, the AR's hit the scene as patrol carbines. My lever carbine and its duo of .357 revolvers went back to the hobby and personal use. Eventually, I went back to 3 different loads for the 3 separate guns. Heavy JHP's in the carbine, light JHPs in the DA M27 Smith, and the Ruger B-hawk got mid range LSWC . All 3 loads identifiable at a glance.
And I kept it that way until recently, when I swapped things around again.
All that shooting and experimenting was, and still is, tremendous fun. all the more reason to blaze your own trails with a .357 combo.