Self Defence ammo optimized for short barreled .357?

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croyance

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From what I have read, most ammunition for .357 magnums is made with slower burning powders and reach its listed velocity in the longer 8" barrels.
Gun magazine tests show a definite loss in velocity in 4" and shorter barrels. The snubbies fare the worst.
Yet people carrying J-frame S&Ws and perhaps the occasional K-frames aren't going to have the long barrels.
Does anybody make hollow point ammunition tailored for these shorter barrels?
 
Speer

Speer does. The ballistics info can be found here. It comes in .38 Special +P and .357 Magnum. Be advised, it can be hard to find, especially the .357 as it's new.
 
The Remington 125 grain Golden Saber might be another option, but the Speer loading looks really good. I suspect other manufacturers will follow Speer's lead. Still, .357s from a short barrel are still way more than .38s from a short barrel, "optimized" or not.
 
I wonder if there would be a good way to "roll your own" short-barrel .357 ammo? Seems like the right type of powder should give you acceptable results even in a snubby.

Any reloaders know if this would work?
 
Heck yes, that would work a lot better!

.357 Magnum works "best" with a slower burning powder like Win296 or H110 especially with high sectional density loads, 158gr and up.

This is because the powder continues to burn behind it and increase in pressure even as the bullet moves down the barrel.

But if you haven't got enough barrel to optimize for H110 or Win296 then why use them?

Unique or Win231 will work with .357 too, and burn much faster and require less powder. Since your barrel is shorter, you want the powder to burn up as quickly as possible. I think 231 is "done" at about 4".

There are probably even faster burning powders than Unique or 231 out there, I just don't know of them.
 
The Federal 130gr. HS is a pretty good load. It is designated as a Low-Recoil load and does about 1170fps from a snubby. That is similar to a 124gr. +p 9mm load from a 4" barrel. It does about 1300fps from a 4" barrel. Speer's 135gr. 357 short barrel load looks good to. The key to a good snubby load, is not necessarily how much power you can get. It has to be controllable. The typical 125gr. loads still make about 1280fps from even a snubby, which is similar to a really hot 9mm out of a full size gun. This load is brutal in a snubby though.
 
I fired some Federal 125-grain defense ammo from my snubbie a couple weeks ago. Not Fun :( . For defense, though, we're not looking for fun, are we? I'm sure the performance of these rounds is significantly hampered by a snub-length barrel, but they're still powerful as all get-out.

I scored two boxes of the Speer Short-barrel .357s recently, and shot a couple cylinders full at the range. They are very easy to shoot, low-flash, and probably the best option for non-steel snubbies. Power-wise, they're less than 300 ft/lbs, but the tests done at stoppingpower.net are very impressive indeed. Must have something to do with the bullet design. I'd certainly carry these over +Ps, and I do. The 125s are in my GP-100.

~Ichiro
 
Short barrel loads

Here are some for what it's worth facts:
[1] You subtact 50 feet per second off the velocity of your gun from a know velocity be it 4 inch; 6 inch or 8 3/8 inch. Most manuals will list 6 inch guns.
[2] Some powder manufacturers and reloading manuals use a "quick change" gun that has no vent hole. That produces more and unreal velocities.
 
From a 2 to 3 inch barrel 357 revolver, we prefer a Golddot (or XTP) bullet pushed at +P speeds. Personal, out of a short gun both my wife and I find much better control, less flash (& "boom") without giving up any real FPS or terminal energy when using +P 38's. Powders are fairly fast, like 231.
 
A good combination for a snubbie 357 is as follows:

  • Use Winchester USA 110-grain, .357 for practice. This load is between a +P and a full-load .357 mag. It is very easy to shoot out of an SP-101, but your mileage may vary, depending on the gun you have. This is not a bad defense load, either. Regular .38s do not have enough power or blast to mimic a quality defense load, so I recommend the 110-grain WWB for practice.
  • Load your gun with the Speer short-barrel .357, if you can get it. Otherwise, use the Speer short-barrel .38 +p or other quality +P, like Corbon or Hydrashok. These are very good rounds, with good bullets and good power.
I expect many manufacturers to come out with snub-nose rounds for the little .357s in due time, because the demand is there. Also remember that, even though snubbies lose out on the full power of magnums, the energy these cartridges are able to generate from the little guns is still very significant.

~Ichiro
 
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