Thanks for all of the input guys.
I had pretty much desided that I couldnt stomach the purchase of a new Smith & Wesson. I was on the way out the door to try to find a Taurus Titanium .357, when I noticed this months copy of a local classifieds paper on the coffee table. I usualy make it a habit to flip through it before I buy any new gun...it would really make me sick to find the gun i just bought for a few hundred less. I couldnt beleave my luck. Right there in black and white was a almost NIB Smith 360PD Scandium with the Hi-Viz sight. The advertised price was only $20 short of suggested retail, but if it was in "new" shape, so what. I callethe guy up and went over to take a look at it. He wasnt lieing..only 2 cylinders had fouling. It was barely a week old. Turns out he had fired 2 Federal through it and had enough. I handed him 6 bills and headed to the range with a big grin.
Well, today I did something I'm not proud of...I left the range with left over ammo. Thats never happend before. The anology of the broken bat was pretty close...but I would like to add that it was a brick wall being hit, with a full swing. The first shot busted the top of the thumb on my brand new $50 Browning leather skeet gloves (not the seam..the leather, right between the 2 thumb joints). I took the gloves off and fired the rest bare handed..skin grows back, cabaretta leather dosnt. I ended up firing 50 rounds of Aquila 158gr SJHP, 25 rounds of Remington 125gr SJHP, and a pityfull 15 rounds of the smoking S&B 158gr SJSP (these Chrony at a hair over 1400FPS from my 4in 686). They were all somewhat painfull to shoot, but the S&B was just plain unbearable. After firing of those, I actualy checked to see if the gun blew up! Pulling the trigger the first time wasnt too hard...the second pull took ever bit of will I could scrounge, knowing I had 3 more to go almost made me give up. All in all it was a humbeling experinace. I'm a fairly small framed guy at 6-1 140lbs and not overly egotistical, But this little fistfull of rage would be enough to put anyone in there place. Once I got a few 'getting to know you" rounds down range and I had a little talk with my brains pain avoidance node, I tried to do some serious accuracy work. Accuracy was very good, and I just love that fiber optic front sight. Much better than I expected. Next I needed to speed things up and try a run at the plate rack. The pistol did shift in my hand when fired. But I found that with a very firm grip I could knock down all 5 plates without having to reaquire my grip...even though it shifted a little bit with each shot. The combination of the extra firm grip and the slight shift between shots made doing so an excecise in masocism, but speed and accuracy IS possible with these little magnums.
After 90 rounds of full power .357's, the only lasting effects I have are a bruise on my index finger knuckle, a little knot on the web of my hand from hammer bite from the speed drills, and my pinky is still tingeling from getting smacked with the exposed butt. My palm has quit stinging and I think I could stand to shoot it again tommorrow. This is the only gun I have ever fired that I would describe as painfull, and it was worse than I expected, but with a little moxy and determination, you can shoot these little lightweights fast and accurate even with the hot magnum loads.
To be comleatly honest, the only reason I used hot magnum loads is because thats all I had on hand. But it was a good test (of man and machine) and will make the lighter loaded .357's feel less punishing. Any suggestions for some slightly softer shooting .357's? I'm looking for more than .38+p powerlevel but a little less than the S&B's 158gr@1400fps
. A 125 at around 1200fps should fit the bill.