Why do some people dislike .357 magnum?

Pray that the adrenaline saves your ears if you have to shoot without protection!
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Won't happen, but some ears are more sensitive than others.

From a practical standpoint, true .357 rounds loaded to their full potential are just too loud (IMHO) for SD or HD duty. I believe there are alternatives (.44 spc, .45 ACP) that work just as well and are much ear-friendlier. I wouldn't want to shoot .357 under any circumstances (even hunting) without ear protection.

That said, I still really enjoy shooting .357 full power loads (158 gr. JHPs over 16 grains of H110) from my 686. Very accurate, loud and a nice long flame. :)
 
I think it depends on how the shooters are introduced to the round. I see many people use the words ".357", "snubby" and "pocket revolver" together way too frequently (in my opinion). Not a good combination for making a pleasing first impression on inexperienced users.

Are my .357s loud? A little, sure. I've had a range full of "kids" shooting semi-autos stop to see what was making all of that noise before. (I'm 30, as point of reference for my "kids" comment. ;) ) But I personally find the ever popular 16" barrel M4gery .223s to be more obnoxious to be around. And the local PD uses .357 Sig chambered Glocks, which seem to be just as loud.

Does it kick? More than my 9mms, yes, of course. Pick a K-frame or larger revolver and it's manageable. Proper mindset and practice goes a long way toward not worrying about a little bump in the palm from the pistol. One thing to keep in mind is a lot of folks in my generation are accustomed to 9mm handguns and .223 caliber rifles, so anything that starts going up the horsepower scale is going to move them around more than they've experienced before.

Muzzle flash? Oh yeah, no getting around that one. Modern defense ammo may be pretty well flash-retarded. My reloads with 2400 powder, not so much. No getting around this one with full-power reloads I fear, it's going to get a bit bright. To be fair, a heavy dose of Power Pistol through a Glock 26 is pretty spectacular as well, just not quite as high up the "OOoooooo" scale. :p

Funny thing is, I came into the .357 late after having a fondness for .44 Magnum revolvers. Once the first K-frame came home, the 629 found itself in the safe more and more. Then the L-frame sealed the deal. No more .44 Magnum in my house. My 9mms may match the ballistics of the .357s (cherry picking here, 127gr Ranger SXT 9mm +P+ versus 125gr Golden Saber .357) and I will still say a .44 Magnum is more versatile, but depending on the question a .357 may be a perfectly good answer.
 
I love the 357 and 44Mag equally.
As for noise, whenever I read or hear '357', I remmeber some LEO's daughter on the police firing line. He sent her out to qualify with his favorite 357 loads in some snubby. (I should have asked to see what it was.)
All the 38's going pop, pop, pop up and down the line, KABLAM! Lots of flash, recoil, and bang. The whole range went silent. Since each person had to bring their own ammo, nobody had any extra to give her.
I don't remember if she qualified, but her accuracy deteriorated fast.
 
It does not have the power to be an effective big game cartridge over 50 yards.

It is too powerful for many to shoot fast.


....and I like 357 mag in a J frame.
 
I never liked it because it was common (more common than .41, .44 magnums), and it was too "all around", jack of all trades, master of none. Too hot for targetand plinking, not as effective as the .41, .44 mags for hunting deer (on paper anyway). However, in the last few years, for some reason not apparent to me, I have acquired a 686 and a 66 and they are now two my favoties. Their faults do not seem to bother me at all nowadays.
 
No matter what the subject, you will find people that don't like something, it's just human nature. I like .357 magnum but not for plinking or home defense, for that I prefer .38 Special. I love shooting .357 out of the Blackhawk, but prefer .38 in the snubby.

It's all personal preference.
 
It is a good thing my father, who served in Europe during WWII, didn't have to deal with 357magnum hearing loss.
The many US and German machine guns he fired, as well as the 37mm cannon in his armored car, and the artillery both incoming and outgoing, left his hearing fine. If they had 357's...all bets are off, I guess.
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My grandfather who served in WW2 lost close to 50% of his hearing in each ear as well as suffered from tinnitus. He spent his entire adult life needing hearing aids. The majority of WW2 vets who saw action had hearing loss, your father is the exception.

Pray that the adrenaline saves your ears if you have to shoot without protection!
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This is a complete myth. Adrenaline will not do a thing to save your ears, auditory exclusion is 100% mental not physical.
 
Don't get me wrong it's a great round and if I were to stow away one emergency handgun in my cabin up North it would be a 357 magnum. The round has the ability, with the right load, to protect the owner from felons and bears but with anything that serves as multi tool for many purposes it isn't the best. The ability to shoot 38spl ammunition is one of the stronger points for a 357 wheel gun. I started out handgun hunting with a 6.5 inch blackhawk and then went to a 6inch GP100, but like most serious handgun hunters I moved on to a 45 Colt and 44 magnum. For self defense I have an array of semi autos with the 45acp on top of the list.
 
I think the people that have talked about how someone is introduced to .357 are on the right track. I was introduced with .38 target loads. .38 low power hand loads in a large frame revolver are the only way I will introduce a new shooter to .357.

Also, if my dad had given me a mod 29 in place of the 28 for my first handgun I would probably have many examples of the .44 instead of many examples of the .357.

I hand load and cast bullets so my view is probably skewed a bit by that. But with that in mind, I think .38/.357 is one of the more versatile and economical center fire options. Right now it is even better than .22 rim fire, because I can not find any at a price I will pay.
 
I think a lot of it has to do with people starting out with the wrong kind of ammunition. Because of its fearsome reputation for effectiveness, many people's first instinct with a .357 Magnum is to stuff it full of Remington or Federal 125gr SJHP ammo. While I don't dispute those loads' effectiveness, they are, IMHO, among the least pleasant handgun ammunition to shoot.

While not the harshest recoiling ammo I've ever shot, 125gr .357's do have a substantial amount of recoil. What really gives them the "shock and awe" effect, however, is their blast. Not only are they very loud, but the pitch of their report seems to be very sharp even when one is wearing hearing protection. Also, most of them must be loaded with rather slow burning powder because I almost always get peppered with unburnt powder while shooting 125gr .357's regardless of what gun I shoot them from (I've tried them from at least 8 different revolvers with barrel lengths from 1 7/8" to 5").

Personally, I much prefer to stick with the heavier 140-158gr bullets in my .357 Magnums. While they do recoil slightly more, the difference is slight but their report is much more tolerable.
 
I don't dislike the .357 magnum/.38 .... I just prefer the big bore calibers more (.44 and .45). Big and slow (relatively) for me. When I do shoot the .357 it is a 158g SWC at around 1000fps. Need more punch, I just go up in caliber. Now, I really do dislike the 'sharp' craaaaaack of a 'fast' .357 load and won't use it for SD for that very reason. In an inclosed area it must really knock your ears for a loop. No, I stick with the 'boom' of a .44 or .45 and reload to velocities that I prefer to shoot/need. For 'me' the recoil is no biggie with the peanut round regardless of velocity and/or weight of bullet.
 
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Muzzle Blast/Flash/Recoil

Having shot a J frame with full house 357 rounds and a Smith 629 Classic with these puppies:
Remington UMC Ammunition 44 Remington Magnum 180 Grain Jacketed Soft Point
I'll take the J Frame and 357's. The 44 mag would send a fire ball down the shooting lane at the indoor range that was mighty impressive! And after 12 rounds of that stuff the flinching was mighty distinct. Sure, you can load a 44 Mag down to 44 Russian---so you can take a 357 down to 38 Short Colt.

A 357 is very useful and versatile, in my opinion. SP101 with 4 inch barrel handles Hornady 357 Critical Defense rounds very nicely---wouldn't want to shoot 50 of them, but they just don't install a flinch like the 44 mag did---in ME.

Whatever floats yer boat, then use that.
 
When I read comments about the snappy recoil of the 357, I just mark it down to an inexperienced shooter.
I found the Ruger SP101 I used to own easy to shoot with full powered 357... And the 3" GP100 I have now is a dream to shoot.
Last time I was at the range, I watched a guy shooting a S&W Model 28 6" at...15ft. He was shooting off the bench, and gripped the revolver at least an inch too far down the grip...the six inch barrel was flipping up like dirty Harry's 44 mag....and he was complaining that he was "all over the target".
I'm sure he would be glad to tell about the 357's snappy recoil.
 
Excess recoil, noise, and muzzle flash. It shoots the same size round as a 9mm or .38 special, yet I can put more shots on target with a 9mm or .38 faster and with more accuracy than the .357 magnum.... I do not believe that an extra 200fps is going to save my butt, so because of that I stick to 9mm.
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This ^^^^ is pretty much the way I feel about the 357 mag, but I prefer 40 S&W over 9mm. But I don't always shoot a 357 mag revolver in anticipation that it might "save my butt". I generally prefer 38spl for that.

My first centerfire revolver was a Colt Python (357 mag). I loved the look of the gun, but totally disliked shooting it for the listed reasons. I just never warmed up to that gun. Sold it eventually thinking I was done with 357. You see I actually prefer the 41 mag in a M57 over the 357. But that lead me back to the 357 as a "more pleasant" round to shoot. I suspect that I just never put in the time to learn how to shoot that Python well.

Cost of ammunition was always an issue for me as well, especially back when I had that Python.

Well.... a Colt Trooper Mark III appeared as did a Ruger GP-100. I actually like the Trooper Mark III better than the Python for shooting.
 
I would have said that it has been too wimped out and toned back over the last 40 years or so. The question I get is why waste bullets and powder on a 357 Magnum to get the ballistics you can derive from a 357 Maximum easier? The 357 Magnum is about 38/44 power levels today so why deal with it.
 
small frames

Full house .357 in J type frames, maybe even K's, can be a bit obnoxious. The 125 full house load has a lot of flash and bang too. When we made the jump from +P+ duty ammo, to honest to gosh .357/125, there was a bit of griping from the staff and borderline shooters suffered lower qualification scores. So much so that the 110 load was authorized, as well as the attenuated 125 load. Thus some folks do have a hard time with all up .357.

I like the .357, but as a rule don't use full house ammo except for SD. I load 158 gr lead at velocities just over .38 +p, about 1000 fps or so, as a GP load and am satisfied. If I purposely carry a revolver in the SD role, I'll drop in 125 JHP and carry one zeroed for the load. The zero is a bit different, (the 125's come in low in my revs zeroed for mid range lead. In a confrontation, the 1000 fps lead bullet would not be ideal, but nothing to dismiss either. But I digress.

From mid and large frame revolvers, K's, L's, , B- hawks, N-frames, that lot (sorry don't own any Colts) the midrange .357 is useful and easy to shoot.
 
I'm a big fan of 357 guns. I've owned Model 19's, 28's, 27's, and 13's in Smith & Wesson, Ruger Speed and Security six's, as well as Blackhawks, Taurus 66's, and 65's, and a Colt Python. There might have been others.

But I almost never shoot 357 ammo. I'll bet I haven't fired 200 rounds of it in my life. I just don't see any need to. I don't hunt with a handgun. My carry guns have all be 38's or 9mm's. I don't see any need to put up with more noise, recoil, and expense to punch a hole in a piece of paper.

I don't "dislike" the 357. I just don't see much need for it.

(I felt the same way about the 44 magnun, vs the 44 Special, too.)
 
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