Posted: 3/5/2008 1:21:15 PM EDT
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What do you have in your .357 for SHTF? Just picked up a 686+ and don't realy know what to load it with. Been a .45 guy all my life so wheel guns are a little new to me. Thanks Josh |
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MuXi115, Any one of these offerings from Hornady - I believe the "LEVERevolution" has the highest bc of the 4. my $0.02 Cheers, Sakic #19 
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For carrying, I'm quite fond of the Speer .357 Mag Short Barrel load. A bonded bullet that is proven to reliably expand and penetrate well, with less recoil than is common with most .357 Magnum loads. Faster followup shots are, to me, a good idea. At about a buck a round, you won't be stockpiling them like some people do with other rounds, though. 
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125 grain JHP for personal defense in CCW, I also use this as my HD round but I have very light doors and would not shoot thru anything else. This load is one of the few that are seen as being near perfect by both those who record actual shooting results, and those who test gelitin for results. This is a classic defense load and has a better one stop stop rate then 45 APC |
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I have always been partial to the Winchester 145gr Silvertip hollow point, for a 357 carry load. When I was in LE, I saw two shooting with this load, the follow up shot on both was not needed. Kind of in between the 125 flame throwers, and the heavier 158 HP's. YMMV. S/F Flyingrhino |
I don't really keep a 357 for SHTF, I'm a 44 man myself, but some really nasty loads I've got for my 357 are the 148gr hollow base wadcutters turned around backwards in the case. The deep V hollow core in them plus the soft lead does an incredible amount of damage on game and would work on people as well.
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| I actually like the 158 gr. CCI aluminum cased Blazer in both my revolvers and my Marlin 1894C. It is very accurate, and loaded down slightly so recoil is pretty mild. Makes double action shooting much easier. It is fairly cheap and you don't have to worry about saving cases for reloading. |
+1 on these blazer rounds. They have proven VERY accurate out of my Taurus Tracker. They do tend to swell and may not drop free from the cyl. Look around. I bought mine at $8.00 per box of 50. I'd hunt with these any day of the week. |
A great explanation of the issue from gunblast.com. They said it better than I could.
Here is a picture of some flame cutting, yanked from Xavier's blog.  This has always been more of an issue with the K frame magnums, like the Model 19 and the Model 66. Those guns are a unique weapon with their own set of needs. On an N Frame or an L Frame, you can pretty much feed it whatever you want, outside of goofy-hot handloads. |
| Flame cutting is not really the problem with K frames. If you will take a K frame and open the cylinder, you'll note then barrel is not completely round at the forcing cone. The bottom is cut flat. With less material there, the is an increased chance of damage. Specifically, cracking the [thinner] forcing cone from heavy loads. |
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