The majority of my Smiths wear Ahrends. Here’s an obligatory pic of my 3” M65 LS dressed up in Cocobolo and, to keep it on topic, cavorting with some Fed 125gr manstoppers.
- Thread starter wvfarrier
- Start date
What a beautiful revolver. I love the deep blue guns. My detective special has African rosewood on it by badger and it’s pretty spectacular. Robert Finegan of Clayton Nc bobbed the hammer, performed his magic on the trigger and reamed and indexed the chambers. That and my 586 to which he did the same thing are by far my favorite pieces. Then there is my fur missile. Everybody needs a nice protective case for their Belgian Malinois
I carry a S&W 686+ most days as my EDC. It was reworked by a local gunsmith and it awesome. I cut my teeth on wheelguns and 1911s but find a revolver to be my "go to" for regular life. I am a lefty but have gotten pretty fast at reloads. I will never match my 1911 reload speeds but its fast enough and I can do it under duress. I took a couple CQB courses and used a S&W TRR8 as my "back up" gun.
I grew up on revolvers and six guns also as did my father who was also a police officer. I carried his old python as well as my Colt detective special as backup. I ran silvertips in the python and my speed loaders carried .38 so they could work in either fire arm. Lately, as a retired cop and a criminal defense investigator for the decade+ I either carry my 586 and my det spec or I substitute my Detonics Combat Master for one of the revolvers. Those 3 firearms I absolutely trust with my life.
Get some Black Hills Honeybadgers, they're Lehigh bullets and they load them for 357. They're great loads. I carry them in a 7 shot Wiley Clapp GP100.
He used to build 1911s as well....was a superior gunsmith
I’ve been shooting .357’s and 44 Magnums and hot rodded 45 Colts for many a decade. When I started shooting them, factory magnum loads were magnum, not these lawyered up, panty waisted crap that factories turn out now. Seems the pressure levels of both he .345 and the 44 are much lower than, what a fellow could buy at the gunshop, back in “my day.”
Now, with the multitude of extra light weight and light weight .357 carry guns that have so proliferated, shooting good old Magnum loads (not that lawyered up, panty waist crap) in one of those carry handguns might be a handful. (No pun intended) Still, I load my own, load most to fun load levels, but for real, hunting, I shoot rounds that are safe to shoot, as tested, but intended to take down large prey. It’s what magnums are for.
We own several of the double action .357’s from an SP-101, to a Security Six, to an original, 7.5 inch barreled six shot Redhawk. (Its a beast,
).
At the most we had something like 12 different .44 magnums, rifles and single action handguns. Still got a bunch but have sold off several. And, some really nice, heavy frame Ruger .45 Colts, including a nice .45 Super Blackhawk Hunter.
Now, with the multitude of extra light weight and light weight .357 carry guns that have so proliferated, shooting good old Magnum loads (not that lawyered up, panty waist crap) in one of those carry handguns might be a handful. (No pun intended) Still, I load my own, load most to fun load levels, but for real, hunting, I shoot rounds that are safe to shoot, as tested, but intended to take down large prey. It’s what magnums are for.
We own several of the double action .357’s from an SP-101, to a Security Six, to an original, 7.5 inch barreled six shot Redhawk. (Its a beast,
). At the most we had something like 12 different .44 magnums, rifles and single action handguns. Still got a bunch but have sold off several. And, some really nice, heavy frame Ruger .45 Colts, including a nice .45 Super Blackhawk Hunter.
I’ve been shooting .357’s and 44 Magnums and hot rodded 45 Colts for many a decade. When I started shooting them, factory magnum loads were magnum, not these lawyered up, panty waisted crap that factories turn out now. Seems the pressure levels of both he .345 and the 44 are much lower than, what a fellow could buy at the gunshop, back in “my day.”
Now, with the multitude of extra light weight and light weight .357 carry guns that have so proliferated, shooting good old Magnum loads (not that lawyered up, panty waist crap) in one of those carry handguns might be a handful. (No pun intended) Still, I load my own, load most to fun load levels, but for real, hunting, I shoot rounds that are safe to shoot, as tested, but intended to take down large prey. It’s what magnums are for.
We own several of the double action .357’s from an SP-101, to a Security Six, to an original, 7.5 inch barreled six shot Redhawk. (Its a beast,
At the most we had something like 12 different .44 magnums, rifles and single action handguns. Still got a bunch but have sold off several. And, some really nice, heavy frame Ruger .45 Colts, including a nice .45 Super Blackhawk Hunter.
Weren’t the original .357mag loads pushed to 50k psi? I think I remember reading about that. Due to large scale production and metallurgy issues they reduced it to the now 35k SAAMI recommendations.
I load my .357 rifle to far more stout loadings than any book shows. Thats based off of the Paco and Kieth readings and quite a few conversations on SASSnet.
It's interesting to see how tough and bulletproof wild game have gotten over the years. Impossible today to hunt with a 357 Magnum apparently! 
Have to be 338 Lapua, or to be really sure, 50 BMG!
Have to be 338 Lapua, or to be really sure, 50 BMG!
This thread is Fudd catnip
It's a Fudd pickle too... somewhere between,
"my .357 CCW revolver will stop a 250lb man in his tracks, I only need 5 rounds", and...
"You can't load that .357 rifle over what the rules say or your whole family will blow up, use an appropriate round for that 120lb deer", their head explodes.
There is no reason to hot load them. I haven't done stupid shit like that since high school.
.357 is larger than .30. It's going 1650 or so at the muzzle. Inside 100 yards it's got plenty of juice to punch through an ungulate. Nothing to think about or talk about. People kill them all the time with a .300 BLK with a lot less energy and a smaller bullet. My deer pistol is a GP-100 with one of those old, silver Leopold pistol scopes. Easy as hell to hit the boiler room at 50 yards off hand. I'd say the issue would only be taking long shots off hand and hitting non vital areas.
.357 is larger than .30. It's going 1650 or so at the muzzle. Inside 100 yards it's got plenty of juice to punch through an ungulate. Nothing to think about or talk about. People kill them all the time with a .300 BLK with a lot less energy and a smaller bullet. My deer pistol is a GP-100 with one of those old, silver Leopold pistol scopes. Easy as hell to hit the boiler room at 50 yards off hand. I'd say the issue would only be taking long shots off hand and hitting non vital areas.
That depends on your definition of "loading them hot".... We're not talking about taking .300win mag over book by 5gr and pushing a custom action to the limits, mechanically.
We're talking about a pistol cartridge that was once loaded to over 45k psi in revolvers, then reduced to 35k due to politics and factory production limits...and loading it into rifles who's actions can easily handle 45-55k psi.
The REASON isn't the normal speed demon shit where you're trying to squeeze an extra 50fps to hit the Mk262 load. We're talking about a .357mag rifle that pushes a 180gr GC Montana bullet 450fps faster out of my 16" rifle than the H&M bear loads with the same bullet. FYI, that load is at the book max for 170gr GC using 300-MP. I called Alliant and they would not give me the pressure but said they were well under SAAMI pressure at 35k. That means I still have room to play with, in my opinion, safely.
With those differences, it's not really minor. It easily extends the hunting distance I can use my rifle for, and makes it more formidable for slightly larger critters, especially with the stout 180gr hardcast.
To be clear, I'm not using these loads in pistols. There's also T/C Encore loads for this very same reason.
