For decades, the .357 Magnum rode in the holsters of police across our nation. No one dared question its effectiveness; it was a given. In fact, this cartridge, in days gone past, was held in legendary reverence. Does it still deserve that status?
In The Beginning
Back in the 1920s, police agencies began wishing for a more powerful round than the .38 Special. The 1920s were witness to prohibition and the associated wild times that the endeavor brought. Criminal elements were running roughshod and the police had a real battle on their hands at times.
Smith & Wesson figured that if they could load the .38 Special hotter, it would be more effective. However, the fact was that doing so would cause revolvers to explode because they could not withstand that much additional pressure.
Enter the .38/44 Heavy Duty revolver. Smith & Wesson took their heavy framed .44 Caliber revolver and chambered it in .38 Special. It had a five-inch barrel. The .38/44, added about 300 feet per second to the 158-grain .38 Special round in the five-inch barreled revolver.
Police immediately felt better about this round, giving them extra power in their revolvers. Confidence in one’s weapons means a lot when you carry those weapons and stake your life on them.
Early experimenters Elmer Keith and Phil Sharpe both thought that the .38/44 could be pushed to better performance. Independently, they worked at raising the velocities of the round. Sharpe approached the project by raising velocities of the .38/44. Keith went at it from the angle of adding velocity to the .44 Special round.
In the end, Smith & Wesson decided on the .357 Magnum, which featured a case that is .125 inches longer than the .38 Special. The Magnum round was introduced in 1935 and could achieve 1,515 feet per second from a revolver with a barrel length of 8 3/4 inches. It can be loaded to a maximum pressure of 35,000 psi.
Despite the fact that the Great Depression was occurring, sales were very brisk. Production had to stop briefly in 1941 due to World War II but resumed in 1948.
From that point on, several decades of development saw many different models of handguns in .357 Magnum. Not only from S&W but from just about every manufacturer who makes firearms.
Back in the Day
Hailing from Pennsylvania, I can recollect all the way back to my grade school days (amazing that a person as old as I am still has a memory, isn’t it?). Our local PA State Police (PSP) barracks would send out the same trooper to give a school safety program every year.
That trooper was, at a minimum, ten feet tall. We were all certain he was bulletproof, as well. With his deep, booming voice, he would warn us of the dangers of the world. For weeks after his speech, we’d be absolutely certain that there was a kidnapper lurking behind every bush on our way home from school, and we’d look over our shoulders, staying on guard against certain death.
His uniform was impeccable, with boots and all leather being polished to a sparkling sheen. And that revolver…we held that revolver in awe! It was large and .357 Magnum in caliber. To us grade-schoolers, it was gigantic.
Years later, that same trooper became the sheriff of a nearby county. I realized that he wasn’t quite ten feet tall, nor was he bulletproof. But as an adult, I still held a lot of respect for him, as well as a definite fondness. He was committed to keeping us safe, even if it meant scaring the ever-loving hell out of us. He did his job well!
And so it was, across America, cops and troopers carried .357 revolvers in their holsters.
The Legendary .357 Magnum
It’s common knowledge that a .357 Magnum round can crack an engine block. Right? Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. More like complete bull-poop.
However, the .357 did earn a well-deserved reputation as a powerful round and a man-stopper. It achieved a very good track record, and few people argued against its performance (and few people will today). It’s a substantial hunk of lead moving out at a fast velocity from a revolver.
Its performance proved that it was more effective at stopping bad guys than most other handgun rounds, within reason.
Perhaps part of its mystique is the massive fireball that emanates from the muzzle blast, as well as the recoil. In smaller revolvers, it’s a real handful to fire. In a lightweight, 2-inch barreled revolver, it’s downright miserable to touch off a round!
It’s safe to say that the .357’s reputation of performance is well-deserved, even if there is and was a bit of hype attached to its performance capabilities.
In The Field
Aside from self-defense and law enforcement use, hunters also found the .357 to be formidable in the hunting field. Hunters took to the field and were bagging small game and deer with it. Aside from deer, it’s also been known to take bear on occasion.
New Offerings
The auto pistol crowd saw the virtues of the .357 Magnum and wanted in on the action. Sig introduced its .357 Sig round in 1994, and it approximates the velocities of the .357 Magnum, but in a semi-auto platform.
It did catch on but was not as wildly popular as I believe they thought it was going to be. Quite a few agencies adopted it, as did many private citizens. Without a doubt, there are advantages to having magnum performance in a magazine-fed semi-auto pistol.
Ultimately, though, the revolver and lever action give more versatility for the .357 Magnum because they can be loaded with a wider variety of rounds. Different bullet weights and configurations abound for the caliber, and that’s just factory ammo—when we start talking handloading, the choices multiply exponentially.
As a duty round, the .357 Sig has some good points, but versatility is not one of them. If you’re looking for versatility in ammunition, go for the revolver or lever gun. The Thompson Center Contender also offers options in .357 for hunters and target shooters.
Bullet Launchers
Many people, when they think of the .357 Magnum, immediately picture a revolver. This is not surprising, given that the police were a huge percentage of users for this round. As usual, armed citizens mimicked what the police were carrying, because reason told them that if the police were using it, it was probably pretty effective. Hunters came in somewhere after that on the popularity scale.
And, since it was first chambered for revolvers, it’s fair to give that platform the lion’s share of credit for making the .357 Magnum famous.
That said, the lever action carbine can also take a good amount of credit for launching the .357 round. As in the old West, people like the idea of having a handgun and a carbine chambered for the same round. Ammunition interchangeability is always a nice thing to have, especially if we’re out in the wilds without immediate resupply. In the days of the Wild West, that was far more important than it is today. But it’s still a nice aspect to adhere to.
A carbine-length barrel will send a round downrange with more velocity than a handgun-length barrel.
Yes, there are auto pistols and rifles that shoot the .357 Magnum, but I’m going to leave those out of this article because they generally are not practical, nor widely available.
.357 Magnum Ballistics
It’s time to take a look at ballistics, and what we can expect from the .357 Magnum in the real world. The following are some figures taken from BBTI (Ballistics By The Inch). I’m using their tables because I do not have a chronograph of my own, nor do I have the wide array of ammunition that they’ve tested. As such, they are a valuable resource for us to get a good idea of how the Magnum rounds perform, both from handguns and carbines.
Revolvers
The following are some velocities common from revolvers. I decided to go with four-inch barrel lengths because that’s typically what’s carried on duty (in fact, my former agency still issues S&W 4-inch .357 Magnum revolvers).
- Cor Bon 110 grain JHP: 1,286 feet per second.
- Cor Bon 125 grain JHP: 1,496 feet per second.
- Federal 125 grain JHP: 1,511 feet per second.
- Federal 158 grain JHP: 1,293 feet per second.
- Federal 158 grain JHP Hydra-Shok: 1,332 feet per second.
Those are some impressive velocities from a revolver. A couple of them far exceed what we’d expect from today’s 9mm or .45 ACP loads. They also offer amazing expansion and terminal performance on target. A lot of research goes into today’s bullets—much more than in decades past. They’re more efficient and effective today, with most expanding reliably.
Carbines
Next, we’ll look at velocities from lever action carbines. The common school of thought is that longer barrel lengths will add velocity compared to pistol-length barrels, and that is true.
However, there comes a point when the longer barrel actually begins to slow the bullet down instead of speeding it up. For the .357 Magnum, that magic barrel length limit seems to be 16 inches. Any more than that, and the round begins to slow down due to friction and the rate at which the powder burns. So barrels longer than 16 inches actually lose velocity!
Below is a list of the same rounds listed above out of a 16-inch barrel so we can compare how much more velocity we get from a carbine as opposed to a revolver:
- Cor Bon 110 grain JHP: 1,790 feet per second.
- Cor Bon 125 grain JHP: 2,119 feet per second.
- Federal 125 grain JHP: 2,051 feet per second.
- Federal 158 grain JHP: 1,739 feet per second.
- Federal 158 grain JHP Hydra-Shok: 1,741 feet per second.
We can see that firing these same rounds from a carbine produces more velocity, ie., more effectiveness. Speed makes projectiles more effective against beings made from tissue. Read that as game animals and bad guys.
Variety
A wide variety of rounds from different makers exists. Included among bullet types are Jacketed Hollow Points (JHP), Jacketed Soft Points (JSP), Semi-Jacketed Soft Points (SJSP), Full Metal Jacket (FMJ), Soft Point (SP), and Hollow Points (HP).
At least one maker that I know of has bullets made solely of copper, so there is no jacket to separate from the core of the bullet. Cor Bon’s DPX load retains maximum weight because of that lack of separation, and it also penetrates well in tissue.
The companies that make .357 rounds are too expansive to list here, as there are dozens. I try to choose ammo from the top manufacturers if I’m shopping for ammo to use for defensive purposes.
Platform Advantages
Naturally, each platform will have its advantages and drawbacks.
The handgun, of course, enjoys concealability. Velocities, on the other hand, are lower. It is more difficult to fire as quickly and as accurately as a long gun. The revolver will carry fewer rounds. Muzzle blast can be terrific, and recoil is substantial.
Rifles/carbines are more accurate, given the multiple points of contact on the body, which contribute to ease of aiming and stability. Velocity is appreciably higher, resulting in enhanced terminal performance. Capacity of the ammunition is higher, for the most part. Muzzle blast and recoil are both far lower.
Obviously, the long gun is going to give better performance, as is expected. However, the revolver offers the couple aforementioned few advantages which still makes it attractive to some users in certain circumstances.
Final Word
I believe the .357 Magnum is far from obsolete, and still offers a very real advantage for shooters who are looking for a powerful round to protect themselves with.
These days, the lever action carbine is rebounding in popularity in a shocking way, which says a lot about the old design. Shooters are clamoring for it. Given the variety of ammunition for these firearms and their power, the .357 is still a stellar round to stake your life on.
