LCR 357 Ammo Tips

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  • sliptap

    Sharpshooter
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    Jan 25, 2013
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    Indianapolis
    I just purchased a Ruger LCR in 357 magnum. Just curious if anyone else here owns one and what your ammo preferences are? I made a spreadsheet of various 357 ballistic loads from anecdotal forum sources, but looking for any additional insight.

    357 Critical Defense seem to chrono and perform well. Has anyone shot buffalo bore, double tap, or underwood out of theirs? Think these guns would hold up to limited amounts of them?

    For what it was worth, I had a M&P 340 prior to this. I am less worried about recoil and more worried about the gun kabooming. Thank you for any advice you can provide!

    123m9ox.jpg
     

    BehindBlueI's

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    Oct 3, 2012
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    I shot a wide variety of ammo through mine, and went with 130 gr PDX-1 .38+P as the best combination of followup shot speed, terminal ballistics, availability, and POI matching POA for me.
     

    dudley0

    Nobody Important
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    Mar 19, 2010
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    Grant County
    I am unaware of any .357 mag ammo that is worth the bang over some good .38 spl ammo as far as a snubbie is concerned.

    I have a .357 LCR and have shot a few mag rounds thru it for giggles but it sits with .38sp +p 135 gr Gold Dots right now. Looking to swap those with some good 148 gr WC since the wife is planning to confiscate the gun. Will see where she puts each of the rounds first, but not looking at any mag rounds for any of my snubs.
     

    Dean C.

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    Aug 25, 2013
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    Westfield
    I personally load my S&W 360PD with Federal Premium 357B the 125 gr soft tip hollow points. The rounds have a phenomenal track record in law enforcement. With that being said I am looking forward to testing out some of the new Federal HST .38special rounds they look promising
     

    PaulKersey

    Marksman
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    Sep 16, 2012
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    Evansville
    I have experienced "crimp jump" in my LCR 357 with the Golden Saber 125 JHPs in 357. This is a mild 357 load. The crimp jump prevented the cylinder from rotating, thereby creating the mythical revolver jam. Oddly enough, I have not experienced this phenomenon with full house loads, such as the Speer Gold Dot 357 offerings or Remington/Federal 125 JHPs. Yes, they were painful. But they did work 100%. I don't know if the crimp is stronger on the hotter loads, or if I just had a bad batch of Golden Sabers. I have been wanting to try the Corbon DPX 357 in mine, but I have had difficulty finding this round in stock.

    One final word - the boot grips are easier to conceal, but the factory Hogue Tamers are much more pleasant to shoot, especially with hot loads.
     

    BFR50-110

    Marksman
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    Apr 19, 2015
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    Montgomery County
    I fired some Buffalo Bore .357 mag out of my LCR when I had it and it held up fine. My preferred load was the Speer 135 grain GDHP short barrel .357 mag load. My second choice was the speer 125 grain GDHP .357 mag. I never experienced any crimp jump issues personally.
     

    sliptap

    Sharpshooter
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    Jan 25, 2013
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    Indianapolis
    Thank you everyone for the insights. I took it to the range today and shot about 125 rounds of 38 special and 357. The gun was so much easier to shoot than my M&P 340 was. I shot the Critical Defenses well enough in 357 that I feel comfortable carrying them. Since I shoot the Hornady's well, I think I will avoid 38 specials for the time being. I'll have to check out the Federal, Speer, and Corbon loads you all mentioned. I think the 125 gr. Speer loading was on my list. Not sure that I found chrono readings for the DPX.

    I also appreciate your feedback on crimp jump. That is a scary issue and would be horrible to experience in a life or death scenario. Anyway, here is a picture from some hot 110 grain XTPs that my father loaded for me. I can't imagine shooting these inside :n00b:

    mmao2w.jpg
     

    Sniper 79

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    Oct 7, 2012
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    I wouldn't shoot mags from that gun at all. 38spl is all you need. Unless you like blowing your eardrums out and taking a beating. Not to mention how hard it would be on that gun.
     

    oldpink

    Grandmaster
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    Apr 7, 2009
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    Farmland
    I personally don't see anything wrong with shooting the most powerful round that you can shoot well.
    If you ever get into a dire situation with it, whatever tiny bit of incidental hearing damage you'll get from the five max rounds fired will be such a minor worry as to be laughable.
    .38 Special is nothing to sneeze at, but .357 Magnum has been the king of the hill for one shot stops for decades now.
    There's a very good reason for that.
     

    Dean C.

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    [video=youtube;27wDLjY5JSs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27wDLjY5JSs[/video]

    I think this video does a VERY good job outlining how the myth that .38 special is just as powerful out of a Snubbie as the .357 Magnum is out of a Snubbie.
     

    BehindBlueI's

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    I personally don't see anything wrong with shooting the most powerful round that you can shoot well.
    If you ever get into a dire situation with it, whatever tiny bit of incidental hearing damage you'll get from the five max rounds fired will be such a minor worry as to be laughable.
    .38 Special is nothing to sneeze at, but .357 Magnum has been the king of the hill for one shot stops for decades now.
    There's a very good reason for that.

    "Most powerful" comes at a cost, and that's split times. Longer splits penalize you more for a miss, and also take longer to find the sight again as you transition target to target. If you've shot bad guy A and need to get a round on bad guy B before he realizes he's in a fight, that may matter. I think it's pretty well established ground at this point that pistol rounds rely on getting into the correct gibbly bits to make a physical stop these days, and once you've got the juice to reliably do that, diminishing returns kicks in real quick. Also, fighting injured, which I'll touch on in a bit.

    [video=youtube;27wDLjY5JSs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27wDLjY5JSs[/video]

    I think this video does a VERY good job outlining how the myth that .38 special is just as powerful out of a Snubbie as the .357 Magnum is out of a Snubbie.

    "More powerful" does not equate to "better results" when it comes to shooting people and getting them to stop doing what they are doing. I think we all realize the numbers are bigger...just a lot of us question if that matters. I've only had to use my LCR once, and it was against an aggressive animal that announced it's presence by latching on to my arm. The ability to shoot well one handed mattered a lot more than an extra bit of oomph between my 130 gr +P and a magnum. A chest shot stopped the threat.

    Which, is something that's also overlooked in many of these discussions. Fighting injured. I can shoot a .44 magnum pretty well two handed. Strong hand only is more challenging. Weak hand only is stupid and painful. "Not recoil sensitive" 2H may change dramatically if you've injured one or both hands.
     

    DoggyDaddy

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    73   0   1
    Aug 18, 2011
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    Southside Indy
    Thank you everyone for the insights. I took it to the range today and shot about 125 rounds of 38 special and 357. The gun was so much easier to shoot than my M&P 340 was. I shot the Critical Defenses well enough in 357 that I feel comfortable carrying them. Since I shoot the Hornady's well, I think I will avoid 38 specials for the time being. I'll have to check out the Federal, Speer, and Corbon loads you all mentioned. I think the 125 gr. Speer loading was on my list. Not sure that I found chrono readings for the DPX.

    I also appreciate your feedback on crimp jump. That is a scary issue and would be horrible to experience in a life or death scenario. Anyway, here is a picture from some hot 110 grain XTPs that my father loaded for me. I can't imagine shooting these inside :n00b:

    View attachment 53313

    I would personally avoid any rounds that cause your sleeves to catch on fire like that. :faint:
     
    Rating - 100%
    128   0   0
    Jan 28, 2009
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    "Most powerful" comes at a cost, and that's split times. Longer splits penalize you more for a miss, and also take longer to find the sight again as you transition target to target. If you've shot bad guy A and need to get a round on bad guy B before he realizes he's in a fight, that may matter. I think it's pretty well established ground at this point that pistol rounds rely on getting into the correct gibbly bits to make a physical stop these days, and once you've got the juice to reliably do that, diminishing returns kicks in real quick. Also, fighting injured, which I'll touch on in a bit.



    "More powerful" does not equate to "better results" when it comes to shooting people and getting them to stop doing what they are doing. I think we all realize the numbers are bigger...just a lot of us question if that matters. I've only had to use my LCR once, and it was against an aggressive animal that announced it's presence by latching on to my arm. The ability to shoot well one handed mattered a lot more than an extra bit of oomph between my 130 gr +P and a magnum. A chest shot stopped the threat.

    Which, is something that's also overlooked in many of these discussions. Fighting injured. I can shoot a .44 magnum pretty well two handed. Strong hand only is more challenging. Weak hand only is stupid and painful. "Not recoil sensitive" 2H may change dramatically if you've injured one or both hands.
    This^^^^ I load my 2.5inch Model 19 with 125gr. JHP, it's a heavier gun but still not fun to shoot. I also have a 3.5in model 29 that is a bear to shoot with magnum loads, I would not even want to shoot a J frame sized gun with 357 magnum loads. My model 36 gets 120gr. JHPs, that's good enough for me. It's all about bullet placement.
     
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