Your replies are going to be dependent upon experience and that will likely be affected by bullet type, lube on them and brand as well as powder used. Years ago, when my body and eyes were a lot younger, I went to an indoor 25-yard range three evenings each week with a 50-round box of .38 Special 148-grain wadcutter loads and the goal of putting all 50 bullets into the black of an NRA 25-yard pistol target offhand with a 4" Model 19. I managed to do that three times with a LOT of "47s," "48s" and "49s" thrown in, so I doubt that bullet jump hurt the accuracy very much.

I also shot in two police league PPC matches as a substitute. I used my 8-3/8" Model 14 in one and a 6" Python in the other with my wadcutter handloads and recorded 297x300s both times. Accordingly, I remain in the "it doesn't matter" camp.

And as far as the crud ring, I still shoot wadcutters in .38 Special cases in my Model 66s and 686s; the ring cleans right off with Butch's Bore Shine and a bronze bore brush although a ring left by several hundred rounds cleans off more easily with an oversize brush. I use Precision Delta hollow-base wadcutters with their Match Lube over 4.0 grains of discontinued SR4756 powder.

If I didn't have thousands of .38 Special case, I might be tempted to use .357 brass but I really don't see the need to make the change.

Ed