Originally Posted by Florida J Frame

After reading through this interesting thread I emailed Speer again and this is what I came away with. The .38 +p and 357 are both below 1000FPS with the 135 SB bullet out of a 2" barrel. The 38+P with the 125 hits 945 out of a 4" and the 357 out of a 4" hits 1450. If you drive the 135 grain Gold Dot bullet too fast the petals bend back against the bullet which they call "over-expansion" and the bullet over-penetrates much like a FMJ. This is the reason they do not recommend the SB load in barrels over 4". I think a lot of the misunderstanding was with the terminology. I wouldn't call that over-expansion but Speer does. After it's all said and done, I plan to load the 5" with 125 Gr Personal Protection and the snubs with 135 Gr SB. Thanks for all the input. This forum is always interesting.