If people think that ruger , and colts stand up well to the lighter weight bullets in 357 , they are sadly mistaken . I know of a ruger blackhawk that was used by a pd to develop handloads , it was on it's 3rd barrel when they quit handloading there .
A lot of the pythons today , upon close inspection you will find the forcing cone severely eroded . The pythons , ruger " 6 series " are larger frame hand guns than the K-frame smiths .
Let's remember , rugers are " cast " frames not forged . Under a high power microscope you will see that the ruger frame looks like " lava rock " , very porous where as the Smith & Wesson frame is forged . Under the same microscope the Smith frame shows the metal to be very tight grain , very solid . Ruger has to use an over abundance of metal to compensate for the lack of strength . The statement that rugers are " built like tanks " is very fool hardy and it's based solely on appearance and weight . Rugers are fine guns , I own 2 , but they are what they are .