Those who claim that today's Plus P and standard .38 ammo is weaker than was once the case forget that pressures are now measured differently, and that now, four-inch vent test barrels are used, to represent the barrel/cyinder gap in a real revolver. Prior to that, six-inch test barrels with no vent were employed. That accounts for the lower velocity in modern .38 ammo.

I saw chrono tests on ammo in the old days, and what a revolver actually delivered was much less than the advertised 860 FPS.

And WHICH PLus P matters. The USAF had to rebuild its .38 revolvers, some several times, after going to high velocity ammo. That was a big reason why they pressed to adopt a 9mm auto.

Even with J-frames warrantied for PlusP, I use it in moderation for defense and occasional familiarity firing. You just don't need to beat your gun up with hotter loads unless you're going to need the added power to shoot animate targets that might require some added punch to put down.