From 1981 until 1991, I carried a .357 Magnum revolver with the load of my choice to work every day. I had several gun built on several frame sizes with several lengths of barrels. I quickly found that a Model 66 with a 6 inch barrel worked best for me.
For ammo, my research found that the best man-stopper was the Federal 125 grain .357 Magnum hollow point, so that's what I always carried, except for a brief dalliance with the Winchester 145 grain Silvertip Magnum. The Silvertip had a lot less muzzle flash and blast than did the 125 grainer. A lot, LOT less flash, toned down even a bit more by my 6 inch barrels compared to everybody's 2-1/2, 3 and 4 inch barrels.
I patrolled an area on the east side of the Salt Lake valley, Wasatch Boulevard, from which rose Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. Located up these canyons were the world class ski resorts of Snowbird, Alta, Solitude and Brighton. The traffic was incredible in the winter, with skiers cars and vans, UTA busses, box and semi trucks delivering food, drinks and materials hotels use. The vehicles continually were colliding with the large population of Rocky Mountain Mule deer, reeking havoc upon for sheetmetal, glass, skin, meat and fur. The carnage would at times be boosted by having a large Shiras moose stop a car or truck unexpectedly, or some of the magnificent elk that call these canyons and foothills home get knocked off their legs and slammed across the sedan's hood, and then tear the windshield and roof of the car clear off, sometimes removing the car''s occupants heads, sometimes just crushing them.
As one would expect, we were called upon to put these injured beasts out of their misery. I found that the 125 grain .357 did a great job on all deer and most elk and moose if you could apply the proper angle to the proper anatomy. The poor beasts died quickly when the bullets went where needed.
I shot a lot of injured deer, a big lot of BIG injured deer. Shots were rarely further than 25 yards.
This 125 grain Magnum performance on deer have me confidence that the round would work well on people that had gotten to a point where we needed to shoot them. Few police agencies around the U.S. that tried the 125 grain .357 Mag j.h.p. found it's ability to stop animal animation anything but stellar, be the targets have two legs or four.
Other deputies had good luck with 158 grainers, when the hollowpoints actually opened. Since people are more likely to attack cops than are large quadrapeds, i went with the 125's. God's grace showered down upon me and for those 10 years, I never had to shoot a human antagonist.
A gun that shot 8 instead of just 6 .357 Magnum rounds would have been a happy thing to have back then.
I had located a source of steel core 9mm bullets, FMJ design, that weighed close to 125 grains, just a smidge over. I experimented and found they could be loaded into .357 Mag cases to amazing velocities and this resulted in tremendous barrier penetration. I kept a sppedloader of six of them on my belt, figuring that if 12 or 18 rounds hadn't settled the hash, the targets had hunkered behind stuff, and maybe a better penetrator would help. Other than ventilating one moose's skull once, these metal piercers were untested on animals. I was glad I had them. I DID NOT DISCUSS THEM with my supervisors.
Lots of good bullets today, the best we have ever had. I would be comfortable with either full power 125 or 158 grain j.h.p.'s loaded to the maximum safe standards.
