I recently purchased a 340PD, and it comes with the warning to not use anything less than 120 gr. Some people say this rule is because of bullets jumping crimp, I thought it had to do with flame cutting on the cylinder. I assumed the warning meant don't shoot magnums under 120 gr out of this gun. I happen to have traded for a case of Remington 110 gr SJHP +P in .38 SP a little while back. Would the warning and problems with flame cutting apply to these rounds even though they are much milder than a .357?

No, but call S&W to remove all doubt from your mind.

Question?
Does your gun have the stainless steel insert above and between the forcing cone and top strap?
Just curious...

Spot, as far as I know, they all do. It's the cylinder face that dixiedawg is worried about.

Sorry F/S?
I was unclear on the guns vintage.
Though I confess, I am getting to the point of losing all paranoia about it! Were I now buying one, I'd likely purchase a S/S cylinder to have on hand in case anything went sideways, and then tell Mr. Scott to give me 110% power! I mean, it IS a piece of machinery your carrying to do the maximum amount of damage with, after all?
Having said all of that now, he could avoid all the issues by going 135 + grains too!

Speer SB would be good, but may choke on heavy cloth like it did in my tests. Actually, now that I think about it, I fired Corbon +P 110 gr. DPX and JHP from my 360. No issues with the gun/cylinder face, penetration or expansion into four layer denim Perma-Gel.

Thanks for the input. Yeah, I figured I'd give S&W a call. It does have the steel insert. I actually wanted a 340 M&P with the SS cylinder, but I found a deal I couldn't pass up on a 340PD. So I didn't really want the Ti cylinder because of the possibility of those sort of issues, but it is supposed to be an upgrade after all.

My Wife and I have been running Ti cylinders for 9 years (342PD's).
Haven't had an issue as yet? And mine's had an awful lot of +P's out of it! Admittedly though, only a very few were under 130 grains. I'd say get a S/S cylinder while you still can from S&W or Brownell's, then shoot Hell out of it relatively care free!
(Have you ever noticed how when you don't have to worry about something breaking, it never does?)

Just purchased a nib 340m@p. Can I shoot any grain 38 or 357 in it unlike the 340 PD?
Thanks

I think that the minimum bullet weight specified for those guns was 125gr. IIRC it was to prevent flame cutting that was present with the lighter bullets.

__________________
On the Oak Savannah

I posted this in another thread reference the 340 M&P and PD:

I have the M&P 340, which weighs about two ounces more than the 340PD. I have shot it quite a bit. I currently carry 135 gr. Speer Gold Dot short barrel.357 magnum rounds in it. I have shot the 158 gr full house loads in it, and they are brutal. Mostly practice with 38 +p handloads (my own), loaded into .357 cases. The Speer loads are pricy, at well over a dollar a round, but you won't be shooting many of them, and they are about the best compromise between managble recoil and minimal muzzle flare that you are going to find. I had the opportunity to field test this combination when I first started carrying this revolver. A hunter had wounded a deer on my property (hunting there with my permission), and just as I had returned home, I was getting out of my vehicle, when the badly wounded deer came into view, quartering right in front of me. My guest yelled at me to finish it off if I could, as he was not in a position to fire because of farm buildings. I shot the deer with the little M&P 340, and the Speer 135 gr gold dot load. It stopped the deer, and when my friend dressed it out I was able to recover the spent rounds (2). They had penetrated about 15 inches, and had expanded perfectly, like something fired into ballistic gelatin. They had also both maintained almost all of their original 135 gr weight. I believe that they weighed in at less than a grain less than the original 135. This was phenomenal performance, and I have carried this firearm with great confidence since. By the way, I did not even notice the recoil when I shot that deer, and I'm sure that you would not notice recoil if you were using the firearm in a defensive situation. I have many carry options, as I am a collector, but if I were to only have one gun for carry, this would be an almost ideal mix of weight, caliber, power, accuracy and reliability. I have thought about getting the one that you mentioned, just to add to my collection, but you won't go wrong with either the M&P or the PD in the 340.
Thought it might be of interest here.

__________________
SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064