I carried a 337Ti for years as a bug and off duty, loaded with 135 gr. GDSB or something similar. The gun had a problem so I sent it in to the factory for repair. It could not be fixed so I had them send me an M&P 340. I sent it to a famous smith for an action job and got it back some time ago. I took it to the range today for a shakedown cruise and decided that I had to shoot a few .357's through it to see what it would be like. I had of course read all the posts by members who had done so but had to find out for myself. Holy smokes! I didn't like that at all. I have been shooting handguns forever but that hurt a bunch so when folks have said that shooting .357's in the light little snubs was punishing, I now know what they are talking about. I will stick to .38 Speer SBGD of the FBI loads for my little pocket gun from now on.I could hardly get through a cylinder full. I have read where guys say that they shoot them all the time. I would have to see it to believe it!

Tom

This is a gun that I carry often, but fired seldom! The Smith J-frame cylinder latches always whack me in the the thumb, probably because I like to use a high hold on these hammerless frames. 10 rounds or so, and I am always bleading.

I load Hornaday 125 gr Critical Defense. This is truely a "shock and awe" load, even from a short little barrel!!!

Get a Houge Tamer Grip for it or get a Ruger LCR in .357 mag caliber. You will see the difference between the 2 revolvers.

+1

I had the same experience when I shot my father-in-laws 340

Yep, got a Ruger LCR back in August when they first came out and Yes, the Hogue's make a big difference. I did not think shooting the .357's was that big a deal actually, especially in such a light gun.

I have never shot a .357 Magnum J and I don't plan on starting anytime soon!

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Centennial Every Day

If I may offer a recommendation, I like the Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel .357 magnums. They have a bit more punch than the same round in .38 special (adding around 100-150 fps out of the short barrel revolvers), but no where near the blast and smack of the full-power .357 magnums. By the way, my experience is with the 340PD, which is about two ounces lighter than the 340M&P.

I don't like shooting my Airweight .38Spl...I can't imagine shooting one in .357

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"I'm your huckleberry."

J frames in general aren't fun to shoot. Airweights and Airlights even more so with just .38's. With .357, they are awful. I don't know why people buy them. If you're not gonna shoot a carry gun regularly, it shouldn't BE a carry gun. Your carry gun should be shot more often than anything else you own.

I got two of them for my daughter. I had high hopes for the LCR, but its excellent recoil absorbing grip is to bulky, and the
trigger guard is absolutely bulbous. This makes it marginal as a pocket pistol compared to the smaller J-frames, but for holster carry it is just fine. I pocket carry, so I am sticking with the J-frame myself.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not find a true "Tamer" grip offered by Hogue for the J-frame. The tamer has a soft area at the top of the grip where it covers the backstrap. The J-frame grips I have seen do indeed cover the backstrap (good thing!), but they are composed of rather hard rubber and are not very soft at all.

Precision Molded Soft Rubber : Hogue Inc., The Best Value In Handgun Grips, Rifle Stocks and Accessories - Bar None!

What did you expect from a lightweight .357?

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John 3:16 .

I might be an odd-ball, but I positively love shooting my M-42 (.38Sp. Airweight). I don't shoot +P's in it, but find regular .38's quite tolerable.

There may still be some here who suffer under the delusion I'm a nice guy.... A few years ago I bought the first 329 I saw. I'd planned to do just that. I've had a 337 and a 360 for a while now. You can shoot them, but you always wonder who is getting the worse end of the deal, the shooter or shootee. So I took my then new 329 along on an outing.

Everyone knows the he-man who can handle all recoil without a flinch, or at least brags he can. I have nothing to hide. I don't like pain at all. So when the subject of the new light weight Scandium-Titanium guns came up, I said I had one along and wanted to shoot it. So as I walked up to our informal shooting line, I was loading the cylinder. 3 and 3. Back to the part about me being evil. I had 3 nice light specials, barely more than 44 Russians.

Long ago I'd found a sale on some Speer 300 grain "bear loads". I guess they were for somebody who wanted to shoot them out of a Ruger or long barrel 629. But for fun I just loaded them in the next 3 positions. I walked up to the line, turned on my new fangled laser, took aim, and let rip. Actually the Specials aren't that hard to control, very similar to firing a 38 special in a 360 or 340. The gun goes bang and the bullet pretty much goes where the first one was aimed. Then if you can control the flinch, the second one goes about the same place, and so does the third. But then my Oscar performance of saying "ouchie, ouchie, it hurts.". Drew him right into the game.

3 down, 3 to go. The guy gets a wry smile of superiority on his face and takes my gun in hand. Yes, a 357 hurts like all hell in a 340 or 360. You've yet to experience pain until you touch off a full house 300 gr load in a 329. But the poor fool took his punishment. I'm thinking the first one stunned him and his pig headedness got the best of him, so he went for #2. I thought I saw tears in his eye. Then he handed it back to me! I put the gun away, unloading it as I walked. All the evidence was gone.

Later in the day I noticed he was drinking a cold beer. Funny way he was doing it. He was holding it in his right hand and taking it in his left to drink, then putting the ice cold beer back in his right that he had rested on the arm of the folding chair. Funny thing. And he'd stopped shooting for the day, too. In the progression of things, I think the bullet weight really starts to play a role.

If you want to shoot your J frame with 357s, I'd suggest you test some of the intermediate loads with lighter bullets. 110 isn't all that bad, and the 125s and 13?s aren't too intolerable. Common sense says to stay away from the heavy bullet/full house cartridges.

Oh, back to the friend. He made it through the day OK. There were some amused smiles between others. I actually got it back out and we fired a full box of 50 Specials, very mild, between about 5 of us. Everyone commented about the "brisk" recoil (its not all that unmanageable.) The injured shooter was using adult beverages to dull the pain. A few days later one of our group saw the guy out shopping. He'd recovered the use of his hand. When asked what he thought of the 329, he said he didn't think he could afford one at this time!

Me, I still call it the best 44 Special they've ever built. And I think the 340-360 is a darn good 38 Special carry gun. If you decide to make it more, test it first. And if you do test it, do it when you're alone so you can hide the pain.

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Dick Burg

I have historically had a real aversion to "snubbies", because when I was a kid we were schooled that they were to underpowered to be of any use. This was probably good advice back in dad's day, when a 158 gr .38 LSWCHP was as creative as bullet design ever went.

But today, there are so many excellent bullets and loads optimized for short barrels, this is truely the golden age of the snubbie!

I was the same way the first time I fired my 340. I swore off 357's out of it. Then I read an article in one of the gun rags where the guy was using the exact pistol and he explained that you have to grip up higher on the back of the gun to increase the surface are of your grip. I decided to try this grip being dubious of the outcome, since the first time I tried it with 357's my hand ached for 4 hours after only 1 cylinder. But in fact it made quite a noticeable difference. I was actually able to fire an entire box of 50 rounds with no hand stinging or any pain at all. The recoil was stiff but not unmanageable at all. Just some advise that helped me.

It's funny to hear about the stories of macho men shooting these modern ultra-lightweights with full house loads but we do need to remember that physical damage can occur from such fun. The potential for hand, wrist and elbow injury is very real.

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Centennial Every Day

If you must shoot factory ammo the GDSB's are pretty easy to shoot. The 135's chrono just over 1000fps from my 340PD and 360PD. The pain comes when you pay for the things. Ouch! I did a lot of experimenting and settled on a handloaded 125 jacketed soft point at just over that 1000 mark. Easy to shoot, tons of penetration, and cost me about twenty cents a round to load.

The first handgun I ever fired was a model 36 way back in my childhood. Shot hundreds of rounds - many of them 158 grain LSWC +P 'FBI' loads out of it and other snubs over the years. The +P is a bit of a stinger in a steel snubbie, but still OK to shoot.

Then I bought a Taurus 605 stainless 2 inch .357. Shot a couple hundred rounds of +P 38's through it, then decided I'd try some .357 Magnum loads. 125 grain Federal JHP's- wow what muzzle blast and flame. Shot 10 rounds and for over a week my right thumb was partly numb. It stays loaded with Federal 125 grain JHP .38 +P's now.

I think I'm going to order the standard pressure Buffalo Bore 158 grain LSWC gas check low flash short barrel revolver ammo to use in my new 642 Airweight. The ammo is expensive, but will allow much faster and more accurate follow-up shots than the more violent +P loadings.

My 340PD is my constant companion in a left side pocket holster. I'm right handed. I replaced the nice rubber factory stocks with a set of Eagle Secret Service wood grips I had on my 640-1. Every time I go to the range I shoot a couple cylinders full weak handed with full power 125 Grn .357s. I don't enjoy it, but then again I doubt I'd enjoy a gunfight either.

I've fired full-on 158gr .357 through a three inch Ruger SP-101 and I can say any lighter then the Ruger and you'd ether be a crazy to want to lite it off or just plain stupid!

The SP-101 three inch with 158gr loads is akin to a .44 mag with some "warm" shells,not a problem and I could shoot it well but it was up there.

Strange enough but I think my upper limit,a snub .460 mag,would be less violent then a 14 or 11 ounce .357! and that bugger is trying to crawl all over me

I bought my 340PD to be carried a lot and only shoot it very little. This past hunting season I finished of a wounded wild boar in heavy brush using a 158 gr. JHP .357 mag. round; honestly I don't believe I felt the recoil because the hog had my total attention. I'll admit I practice with .38 Special loads but I carry .357 mag. and snakeshot rounds when archery hunting season rolls around.

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"Life is short, hunt hard"

My 640 is all steel and I still find recoil to be severe with .357 anything. I put on a Pachmayr Compac and now with .38 anything it is a pussy cat and with some of the slower .357’s it is tolerable at best. I still wouldn’t try anything that says it is loaded hot with heavy bullets. The Compac gives you a big gun grip feel in the hand while staying small’ish. It’s a little bulky and the rubber can drag clothing but it is as good as I have found to make the 640 actually a .357 at all.

I owned and shot a model 360 for about a year before selling it. Nothing wrong w/it but the difference in wieght (442 v. 340 or 360) was so sight that I really don't notice. Also, I shoot the 442 much better and I can use any ammo - not so with the Airlights (bullet jump).

Just my two cents and nothing against those who carry Airlights, just not my cup of tea.

Me too. You might try some 125-gr .357 loads in your M&P. I notice a big difference in recoil in my 340PD between 125-gr loads and anything with a heavier bullet.

I am not fond of 125-gr bullets in general and keep 145-gr Winchester Silvertips in my gun, but would be the first to admit I would not want to shoot more than a cylinder of them - unless I absolutely had to.

With my old arthritic hands I knew before I bought mine that I wouldn't carry .357s in it. I bought it because I liked the weight and I liked the sight. I knew it would be for backup solely. I have a 640-1 that I sometimes carry as primary but the 340M&P would stay backup. I planned on using Nyclads in it because they are very accurate in my wife's 64 NY-1. I couldn't be more pleased with their accuracy in my 340. I do shoot it and my 640-1 twice a month and have tried some .357 GDHP SB in it. I can tolerate them but really prefer the accuracy of the Nyclads. The 340 goes on in the morning and off at night regardless of what I am carrying primary. It's so light I wouldn't know it's there (if it wasn't always there).

I had a 340PD and sold it as I worried about the lock with such a hard recoiling little gun. I miss it terribly (for the light weight( and will try and grab a no-lock 340PD this week!

I admit... with 357 Silvertips, it was not pleasant AT ALL! A full house 44 Mag bothers me less than a full house 357 in these BUT.... they are just so light and nice to pocket carry. My wife wants my 642 No-lock so..... I get a new 340PD No-Lock!

Yippeeee!

Hornady loads their flex tip bullets in .38 special with a 110 and their .357 loads with 125s. I think they should offer a second load which would be a .357 with the 110 grain bullet. These bullets seem to stay together well so I'm sure that the 110 grain bullet going 1350 out of a snub would roughly equate to a 9mm plus p load out of a full size 9mm.

This might give the concealed carry .357 people a load that they can shoot in their light weight .357s yet still provide excellent on target performance.

anyone on here think that I have a valid point?

S&W cautions against less than 120 Grn bullets in these Scandium guns. There have also been a lot of discussion on here about it. It's apparently not a bullet jump thing but has to do with damage to the gun from flame cutting.

Not given what S&W takes the bother to plainly etch on the side of the barrel.

I guess I am one of those old grouches who could never make a connection between magnum revolver rounds and lightweight bullets. 110s in .357s and 180s in .44s just don't make much sense to me.