Lots of banter back and forth as to how vicious the recoil is on the Scandium .357 J frames. So I thought I would relay the experience we had shooting today. One of the guns we brought with us was my M&P340, We had a box each of 38 +p and a box of 158gr HP .357's. There was me, my son (27 yrs old), and his new girlfriend (maybe 25) who has to weigh all of 117lbs. We had been shooting 4" orange clay pigeons with the .22's and there was some left up when we ran out of .22 ammo so we decided to see if we could finish them off with the M&P and my sons PPK. anyhow to make the story shorter we all took turns fireing a cylinder each and passing it on. My sons girlfriend is not new to shooting but she's certainly not what you would call an avid shooter either. Still, she had no problems at all with the +p's. She also fired a cylinder full of the .357's. To be fair, at 30 yards she didn't break any of the pigeons but she did group around them pretty well. And the gun does have the Pachmayer Compac grips. Still, she wasn't especially bothered by any of the loads she fired and really enjoyed shooting it. Towards the end of the afternoon we loaded it up with one empty chamber to see if she was flinching and when the gun went 'click" on the empty chamber the gun never moved so I doubt she was afraid of it. Admittedly this doesn't prove that a 13 ounce revolver is everyones cup of tea but that little girl enjoyed letting off maybe 25 rounds and could have gone more but we were almost out of ammo. I also brought my Winchester 94 that was made in 1901 and she had a blast shooting the pigeons at about 45-50 yards. Everyone enjoys shooting that gun though. It looks impressively old and worn but just always seems to hit whatever your shooting at.

No photos??

Didn't happen!!!

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Marty 4513TSW 13-1 642 60-10

my wife(all 5'3" 117 lbs) loves her 637 and shoots almost only +p down range. some women are just tougher than others. she will even shoot my 66 2 1/2" with full power .357. she just smiles and out shoots me at 25 yards...

My wife's daily carry gun is a 642 LadySmith loaded with Corbon +P DPX. My preferred pocket gun is my trusty old 649 loaded with 357 Golden Sabers.

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Loyalty Above All.. but Honor

I knew a girl, who may have weighed 100 lbs soaking wet, a range where I used to shoot who loved her S&W 29 and shot it well.

My wife at 4'11" and 92 lbs. with my 629-3.

M2U00141.mp4 video by kcult - Photobucket

I'm a 6'2" 155 lb male and I will never willingly shoot a 357
magnum load again. That's for the young guys.

My daughter is small but is not afraid to shoot. She does not get the chance to practice much as she is in school in Montana with no gun. When she comes home she is able to shoot surprisingly well.



We went to a bowling pin match last week she entered both the auto and revolver classes, and she won about half of the rounds shooting my 45s.




However we all agree that shooting the 340SC with 357 mag 158gr Blazer ammo is like catching a baseball bat being swung. Ouch

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Shoot fast & live long
Warren

I think with these very light .357s, a lot depends on the match up of the grips to the individual. With the factory grips on my two scandium .357s (340 and a 360 Kit Gun), with full power loads they are practically uncontrollable in my large hands. With Pachmayr Gripper grips on them, they are easy to shoot, if not particularly pleasant.

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Tom

So much is the individual. Different people handle recoil in much different ways. I have a petite neighbor I take shooting. In handguns she will ONLY go up to a 148 gr .38 in a J frame BUT will shoot a 12 gauge OO Buch all day long.

I used to love shooting the .44 mag in a 4" 29 but no more. I got a little 'Arthur' in the bones that ain't getting any better.

Since the 640/649s are all stainless steel and the Golden Saber 357 is a medium-powered load, they make a manageable combination.

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Loyalty Above All.. but Honor

How come only a cylinder full each?

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NRA Certified Instructor

You know, taking turns. I fire a cylinder full and pass it on and wait for my turn again. That's one problem with sharing. You gotta keep waiting for your turn to come around again.

That catching a baseball bat in the hand applies to my M&P 360. No one enjoys shooting .357's in that gun. I have +P .38's in it for carry as I think that's about as much as I want to handle and still be able to hit what I'm aiming at. I was reading where Masaad Ayoob remarked that the scandium J frames had the worst recoil of any handgun he'd fired. That guy must've fired millions of round in thousands of guns in his life. I'm thinking he might have some insight

Kudos to that young girl. I hope her hand was ok the next day!