A model 36 in .357 magnum?

Will Carry

Will Carry

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Did Smith and Wesson ever make a model 36 in .357 magnum? I'm reading a book call "The Encylopidia of Handguns" and I am finding some mistakes in it. I says the model 36 comes in 38 sp and .357 magnum. I don't think that is true.

They also said that the vent rib barrel on a Colt Python is to disperse gases from the shell casings? Is ther any truth to that?

They said that the Ruger Mark I was patterned after the German Luger, when it was actually patterned after the Japanese Nambu pistol.
 
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The vent rib on a gun, whether Python or Remington 1100, is there to disperse heat waves. The Python is, supposedly, a target gun. Shoot the gun, barrel gets hot, hot barrel causes heat mirages, just like you'd see on a blacktop road in the summer. This can cause problems in seeing the front sight, which makes your groups suck. The vented top rib supposedly helps to break up the heat waves, making the sight clearer to see.

I don't see how "gases from the shell casing" could get up there.

Most of the gas will go down the barrel, pushing the bullet. What does not go forward will leak out at the cylinder gap, but it goes left, right and down. Can't go UP, to the top of the barrel, because the topstrap is in the way. Yes/no?
 
I think that book was made from recycled material and it might not have been paper, and it sounds as though some of today's educated thinkers teaching our kids wrote it.
 
diamonback68 said:
I think you wasted your money on that book.
Click to expand...

It was a gift. I am enjoying picking this book apart. The man who wrote it and the people who edited it were NOT shooters. I have been studying and shooting firearms all my life, yet sometimes I am amazed at how much I still don't know.
 
Model 36 in .357 magnum

Model 36 S & W was my first "smokeless" handgun..Came in .38 special, only. Nobody addressed the Ruger question..I truly do not know where the inspiration for the Ruger came from, but if its granddaddy was a Nambu, Bill obviously fixed the safety issues inherent with the Nambu. I did find the other day that Ruger basically copied an old buffalo gun action, when it made the Ruger #1. Is this true? I sure think it is...
 
Dirty Dan said:
Model 36 S & W was my first "smokeless" handgun..Came in .38 special, only. Nobody addressed the Ruger question..I truly do not know where the inspiration for the Ruger came from, but if its granddaddy was a Nambu, Bill obviously fixed the safety issues inherent with the Nambu. I did find the other day that Ruger basically copied an old buffalo gun action, when it made the Ruger #1. Is this true? I sure think it is...
Click to expand...

The 'big red' book Ruger and His Guns , does mention that the Nambu profile was behind the Standard Auto Pistol. He even had a prototype 'Baby Nambu' model.

The No.1 was not a copy of anything. It was inspired by the falling block Farquarson action , with modern Bill Ruger upgrades.

There was a good article about the No.1 in a recent Shooting Times issue.
 
I've been given several gun books over the years that were authored overseas and printed in China. I wore out an ink pen in one making corrections.

Reference books are like anything else. You need to know what your buying or you'll get hosed. Gifts are pot luck.
 
Many years ago, the famed gunwriter Elmer Keith wrote that S&W did chamber the Chiefs Special in .357 for experimental purposes at about the time the Chief was introduced, and that the gun did withstand Magnum ammo. Again, this is only something by Keith that I read. I'm sure some of the S&W 'heavyweights' on the Forum can say yes or no for sure.

For the heck of it, I held a 158gr Rem .357 lead bullet cartridge (available in the early 50s) alongside the cylinder of a 1950s production Chief. The cylinder would just barely be long enough if it were chambered for .357M.
 
Just my personal opinion of course but a 2" snub is all but a waste in .357 Magnum anyway. Most of the powder is burned outside the barrel after the projectile has exited resulting in big muzzle flash, lots of recoil and a very loud boom. Now there are a few .38 Special loadings that produce almost the same foot pounds of energy and muzzle velocity as a .357 without all the negatives that go along with it. I am talking about the Buffalo Bore Heavy .38 Special +P with 158 grain LSWCHP-CG bullets. They will yield 1025 - 1040 fps from a 2" Chief's Special consistently and accurately which is not all that different from the Magnum load from a 2"tube.

IMHO the .357 magnum comes into its own in a 6 inch barrel and is OK in a 4 incher. The 3" barrel is bare minimum for the .357 as far as I am concerned and may not be worth it there either unless maybe you are using 180 grain BB "Bear" loads.
 
This is what happens when books are written in "Engrish".
I have one of those types of gun books.
It's called "The complete encyclopedia of pistols and revolvers"
As though revolvers aren't a type of pistol.
The book I have calls a handgun frame a "casing".
 
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The raised rib on the barrel helps pick up the front sight faster it was later vented for looks I believe. Being flat it adds no strength to the barrel because the widest part of the rib sits horizontal not vertical like an I beam.
It's not structurally correct
 
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