Factory 357 magnum midrange ammunition?

[Damol]

If you are looking for practice ammo you could look at Georgia arms, they have a 158gr LSWC at 800 fps.
They have the same load in 38spl. brass.

 

[SLT223]

Just start reloading. You will love it. Components are back on the shelves and available online.

 

[aurora40]

From the sounds of your post, you are looking for a .38 Spl +P load. My experiences shooting full house loads of .357 out of a short bbl have not been anything I would want to wish upon most people....

I obviously can't speak for the OP, but to me it sounded like he wanted something warmer than .38 +P, but not a full-power load. I'd think of the bottom end of .357 to be .38 +P. Of course they could be loaded to where the bullets are just falling out of the barrel, but if it isn't matching or exceeding a .38, there's no need for the magnum. So to me, the bottom would be in the 250-300 ft-lbs range from a 4" revolver. Full-bore is in the 600 ft-lbs range. So midrange, to me, would be something in the 300-400 ft-lbs range.

I haven't tested a lot of factory .357, but one that was in this range was the PMC 158gr "357A" load. 945 fps from a 2.25" SP101 (315 ft-lbs), and 1090 fps from a 4" GP100 (415 ft-lbs). It's certainly stouter than the Blazer Aluminum, but a lot milder than some full-tilt stuff like American Eagle (610 ft-lbs from the 4").

 

[Naphtali]

I am nearly certain that the midrange ammunition I will use in my 640 will be Speer's 135-grain Gold Dot for short barrels. It is expensive to shoot, though. I have identified Hornady Critical Duty 135-grain FlexLock that may - MAY - be satisfactory practice ammunition. What I do not know and cannot determine from published specifications is whether its muzzle velocity from my 2.125-inch barrel will closely match Speer's Gold Dot. Specifications for one are taken from 4-inch test barrel, the other from 8-inch test barrel. So neither the barrels nor published velocities are comparable. People who have chronographed these rounds in the same short barrel have the information I seek.

Are the cartridges' muzzle velocities from 2-to-2.5-inch barrels nearly identical?

 

[aurora40]

They use a 2" vented barrel

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