S&W 357 ammo

[10 X]

I picked up several boxes of this ammo at a show recently.

158 grain HP.

The boxes show their age, so I want to shoot this ammo. I have others that I bought back when that are pristine. I cannot find any old reference info. laying around. Anyone know what velocity these were loaded to?

 

[stiab]

In the S&W ammo brochure that came with new guns up until about 1978 they claimed 1500 fps for these rounds, which was very misleading. That was using "industry standard test equipment", which for the .357 was an 11 inch unvented barrel. In 1979 they published a new brochure, this one using real S&W revolvers to produce their test results, after the industry standards changed. Now they claimed 1068 fps from a four inch barrel Model 66, 1146 from a 6 inch barrel Model 66, and 1152 from a 8 3/8 inch Model 27. In my opinion, it was this change from long unvented test barrels to real world handguns that mistakenly made many people think the ammo of yesteryear was more powerful.

 

[10 X]

That is good info. So it is less potent than some of today's ammo that report 158 gr at 1240 FPS. Shooting some of this years ago I still remember it seemed to have a lot more blast than other ammo of the day. I will try this out and see if that still holds true.

 

[stiab]

I will try this out

Be sure and post to let us know your impressions after you shoot it, thanks!

 

[mkk41]

I believe the bulk of S&W ammo was made by Fiocchi. Excellent quality. Stored properly , it'll be good to go for more years than any of us.