Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 2" Snub nose 357 magnum self defense ammunition

I have a 2" Colt Magnum Carry 357 revolver and my current self defense ammunition for it is the medium velocity Remington 357 magnum Golden Sabre. I want to replace this ammunition with new ammo (the carry load in the revolver is 2 years old). I am having trouble finding this ammo on the shelf in local gun shops. I was wondering what other people were using in 2" small frame snub nose 357 magnum revolvers for self defense ammo. I am not interested in carrying 38 Special +P ammo. I'm just wondering what other people recommend, are there newer loads that may work better. Thank you.

I have 5 boxes of it and would carry the Remington 125gr Medium Vel. 357 mag load. That is what I carried in My S&W 640 when it was an off duty gun for me. It was not terrible in that gun.

I use Speer 135gr. Gold Dot Short Barrel 357's. However, the short barrels don't do the 357 any justice. These little Gold Dots come out at 986fps for an unimpressive 292ft.lbs of energy. Most 9mm's put out more energy than that.

I'm sure you can find a hotter, faster 357 load, but even these Speer Loads, mild as they may be, are ruthless in terms of recoil in a super lightweight J- Frame. The Colt is heavier and might offer better recoil control.

I use the 135 gr Gold Dot also in my Smith. Not something I want to shoot often. I do not change out . 2years is zip in the life of a cartridge

Thanks for the responses guys, I'll try to get some Speer 357 magnum 135gr Gold Dot Short Barrel ammo if I can't find any Remington 357 magnum 125 gr Golden Sabre. My revolver is all steel, it's not aluminum framed but I still prefer to shoot medium power 357 loads in it for ease of control.

You can order that Remington load directly from Remington online. It is available, it's not inexpensive though. Looks like they only sell it in the 20-round boxes for $38.99 per box.

Mogc, thanks, I didn’t know that you could order directly from Remington.

I don’t think I have any ammo that new. Have recently shot some WW II ammo that had no problems.

You sure can. Like I said, not cheap there but it's usually available ordering direct from the manufacturer.

Haven't bought anything for it in a while, but I'm quite sure they're 125gr Federal Hydra-shock.
Look up some tests with the latest ammo from short barrels. They're making ammo specifically for carry guns.

check into Civil defense, 50 gr all copper at 2000fps in 2" barrel, or Legheigh (sp) 100 gr at 1500-- designed for short barrels.

You’re a better man than I. I had enough of shooting.357 mags in 2” revolvers a long, long time ago.

Today, if I had a good reason to carry a 2” five or six shot revolver versus a small, flat, lightweight 9mm with 11 on tap and a quick easy ten shot reload, it would be loaded with either the old .38 Special “FBI load” of soft, +P 158 grain LSWCHP or with 148 grain WC’s at the same speed, but that’s just me.

Standard pressure 158 grain .38 Special is brutal out of a lightweight J-Frame.

The Colt Magnum Carry is all steel, though, as I recall.

PS Ethan Edwards, of happy Campfire memory, had one and cherished it.

That depends. If there's even a hint of solvent or lubricant left in an automatic's chamber, and you carry one in the chamber (highly recommended), then over time that little bit of solvent can corrupt the powder. I imagine the same is true for a revolver's chambers, although perhaps not to as great an extent.

Many years ago, I had been carrying the same 1911 without changing out the ammo (or even removing the round in the chamber) for about two years, and decided it was time to shoot it all out at the range. The first round was a dud. This was high grade commercial ammo.

I've been more careful about getting the chamber bone dry on an automatic pistol that I'm carrying since then.

Yep, that's what's in the Airweight J-Frame .38 that lives in my bathrobe pocket, i.e., 148 grain target wadcutters over 4.5 grains of Unique.

That's the gun that accompanies me out to the hen house every morning, along with my two dogs.

Aren't medium power 357 and +P 38's about the same thing? Why not just go with some +P 38's?

That’s not about the chamber. It’s the breech face & especially the firing pin & firing pin hole. Applies the contaminant directly onto the primer. Particularly while carried muzzle down.

That makes sense. So we all need to keep the breach face bone dry in our carry guns as well.

Seems to me Speer 135gr. Gold Dot Short Barrel 357 ammo is about equivalent to +P+ .38SPL, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. (Any miscreant taking one to his 10-ring should ought to find it sufficiently impressive.) They go where pointed, too:

Please disregard that flyer at eleven o’clock.

Actually I don't think they are. The Golden Sabre 125gr 357 magnum round has a velocity of around 1,100 fps from the 2" barrel of my Magnum Carry and 1220 fps from my the 4" barrel of my 1990's vintage King Cobra. The Golden Sabre 125gr 38 Special+P round has a velocity of around 875 fps from a 2" barrel and about 1,000 fps from a 4" barrel. The medium velocity Golden Sabre 357 magnum ammo is about equal to a 9mm Luger +P load, in my opinion.