But after a lot of use, including competing in IPSC with full power magnum loads, I abandoned the .357 magnum round altogether for defense. This was a hard thing for me to do because my first handgun was a .357 and I have a strong bond to that round. The cartridge has outstanding performance in a 4� or greater length barrel. But that performance comes at the expense of massive muzzle blast/noise/flash; so much so, that I consider it a liability. One shot and everyone (including you) nearby is deaf and blind. With a snubbie the situation gets worse as already significant recoil is now greatly accentuated, muzzle blast, noise, & flash is now horrendous; but you take a big hit to your velocity. When I did this article (http://shootersjournal.net/snub-nose-roundup-a-look-at-today%E2%80%99s-small-frame-snub-nosed-revolvers/ ) I did a significant amount of chronographing different loads and found that the normally 1450fps .357 load from a 4� barrel is reduced to an average of 1140fps out of a 2� barrel; that�s a significant drop in velocity. And that significant drop in velocity comes at a significant increase in noise, recoil, and muzzle flash.
The Speer GD 124 +P from a G26 gives that while doubling what's available on board. That fact helped influence my own decisionmaking a few years ago.
