Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns The 357 Magnum

Picked this one up today. 27-2 5", presentation case and paperwork. I've lusted after one for a while and today was the day. Paid a little more than I wanted, but gun is pristine.

5" S&W 27-2, factory target grips cut down to fit my hand. I bought this gun new 35 years ago, it is accurate and handy, has been lots of places:

Just send that Ti ToreAss to me.

The Poopbah shouldn't be troubled with such things.

I was feeling a bit of nostalgia the other day and strapped my old Trooper on in it's Galco cant with four speedloaders in the left pocket of my Carhartt coat and went to the big city of Ft. Smith, didn't feel a bit impotent carrying that old six-shooter.

I was feeling a bit of nostalgia the other day and strapped my old Trooper on in it's Galco cant with four speedloaders in the left pocket of my Carhartt coat and went to the big city of Ft. Smith, didn't feel a bit impotent carrying that old six-shooter.

Always figured if I got serious about thinning the herd a 4" .357 would be the last centerfire to go.

Well, I got serious. Just sold the last big bore* and am only keeping two .357 revolvers although both happen to have 6" barrels. A Ruger NM Blackhawk and a GP-100 stainless with half lug are what made the final cut. The chambering is simply too versatile to let go. Super cheap to shoot with .38's or mid-range cast loads, each bullet only uses up a bit over half the lead of the larger bores. Loaded full out with a good 160 WFN or 180 grain bullet it's serious medicine. As a defense load with 125 grain bullets at warp speed it was the gold standard for stopping loads for quite a while, still may be AFAIK.

While one can't compare its efficacy with the .44 and .45 bore for big game hunting, when it was first introduced in 1935 people used it to take all kinds of big game, including some large bears. IIRC Phil Shoemaker's daughter carries a .357 as bear protection and that's a good enough recommendation for me.

Loud as hell, by the time I was 19 I had a 10-15% high frequency hearing loss from the good old .357, at least according to Army doctors. That was when only wimps wore hearing protection. But it shoots flat and even at full power in standard size revolvers it doesn't kick bad at all - too good to ever be without.


Added: Rambling here, but the expansion ratio is such that the .357 really benefits from longer barrels. Not that a 4" barrel isn't perfectly fine but in tanks like these Rugers you can cram darn near as much 296 under the bullet as you want and with a 6" or 6 1/2" barrel really send that sucker out at high speed. The longer barrel also keeps the blast down. Okay, at least a little bit.



* just counting revolvers, still have a couple of .45 ACP and 9mm semi-autos.

That is a whole lot of hate and discontent to make a run at the big city....

Just don't burn the Christmas Tree in the fireplace.

Seen a coupla open carriers and a few concealed gun hands that I could tell were packing, bet they'd all laugh their asses off if they seen what was hiding under my carhartt.