Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Your favorite smith and Wesson 357

Is the bottom one a Highway Patrolman converted to 38 WCF?

10-4, Thanks for the knowledge, and yes, all revolvers I looked at were pristine, that little Colt didn't even look like it had ever been fired.

gunner, Couldn't comment on the little Colt, since I know little to nothing about them.

There's a nice S&W 19-4 with original box in nice condition at one of the LGS's in my area for $550, if anybody is interested. No TH or TT. Has the red-ramp front sight.

Will a 19 handle a diet of full house 357 mag loads? TH/TT?

I've liked SW's for along time...…...it's a good thing that I bought mine a long time a go. Favorites? all of them but 1. 2.5" 19-3 blued 2. 3.5" M-27 blued 3. 4" M-19-3 Nickle( so nice and shiny it's my fishing gun, all ways wear it stream fishing) 4. 4" M-28 blue 5 . 4" M586 blued. SW forever ( pre-lock of course).MB

Fixin to watch 15.50 minutes of Hickok 45 and a M-19-5.

This has indeed become the case in recent years.

Generally, no.

10-4 on the grips TRH, and yes, Hickok45 talked 7 minutes before he fired a shot, the 19 being a K frame, so no for me on full power loads, looks like a nice N frame is what I need to find,

The problem with the k frame 357’s is not so much full house loads. It’s the full house loads with bullets under 140. Look a the bottom of the barrel ( forcing cone ) notice it is not round. The bottom is squared off. Causes weak area.
New design k frames are round. Supposed to fix a problem.
Now I’ve talked to a friend whose brother in law had a friend that had a cracked barrel on his model 66. Never saw this myself.
Hasbeen

No. It's a 38 Special that can take some .357's.

TH= Target Hammer

TT= Target Trigger


Not much a fan of either.

I like shooting my K frames, but I do baby them. I don't do magnum loads at steel or paper targets. I also like shooting a couple hundred at a time. I load to +P for the most part and even the kids shoot them.

I do like my 4in n frame highway patrol

Gunner, on the steady diet of .357's, you would have to ask somebody that owns one. I don't, but have had an ongoing search on GunBroker for one for a while. I'm about to turn it off and just try to find one in an LGS. Just too expensive for nice ones on GunBroker. You get a couple guys into a bidding war and the price gets ridiculous, not counting the crazy prices some of the sellers are asking up front.

TH = Target Hammer. TT = Target Trigger.

Thanks hasbeen, the N frame is going to be the one, may as well search out good durability.

10-4 on the 38+P marked 357 moosemike, Thanks.

Thank You Steelhead.

local dirt, N frame all the way, and this thread, plus watching the Hickok45 video caused me to grab my old Colt Trooper this afternoon, I fired all the loaded rounds I had, save the four speedloaders and the six 125gr barnes hp's I kicked out of the revolver on the counter in a back bathroom.

Went to the 25 yard gong and rested across the seat of my ATV, the 125gr XTP's at 1450 printed a bit lower than the new load with 158gr hardcasts at 1396 fps, I found a happy medium between the two loads, they both land around two to four inches on top of the front sight at 25 yards, and centered nicely, I can live with that, what a fun cartridge the 357 mag is.

I found a double palm sized flat rock, placed it into the damp dirt of a brushpile I have pushed up and had at it, holding at 6 o'clock, I hit the rock five of six times offhand at 20 yards in semi fast fire single action mode.

Cleaned the old revolver up with Hoppes #9, re-oiled it, re-loaded it and put it back in it's Galco thumb break, and back on the bathroom counter it sits.

A damn fun afternoon.

I don’t know what bullets you plan to shoot Gunner but I’m pretty sure the N frame 357s won’t take quite as long an OAL as the L and K. IIRC you can’t crimp the Lyman 358429 Keith in the groove because it’ll be too long for the N frame cylinder. I don’t know how many other bullets have this issue but the 358429 is one of my favorites.

I appreciate the heck out of that Kid, didn't know, I have a chit-ton of the cast performance 158gr, it not a long wide nose, or even short wide nose, kind of a semi round nose with a good flat meplat, not very much at all hangs out of the case, i'll mic those along with some 125 XTP's back in the speedloaders tomorrow, would be surprised if the CP bullets have more nose to crimp length than the XTP's.

Gunner, I think you'll be very happy with the N-frame.