Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 357 Shot loads for self defense?

While on the ranch, I usually carry a 357 loaded with shot loads to dispatch Mr rattlesnake, should he get too close. Since the place is not too far f rom the Mexican border, I keep the pistol by my bed at night, also.

Anyone know how effective these shot loads would be for self defense at very close range? Or should I change out the ammo at night? thanks in advance.

You need to change it out at night. No stopping power at all against humans with those snake shot loads. Best you could hope for would be to blind an attacker with it.

You're joking, right?

How much trouble is it to have a speedloader set-up with JHPs? Hell, I'd run with a JHP up for the first four, and shot loads as the last two, as the snake is likely to give you more warning and chance than a drug or border runner.

Unless you are Ed McGivern, two shot loads up front will get you quite decidedly killed before you can get the third chamber up.

Snakes with legs are infinitely more dangerous than those without.

Exactly, which is why the LAST two in the cylinder rotation are shot, the rest JHPs. 125 Rem. Semi-Jacketed HPs, or Speer GoldDots, thank you.

I bow graciously to a man with 30,000 more posts than I!

That said, I MUCH prefer a 158 JHP to a lighter bullet, regardless of what paper studies show. Those 125s may be singularly effective on city punks, pimps and such but when we country boys want to truly whack something, we use a sledge, not a ball peen!

Posts, don't mean schit.

Your insight is one that I always value highly. You oughta know that by now.

158s, 125s......... hell, it's still a .357, and that ain't gonna bounce off.

Personaly I would not use the shot loads at all. Learn to kill the snakes with bullets, that's what a 357 should shoot and that is what it is effective with. I also prefer the 158's

The .357 Magnum was actually designed around 158 grain bullets.

PS I only use shot loads in a revolver to dispatch mice that have been caught in glue traps. Turns them into hamburger PDQ.

I bet it does.......

I believe in putting an animal out of its misery as instantaneously as possible.

Thus, the glue traps? You may want to rethink that....................

Yeah, which is why I stopped using them. Really just immobalizes them till you can do them in, but it must be pretty terrifying. Just the old fashioned kind now. I tried the fancy kind that look like a hockey puck, but they invariably fly apart when a mouse goes in.

If you are worried about a standard .357 bullet penetrating the walls of your home and wounding some innocent person, there is ammunition designed for just such scenarios:

Glaser .357
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=841160

About 20 years ago, a burglar near where I was living was killed instantly by a single shot of .357 CCI snake shot to the sternum at a range of 10 feet.

Liar24 has entered the fray

Must have reached the heart.

Yeah listen to Lee, he invented the Glaser safety slugs..........

He probable did, since it's about the worst bullet made

Have any of you every killed anything bigger than a mouse with a .357 Magnum?

Have you ever seen a person shot with a .357 Magnum, with any bullet?

Ever talked to an EMT or physician who has seen a person shot with .357 snake shot, Glaser, or any other frangible projectile?

Before you cook up some 5th-grade not-so-wise crack, my answer to all those questions is, "Yes, I have."

Dr. Martin Fackler when asked about the effectivness of the Glasser Slug with a COM hit, stated that "the individual would subcumb in a about a week from parentinitis"