9mm/9mm+p is snappy out of a tiny revolver.

I suspect if you compared .357 mag vs 9mm in the same Gun recoil wouldn’t be DRASTICALLY different. I suspect the noise and flash of the .357 would make a bigger impact so to speak.

The MAC test isn’t surprising. 9mm is great out of short barrels, .357 not so much. Now as that barrel gets longer .357 really starts building up steam.

Where I think the snub nosed revolver shines is in how easy and safely it is to pocket carry. Even an all steel Smith 640 is no chore to pocket carry. Revolvers in a pocket holster all pretty much looks ok like a wallet. Autos in a pocket holster all pretty much look like a gun.

642/442 is about as light as I want to go. When MAC was banging out a cylinder of .357 I think I had a PTSD flashback to doing the same.

quote:

Originally posted by Fundman:
You are mixing up what I said. Compare a 4 inch 357 with a 2 inch barrel model. The bullet has left the 2 inch barrel before the gases have reached maximum pressure so the gases are no longer pushing the bullet. The gas just escapes out the muzzle and is wasted. You still feel the recoil of those gases but they aren't doing anything to push the bullet. The muzzle energy of a 357 out of the j frame is half the energy out of a 4 inch barrel. 9mm on the other hand reachs maximum pressure and bullet velocity in very short barrel. So a 9mm fired out of a 2 inch barrel is losing very little velocity compared to a full size pistol. Since the 9mm out of a j frame or Glock 43 has the same muzzle energy as the 357 j frame it sure makes sense to me to go with the much lower recoiling 9mm

Ah. Cool.

Folks do carry them. One of my supervisors carried a 340PD on duty as a second weapon. I asked if he ever shot it with .357 ammo. Nope! Just .38 +P. Have to admit, that if I had a 340PD it would just be a super light weight .38 Spcl to me too. I would have no desire to shoot .357 ammo in a gun that light. My wrist hurts just thinking about it

Reference 9MM vs. 357 in the little 2" revolvers, the 9MM, especially +P and +P+, within my humble experience is closer to 357 ballistics than .38 +P with bullets up to about 124/125 grains. Recoil with 9MM in my steel-framed S&W 940 9MM definitely feels heavier to me than any 38 +P I've tested in my airweight 642. The chronograph indicates why. A popular factory 9MM SD load, the Federal HST 124 +P, averages 1195 FPS in the 2" 940 and 1291 FPS in a 3" Ruger SP-101 revolver. Higher velocities than I would have guessed out of 2" and 3" revolvers, so I retested this load at a later date. Velocities were within a few FPS of the first test. Now the 9MM is certainly no .357. But perusing the BBI site, it would appear that actual 357 ballistics with bullets 125 grains or less in 2" and 3" revolvers, may not be much, if any, greater than some 9MM loads.......ymmv