So I am retiring after over three decades in law-enforcement, and I am looking to pick up something small to carry. Once I am retired, I am tied to California’s roster.

What are your thoughts on the Smith and Wesson 340 PD? Or even the 360 PD?

I currently carry a G43 or s G26. I also have an older 642, but it is a little long in the tooth, with some of the finish coming off the grip/frame. Will the little j frame be a nice convenience or just a waste of $$.

Thanks all!

I have had a 340PD for a bit over 20 years. As can be imagined, recoil with real full-power 357 Magnum loads is not for the faint-hearted. I also had extraction problems with such loads when I first got it. 357 Mag loads also printed very high above the point of aim due to their recoil.

I admit I never fired it with such loads again after getting it back from S&W, so I don’t know if their polishing the chambers cured the problem. Now it’s limited to much wimpier 38 Special +P loads that are in the “better than a sharp stick” category.

Its obvious advantages are its light weight and being a double action only revolver that makes it the only gun I’ve ever pocket carried in slacks with a dress shirt. I would still do that if circumstances made it the best option, but when it’s not, there are better options such as the P365.

And congratulations on your service to the Nation. Thanks for helping keep us safe.

Carpel Tunnel in a box.

Look I’m not recoil sensitive, and I am not going to say they are absolutely unshootable but they are as close to being able to safely pull the pin on a grenade and throwing the pin that you are going to get.

I mean as a carried a lot shot a little powerful get off me gun they really are kind of amazing but I would imagine the VAST number of folks with these have to psych themselves up to practice with them. They just really aren’t fun to shoot. I mean OCCASIONALLY we all get a little masochistic streak in us now and then and for those times it’s fine.

I’m gonna say that for the cost and fairly narrow use parameters, I personally, would rather a brace of 442s and ammo.

Also keep in mind your 43 is really AROUND the same size envelope, easier to shoot, easier to reload and cheaper to feed. I LOVE me some J Frames and they do pocket carry nicely but between your 43 and 642 I simply cannot imagine what you would gain beyond kind of a cool gun and thats fine if thats why you want it but PURELY practically speaking, I’d pass.

I own a 340PD. It has its place in the rotation. Wearing basketball shorts with no belt is not a problem as this pistol will not weigh you down. It’s a neat gun. Honestly, it has its disadvantages. As previously mentioned 357 is torturous out of this revolver. Even .38 is snappy but not painful. Then there is the price. You could buy a .380 and some buffalo bore and have it in the same basketball shorts and save a lot of money.

--- CONGRATS on the retirement! ---

Pretty much everything Sigfreund said.
I love mine. Super light, and nice to toss in a pocket. A little on the pricey side.

However- a few things:
Again, like Sigfreund stated, a .357 round through that thing kicks like a pissed off Bruce Lee on steroids! That being said, IIRC, there's something about shooting a .357 through a snub nosed. You need a 4" of barrel length or so to get the velocity of a Magnum. Snubbed nosed Magnum's are more bark than bite. Oh, you'll try magnum rounds just to see for yourself, but I'll put money down that you don't get to half a box.

A +P or +P+ round is just fine, and will have sufficient stopping power, especially at a closer range.

Speed loaders like the Safariland or the HKS don't work well if you change the grips on the little J frames. Better to go with a speed strip if you're toting extra rounds.

I like mine also, 340PD. I use it fairly often for carry, all the way down to ‘smart carry’. I even shot a snake with it out West last summer, prairie dogging.

I never shoot 357 mag loads, even for carry, 38 +p is enough. In most all instances, I’m a ‘low probability’ user, CC participant. Would it be the top choice for an undercover anti drug officer? Of course not.

Another criteria, I prefer to carry guns with a certain manual of arms(remember low probability), meaning safe carry. The DOA trigger fits that bill.

The 340PD works for me, though at times I’ll step it up some. It’s almost easy to forget you are carrying it.

I have a 340 M&p that has the tritium front sight. Great little gun in a Mika pocket holster. Short barrel gold dots in 357 I normally only do a cylinder of, but it isn’t going to break your wrist. You know they aren’t 38’s but manageable. 158 grain 38’s are the way to go in that gun for most shooting. Love mine.

Traded mine off in favor of stainless j-frames. I'd rather deal with the weight than the recoil. If I need a light gun, I have a Ruger LCP. These days, a 380 is about as good as a 38, if not more so.

340PD with Hi viz front sight, Crimsontrace Lasergrip, High Noon Tailgunner and .357 Gold Dot short barrel.

If this setup were taken from me, I would immediately seek to replace it.


https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...910020484#7910020484

https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...490027694#8490027694

If I am in the mood to touch off a nuke, I load 5 158gr .357s into my SP-101 and enjoy the flash. My main carry snub is the LCR, as I find its trigger to be better than a J frame. I use the old all lead +P FBI load in LCR. The SP-101 is carried occasionally when venturing out into the woods.

I’ve got a 360 pd and a 340 pd, I shot a grand total of 5 .357 combined thru both. They are great for what they are, I carry my 640 more than either but I do carry the 360 a lot in the summer in cargo shorts pocket with wad cutters. I also have a 360j with the unfluted cylinder, it came with the longer S&w rubber combat grips, I actually prefer it to either of the PDs for shooting. I switched to a set of Uncle Mikes boot grips and it also is a joy to carry. If the 360j is on your roster, it might be another option. I bought a Ti cylinder for mine, so essentially I could make it into a another PD, I just never have got around to it. You honestly could do that to a 642, 442 if you wanted. The cylinder thru Midway was very reasonable. Would probably require using original extractor and star and possibly some shims for end shake or could be fine as is. It’s a considerable cost savings over the PD models.

I have a MagnaPorted pre-lock 340PD.

I carry Speer Gold-Dot Short Barrel 38 Special 135gr +P in it and it wears Crimson Trace grips with the padded backstrap.

I've found this to to be the easiest snub combo to carry and shoot for me.

IMHWO (in my humble and wimpy opinion) shooting 357’s out of these is just plain crazy. Too much recoil, too little barrel for velocity. (I made it through 3 rounds of a cylinder once…)
But from what I have read of ballistic tests, 148 grain target wadcutters are not bad — they penetrate pretty well and aren’t slippery round nose. Their main disadvantage, I think, is that they are lead, and you have to be cautious about scrubbing the coated charge holes. But, based on my own 342, I don’t want to be shooting even them too frequently. I mostly stick to a 442 for practice.
The 11-12 oz weight of a 340 or 342 is about that of a Seecamp — but a J frame is bigger, less dense, so the weight is spread out over a larger area, and creates less drag and feels even lighter.
Love my Glock 43, and thinking about a G42, but for quick and safe pocket carry nothing beats a J frame.

...honestly I would look at a P365 or P365XL as a retirement gun. My J-frame still has its place, but the P365XL has become my go-to all the time gun.

P365's are about $440 LE price. I would pick one up and a bunch of the 12 and 15 round mags now before retiring.

Owned J-frame. Changed to Ruger LCR 357. Much better trigger. Upgraded front sight to green hi-viz and grip to G10. Carry often in DeSantis pocket holster. Your weapon concept is sound, but with G26 not necessary. It would be enjoyable.

The most convenient of the J frames, you almost forget you’re carrying it. Until you have to shoot it. Rated for Magnums, I suggest you shooting one or two of them through it? Closest thing to 8 seconds out of the gate at the Rodeo +P is snappy but manageable & I’d recommend that load for edc in the 340PD. It’s a very good gat. Consider swapping the stock grips with one that covers the backstrap & installing a reduced weight spring kit to get the most from it. Fwiw, I never feel undergunned with 5 or six rounds. Unless I’m in East St.Louis, LA or somewhere without my common sense…

I have one of the Japanese police overrun 360Js in 38+p. It has a steel cylinder instead of titanium, so it's 13oz unloaded instead of 11oz, but you can scrub the crap out of the cylinder without worrying about scratching the coating off. I shoot my J-Frames a lot and don't want to deal with the extra complications of the titanium cylinder.

I find the that even with the extra 2oz, the 360J still light enough for a gym shorts pocket, and since it's built on a .357 frame, I've even cooked up a hot .38+p+ handload for it pushing a 158gr bullet at around 1000fps, which rivals what I get out of my snubby magnums. My favorite .357 Magnum defensive load is the Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel which is a 135gr bullet that I've measured out of my 640 at 1050fps...so not much difference there.

For range days with any of them I like a hollow-base wadcutter at about 800fps. Easier on the gun, and easier on the wrist over a long session. I have shot a 360PD, though, and honestly felt like a lot of the horror stories are overstated. It wasn't that bad, and I was able to make decent hits with it.

Personally, I'd like to find a 340 with the scandium frame but a steel cylinder in .357 to complement my 640 as a slightly lighter option for hammerless pocket carry. IMO a hammerless revolver is where it's at for a pocket gun:

No slide to cycle
No ejection port to clog
No hammer to snag
A grip that's very easy to grab
A size and shape that lends itself to pocket concealment.
A trigger that's heavy enough to provide some safety from a ND into yor leg, yet smooth enough to be usable with no manual safeties to disengage.

If you can find one that meets your criteria, I say buy it. The J-Frame has its limitations, but it also has some strengths that set it apart even from the fancy new micro-nines of similar size. I've tried most of them and keep coming back to my J-Frames...they're just excellent little guns.

Excellent gun, with the lock disabled.

I carry gold medal wadcutters in mine. The shoot very well, are comfortable and cost effective enough to practice with/change the ammo out regularly- and they seem to shoot to the POA.

JHP, TMK, won’t expand at snub nose 38 special velocities and it’d take a heck of a shooter to have decent splits out of a 340 PD with full 357 loads.

I had a 340PD and wanted to like it but it had some issues both in finish and then mechanically. Sent it back to S & W twice before it was good. Had a sour taste in my mouth after that so I just bought a 642 and haven’t looked back. 357 mag out of a sub 2” barrel length is not very effective for caliber, and is on par with 9mm out of a similar length barrel if I remember correctly by the testing from Military Arms Channel years back.

All that said, if they weren’t so expensive and I knew I’d get a cherry example, I would add one back in the collection just because it carried so well and the materials/engineering were impressive.