Is That A Magnum In Your Rig Or Are You Just Happy to See Me...

"So whats the news about the original 357 bullet weights? All I here is 125 grains was the magic bullet back in the day..."

Nah. One of the few good things about becoming ancient is you recall what others have to learn about from the misinformation super loway. 158 grain rounds were all the rage when the .357 was making it's bones as THE law enforcement handgun charge. 6" barrels were spinning these pills out at 1500 fps+, and then a funny thing happened on the way to the firing. S&W introduced the K frame. Standard loads played havoc with the premise of firing one's gun yet remaining an opposable thumbed biped, and Smith came down hard and heavy upon the ammunition manufacturers.

Enter the 125. At approximately the same velocity, it was less formidable with regards to returning home from the range with all of the pieces you left with, and a lesson had been learned. Keep downloading the bloody things until the guns stopped blowing up real good.

Remember, or hear about it for the first time; revolvers carried 6 shots, an awful lot of officers were damned good, made them count, and accuracy was most likely as important as velocity. Well, but of course it is. More so. But the plink a gremlin in the sternum and have him spit out a lung wasn't working as well with the lighter loads, and this tempest in a lead pot continued until the wonder-nines made remonstrations to the contrary moot. Yes, the 125's certainly saw their share of deceased and soon forgotten wastrels, but the 158's paved the way.

To this day you have to roll your own or seek a boutique manufacturer if you want the original load, because the ammo boys ran scared and kept on running. The anemic variations from Winchester, Remington, and Speer are controllable, won't send anyone to the emergency room from the trigger end of the equation, and who cares because the cops stopped packing that sort of heat eons ago.

And it's too bad. Modern bullet technology coupled with the old giddyup would have been a thing to behold. Not that Double-Tap, or Buffalo Bore make anything to sneeze at, but its Gold Dots, or perhaps you'd like some Gold Dots. They stay together quite well even at warp factor 9, and the DT and BB fella's aren't bullet makers but case packers. It'd take a major outfit with deep pockets to reinvent the wheel with 21st Century techno, and why bother since recoil is icky. Just ask the FBI whatever happened to the 10 mm. Jeff Cooper saw it as a potential .357 in a bottomfeeder, but limpwristed G-Men sniffled until bad bullet went away.

The thought of a Winchester Ranger-T in 158 grains hauling along at 1500 fps makes me all aflutter. You'll settle for their .38 Special +P, though, and like it. So will the bad guy.