Caliber
.357 Magnum
The benchmark revolver round — .357 Magnum for defense, woods, and the range.
About .357 Magnum
The .357 Magnum is the gold-standard revolver cartridge, with a legendary reputation for defensive effectiveness built over decades. A great feature is flexibility: any .357 revolver also safely fires milder, cheaper .38 Special, so you can practice with soft-recoiling .38 and load .357 for serious work.
Full-power .357 produces serious recoil, muzzle blast, and flash — indoors that flash and noise are a real consideration, which is why many home-defense revolver owners run .38 +P instead. As a do-it-all woods, range, and defense cartridge in a quality revolver like a 686 or GP100, the .357 remains hard to beat.