The Perfect Packin’ Pistol

Phil Sharpe is the main person responsible for the .357 Magnum. To come up with the .357 Magnum case, he simply lengthened the standard .38 Special from 1.155″ to 1.290″ to preclude the more powerful round from being dropped in a .38 Special revolver. Sharpe said — “The .357 Magnum cartridge was born in my mind several years ago. On a hunting trip with Col. D.B. Wesson, Vice-President of Smith & Wesson, a pair of heavy frame Outdoorsman Model revolvers were used with a large assortment of handloads developed and previously tested by myself. In the field they proved entirely practical, but Col. Wesson was not content to attempt the development of a Magnum .38 Special cartridge for ordinary revolvers, and set to work on a new gun.”

The Smith & Wesson .357 cartridge is loaded by Winchester now at a working pressure of 35,000 to 38,000 pounds per square inch, the greatest pressure of any handgun cartridge and approximately twice as heavy as any other revolver cartridge. For more than a year before the release of this gun, Col. Wesson manufactured a few pilot models, building and rebuilding each one, redesigning this and that until he found a suitable combination. I am not connected with any arms or ammunition maker and desire this fact [to be] clearly understood. I did not design the gun or the cartridge, however a number of my ideas were incorporated in the design of this gun, tested through an understanding of handloading problems, and a number of weak points in ordinary revolvers were quickly corrected.”

World Record

The .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson was proclaimed as “The World’s Most Powerful Revolver” and it certainly was for several reasons. First, and foremost, the extreme muzzle velocity was well over 1,500 fps from one of the 8-3/4″ Registered Magnums. Combined with the flat-nosed Keith- or Sharpe-type bullet, maximum shocking power was achieved.

Many of the FBI agents began carrying 3-1/2″ or 4″ .357 Magnums including Jelly Bryce who switched from his .44 Special. Lt. Col. Patton was stationed in Hawaii and purchased a companion sixgun to his beloved .45 Colt, a 3-1/2″ .357 Magnum. Soon to be Colonel, Charles Askins went with the .357 Magnum. He selected the 4″ length, had it fully engraved and carried it in a Berns-Martin holster.

It is fashionable these days not only for the .44 Magnum, but also such cartridges as the .454 Casull, .480 Ruger, .475 and .500 Linebaughs, to give the .357 Magnum short shrift. However, it is still the same excellent cartridge and sixgun combination it was back in 1935 when the first Magnums arrived. Those early .357 Magnums were simply works of sixgun art, so much so they may very well be the finest revolvers to ever come from the Smith & Wesson factory. From 1935 to 1939 approximately 5,200 “Registered Magnums” with the registration number on the yoke cut were manufactured; the cylinder must be opened to access the number. Barrel lengths in order of preference were 6-1/2″, 5″, 6″, 8-3/4″, 3-1/2″ and 4″.

In 1939 Smith & Wesson dropped the registration procedure and barrel lengths were standardized at 3-1/2″, 5″, 6″, 6-1/2″, and 8-3/8″, not necessarily in order of preference. These sixguns are known simply as .357 Magnums as the Smith & Wesson numbering system did not arrive until 1957. All of these guns had a beautiful high bright blue finish, nickel was an extra option, with a fine line checkering on the barrel rib, top strap, and rear sight assembly. Both the backstrap and front strap were serrated and the .357 Magnum was the first Smith & Wesson to be fitted with Magna stocks that filled in on both sides of the grip frame to the top of the backstrap. When all Smith & Wessons received model numbers in 1957, the .357 Magnum became the Model 27.

A New Gun Design

Bill Jordan, Marine combat veteran and Border Patrol Chief Inspector when he retired in 1965, was directly responsible for the .357 Combat Magnum. In 1986 Bill spoke of how the Combat Magnum came about. “In 1950, Smith & Wesson introduced the Model 15, a 4″-barreled version of the K-Frame Masterpiece series. This gun was acclaimed by law-enforcement officers, and it was undoubtedly the best thing going for the group up until its unveiling. The only thing wrong with it was it was a bit too light, especially the barrel for defense use, and it was chambered for the .38 Special cartridge. They called the new gun the Combat Masterpiece. Following the Masterpiece debut, I had given a lot of thought to advantages that would result from chambering the Combat version for the .357 Magnum cartridge.”

Bill Jordan stated the gun should be built on a K-Frame, have a heavy 4″ barrel with an extractor shroud similar to those used on the larger-frame .357 Magnum, target grips, target sights and the .357 Magnum caliber.

On November 15, 1955, the first production medium-frame Magnum was completed; it was named the Combat Magnum. Bill called it “the answer to a peace officer’s dream.” In the late 1950s I purchased my first Combat Magnum — which I still have. The original Combat Magnum had a 4″ barrel, Bright Blue or nickel finish, checkered walnut target stocks, adjustable sights, standard trigger and hammer. In 1957 the Combat Magnum became the Model 19 and 1968 the first stainless steel version of the Combat Magnum, the Model 66. A piece of exceptional good news is the Combat Magnum has been revived and is back in production. Whether one chooses the .357 Magnum/Model 27, the Highway Patrolman/Model 28, or the Combat Magnum/Model 19/Model 66, any one of them will serve as a Perfect Packin’ Pistol.

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