Why are you shooting dead animals on the side of the road?

I assume you're referring to road wounded type animals. Good ole fashioned ball ammo is still pretty effective out of a 357. No need for a hollow point.

 

They are road kill in as much as they are dieing. I just don't like to see them suffer is all.

 

.As for shooting .38 Special(s) in a .357 cylinder/chamber(s). . . . .

Don't shoot a lot of 'em with soft (swaged) lead.
The .38 Special case, is 1/10th of an inch shorter than the .357 Magnum case.

An old friend shot about 100 rounds of swaged lead .38s in his Dan Wesson model 15-2 revolver, and the lead build-up in the chambers was so bad, the only way he could get the 'lead out', was to chuck a .45 caliber bronze borebrush in a cordless drill and run it in the chambers, like he was honing an the bore(s) of an engine block.

He made such a mess, with Hoppe's #9 and the lead!!!!

If you want a GREAT load for the .357 magnum, but, want .38 Special velocities, try this:
.357 magnum cases (trimmed to 1.280") I prefer Federal or Winchester cases.
Alliant (formerly Hercules) "Unique" powder. 7.2 grains.
Winchester SP primers
Hornady 158 gr JHP or a 158 gr hardcast LSWC. Just a slight to moderate crimp is needed. (The bullets won't 'jump' in adjacent chambers, when another round is fired.)

This load is VERY accurate, and is at .38 Special velocities!!

I've got over 15,000 rounds through my S&W mdl 19-4, and about 75-80% of them have been the load that I listed.

 

Forgive me but I just don't know what "swaged lead" is but now I know I need to stay away from it ! All soft lead or what ? How do I know whats what ?

 

Keith (Blueovalranger) loads his own ammo. Basically, stay away from all lead bullets. That is bullets made with 100% lead, no copper jacket. Most pistol ammo has a copper jacket around the lead core. The 100% lead rounds will deposit more contaminants in the cylinder bore, and the barrel bore for that matter, than a copper jacketed round. These rounds are fine if you use them in .38 special guns. The reason to steer clear of them in the .357 is that .357 rounds will not like going in the gun after you shoot them without a lot of cleaning.

 

I missed the part where Keith mentioned the hard cast lead bullets. Those would do better than the soft lead ones.

 

Anybody ever try any of those aluminum shell 357 mags ? The guy at the sporting goods store was trying his best to sell me a box but I passed. They were cheep enough but I'd never even heard of them before.

 

Blazer. Shoots ok, but a bit dirty.

 

The big thing is you can't reload them. If you don't reload, then you don't have to worry about that part.

Seems like I've also heard from a friend of a friend type of thing that they can be hard on some extractors. Since you're asking about .357, then again, no worries here.

 

Blazers are OK in revolver calibers, in auto's they can be problematic if your pistol has occasional feed/eject problems with std. brass case ammo.

 

As has already been said, CCI Blazer (aluminum) is o.k. in revolvers. I use them quite often in my Glock pistols, too.

Yes, they are 'kinda' dirty, but, no ammunition is 'clean'. Just a fact. When powder/propellant burns, it creates burn residue that has to be cleaned.

The aluminum cases aren't as 'elastic' as brass cases. Brass cases expand (to the chamber dimensions) when the cartridge is fired, then slightly returns to original size (not completely), for ease of extraction.
(Whoever invented the brass case sure was smart!!)

Aluminum cases do almost the same, but, they aren't 'as elastic' as brass.
If you have rough chambers, they can (and do!) stick.

As for accuracy, in my 9mm and .45 acp Glock pistols, CCI Blazers are very accurate.