As the title eludes to ... this is a comment on the 357 S&W magnum revolver's usefulness.
Until the advent of the 357 mag, the 45 Colt was king. The 357 made power with a speeded up projectile ... whereas the 45 Colt does it's deal with low pressures and big heavy projectiles.
Dont get me wrong here ... I really like my 45's. They might just be my all time favorite revolver chambers.
Having said this ... the 357 might just be the best all round chambering in revolvers to date. You can tailor them with handloads for mouse size hunting to deer/black bear size critters which fills the bill for MOST of us.
Loading lite boolits at 550 to 650 FPS gets us into very fun target/small game loads. These loads can feed your belly over a camp fire or give plenty of target style shooting on a budget ... very cheap.
Loading with medium weight bullets/boolits in the 125 to 140ish realm with very deep hollow point projectiles at around 1000 to 1100 FPS and maybe faster gives a very effective self defense load that is still very viable as a man stopper.
Loading 158 grain to 200 grain boolits to as fast as safely possible gives a very agreeable hunting load for black bear, deer or any such weight table fodder. These give fair to great penetration on these animals and with proper shot placement ... are really acceptable for hunting medium game.
Revolvers that fill this general bill are plentiful and relatively affordable. High quality in most cases ... they exhibit very good accuracy and rugged dependability.
The shootability of these revolvers are just excellent . The recoil is lite and very controllable as well as not developing extreme ... [for the most part] ... muzzle blast.
4 and 6 inch barrel length give most the perfect revolver size for most shooters. The balance and "grip-a-bility is very good for most of us. The recoil with these middle road revolvers is extremely easy to learn to control. The medium frame size ... smith k and l frames, ruger GP's, single action Colt style revolvers ... are semi concealable, easy belt or shoulder holster carry and plain comfy revolvers to shoot, handle and care for.
All in all it is my opinion that while not maybe a specialty chambering ... and most certainly not a heavy for Large game chamber ... the 357 mag IS a just rite round for ALL general use for the most of us ... particularly for my use for sure. There is certainly better self defense ... better LARGE game ... better plinking rounds but ya gotta know that in an all around ... all in one chambering ... be pretty hard pressed to find a better built , easy accessible round and handgun combo to be found.
Letz hear it for the mighty 357 MAGNUM!