Originally Posted by
Wheeler
This theory comes up from time to time here and elsewhere. It really boils down to physics. Revolvers have no reciprocating parts that help absorb felt recoil. That means you're left with the weight and mass of the revolver in question, the grips, and your hands, forearms and shoulders to absorb the recoil. Then you have to consider what makes a magnum cartridge do what magnum cartridges do, essentially make bullets go faster than their 'standard' ancestors. This is usually accomplished by using a slower burning powder in a longer case with a longer barrel, thus creating acceleration of the bullet down the entire length of the barrel.
If we take those constants and then radically change one such as the barrel length, we now have a rather large amount of powder burning as it exits the muzzle, rather than while in the barrel, creating a large muzzle flash. Large muzzle flashes are cool for impressing your buddies, for youtube videos, and instagram posts but serve no practical purpose. Since we have this relatively large amount of powder burning as it exits the barrel, it's not providing velocity to the bullet. As a general rule of thumb you now have a projectile that's moving at slightly faster than the same weight bullet from a .38 +P but with a large muzzle flash, a lot more noise, and a rather substantial pressure wave.
If we change those constants further by reducing the size of the pistol, and the weight of the pistol while reducing the barrel length, what we end up with is a projectile traveling well under it's rated velocity, with a large muzzle flash, a lot of noise, a large pressure wave, with substantially reduced mass and weight to absorb recoil. In short it's painful to shoot for most, which reduces practice rounds fired, which means less ability to shoot well under pressure.
I hope this helps. If you'd like the opportunity to shoot .357's from a J frame, let me know and I'll set you up.