SP-101 .357, 125 grain only?

Hey guys. Here is an auction for an SP in .357 marked for 125 grain bullet only. Did these guns have short cylinders, perhaps the normal .38 cylinder without the step in the front?

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=224045947

Yes, these were the very first of the 357 SPs. They later lengthened the cylinder and remove the bullet weight restriction.

Pete

Yep ~ what Pete said. That's how I understood it too.

I never fully understood Ruger on why they did this.

The SP101 was originally built with a shorter frame, and in .38 Special/9mm/.22LR so it didn't need to be any longer. Eventually people wanted the .357 Mag and Ruger needed a new frame but to get guns out to people they made this compromise model. Now all the SP101s are built with the .357 Mag length frame. Ta da.

Thanks!!!

Just as a side note, the older SP101s marked as such are sort of collector guns..if it is in great shape and the money is right, get it.

Came on the forums to find out about this gun and thankfully the search engine found this thread, as there's one up for auction again: http://www.gunauction.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=10653737

I can understand the 125 gr bullet limit for .357 cartridges, but I would expect that a .38 cartridge can still utilize a heavier bullet in this gun, like a 158gr...is this correct?

Yes, you can use heavier 38 bullets. In reality, you can use heavier 357 bullets, but you must be sure to crimp them more, and make sure they will not bind the cylinder by being too long to start with. I remember shooting a number of 158 loadings, that worked fine, and quite a few more that did not in the 125gr. Marked sp101 I had.

With the shorter cylinder, the problem is not pressure, rather the remaining bullets in the cylinder unseating ever so slighly, thus becoming slightly more elongated in overall length, during recoil - which then binds the cylinder due to bullet projecting beyond cylinder.

This problem is definitely noticeable with the scandium frames. Even with longer cylinders, you must be careful to be sure ammo is not in the cylinder for too many firings. Example, if you fire four of five 357 rounds, then reload only the four fired, fire those same four chambers, reload again, you may wind up binding the cylinder with that one chamber containing the bullet that has endured so many rounds being fired. The overall bullet length will definitely be noticeably longer.

We can thank Mr. Ayoob for convincing Bill Ruger to move away from the '125g' gun and build a proper 357 version.

WESHOOT2 said:

We can thank Mr. Ayoob for convincing Bill Ruger to move away from the '125g' gun and build a proper 357 version.

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Thanks Mas. I enjoy my 357 SP-101 the 'Little Tank' of a gun. 8) 8)

...Jimbo