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flintknapper wrote: My very first centerfire pistol was a Model 19 Combat Magnum. I loved the way it looked, felt, shot, etc.

Only problem was....in less than 200 rounds of full house .357 (125gr.) the forcing cone cracked at the 6 O'Clock position.

Took it back to the store I bought it from. They sent it back to Smith and called me when it was repaired. I shot quite a few .38's out of it...then tried some .357 again. Well......once again the forcing cone split.

Gun store took it back, issued me a new one (new paperwork) and told me it wouldn't stand up to a steady diet of hot .357

Just being a dumb 21 year old...I didn't ask why it said "357" on the gun if I couldn't shoot them out of it without damaging it, but I certainly wondered.

Kept the pistol a few months and then traded it for a Ruger Super Blackhawk, put a couple trillion rounds through that thing.

Anyway, thats my Model 19 rant...some 30 years after the fact.

Well, we should remember the K-Frame was NEVER designed or intended for .357Magnum loads. S&W finally recognized this and gave us the L-Frame guns. I don't shoot the Model 19 much anymore because I prefer the 620 but I still think the Model 19/66 is probably one of the fastest revolvers I've ever shot. I take it easy on my Dad's old Model 19 because I worry that I could wreck it as wrecked the timing and trigger pin in my first S&W revolver, a Model 10.

The amount of muzzle flash you'll see out of a .357Mag revolver very much depends on the ammunition and barrel length. My father carried a 4-inch, Model 19 on duty with HPD from 1962 to his retirement in 1994. I "borrowed" that revolver a couple years back to take with me to DPS and I've probably put more rounds through that gun in the last two years than he did in the previous 40. I too was impressed at just how enjoyable the old K-frames are to shoot. IMHO, muzzle flash really isn't much of a concern except when I run heavier 158-180 grain loads.

I personally like 125 grain loads from Speer (Gold Dot) and Remington (Golden Saber). And I tend to prefer this load in all my .357Mag revolvers. Right now, I own a Model 28 Highway Patrolman with a six-inch barrel, a 4-inch Model 620, and the aforementioned Model 19. With all these guns, the only time I see significant muzzle flash is with heavier loads. But the other thing I see with heavy loads is a little bit of flame-cutting (more on older frames than newer one) and so I tend to stick with the lighter loads across the board.