Quoted:
Being an olde fart from the revolver days, I'd say the Federal 125 gr jhp. When revolvers ruled, this was as close to a death ray as you could get in a handgun.
There was a study published by 2 guys Ed Sanow and Evan Marshall that studied actual shootings and found that load had one shot stops in the high 90% range.
It does recoil and blast a bit. Please remember we used to qualify––all of us––with this ammo. I still carry it in my 4 inch magnums and qualified with it in a Smith 640 2 inch.
I can't imaging using it in one of the scandium J-frames though.
I remember everyone switching from the 158s to the 125s in the 70s and early 80s.
Even the 140 gr got a big whoop-te-do over the 158s.
One thing about the 357, you need to shoot a lot of the magnum loads if you are going to carry them for self defense.
Accuracy definitely deteriorates on follow up shots because of the recoil IF you haven't practiced with them quite a bit.
One thing about caliber and bullet performance evaluations, there are always relative and not a sure thing.
In the 90s South Carolina State Trooper Mark Coates put 5 out of 6 357 Mag 125 gr HPs center mass into a 300 lb fat man and didn't kill him. Trooper Coates was hit by a single 22 LR from a NAA revolver and died.
The 125 gr 357 Mag HPs were considered THE load for the 357 as far as stopping power back then.
Whatever you intend to carry in your 357 for self defense, train with it a bunch!!!!!!!
Make sure you are just as accurate on the sixth shot as you are on the first.