I personally am not a fan of 357 Magnum as I see it as a jack-of-all-trades but master of none, but the perception of it being an "all around" revolver maybe the other side of that same coin. A 3-4 inch K-frame 357 Magnum is small enough to carry comfortably all day (open or concealed), long enough to get good ballistic performance out of the 357 Mag cartridge and has a reasonable sight radius. The 357 Magnum cartridge is potent enough to be both an effective man-stopper and an adequate hunting cartridge for small medium game with the ability to use 38 Special for cheap plinking and training.