Marvelous article. Just what the doctor ordered for someone with three pistol-caliber setups: 1911A1/Marlin Camp 45; Ruger SP101/Marlin 1894C and Glock 23 (.40 S&W)/Kel-Tec Sub Rifle 2000.
That gives me 1080fps for GI Ball in the .45ACP, then the figures you gave in the .357, and finally somewhere around 12-1300fps in the 165gr .40 S&W.
I am amazed most by some of those "hot" loads for the .357: Jebus! A ton of energy from a pistol round that will fit 5 in a pocket snubby or 9 of them in the Marlin! I would probably need nuke warriors' "gold goggles" to shoot any of those loads from a 2" at night.
Hope to see you tomorrow night, but my daughter is suddenly in KPHX, so I might not be able to play din-din. I'll give a call tomorrow afternoon just after lunch.
Like several other gunbloggers, I'm building a 9mm AR carbine.
It's really for my wife, but I figure as a side benefit, it'll make a vicious home defense gun with 124 gr JHP handloads.
Can you recommend a 10mm carbine?
I have a Glock 20 that I love.
Well, if you like the G20, then I say go for the MechTech CCU.
Take a glock frame and make it into a 10mm carbine.
Nice work, Chris, and one of the reasons I keep a Marlin lever in 44 handy. My experience is that the velocity increases you list apply to revolver cartridges; semi-auto cartridges, while faster out of greater-than-pistol-length barrels, don't gain nearly as much.
That said, I've still got the hots for a 16-inch barreled, folding stock, box magazine-fed, 15-shot semi carbine in something like 44 Automag.
I was thinking more like .45 winmag, but I'm right there with ya.
I'd LOVE to find one the of the .45 winmag converted M1Carbines.
Great post. I think it would be interesting to see a comparison between various handgun caliber carbines and the venerable M1 carbine. I’ve even seen .30 carbine revolvers from time to time, but I’d never consider one for home defense. (The flash from such a short barrel is horrendous) I think a carbine might make a decent home gun. I have, however, read mixed reports about its effectiveness.
Regardless, they are still fun and damn cheap to shoot!
Nice article, Chris, but I still don't think I'm sold on pistol cal. carbines
Back in the 19th century, when you were on the trail, ammo commonality was important. Loss or breakage of one gun could render half your ammo supply useless otherwise.
Now is a much different story. I'd still rather have a carbine in a rifle caliber. The sidearm is less important than the rifle when you have both. it seems illogical to conform your rifle to your pistol.
A .357 mag may just perform better out of a carbine, but I still feel more comfortable with a bottlenecked rifle cartridge.
Just my $.02
Hornady's 240gr. .454 Casull is advertised as 2000 fps from a 7.5" barrel. Firing from my Legacy Puma (18" or 20", I forget) rifle over a chronograph gave me 2112fps. With many loads, you may not get the increases you're hoping for. This data point would be more useful if I had chrono data for the short barrel, but I don't. 
Charles, it's all about the powder used really.
Yeah, you can do it with reloading and slower powders, but just firing a factory load though a longer barrel won't give so much extra unless the factory load was poorly designed for the shorter barrel. The classic sign of that being the huge flame you get from a rifle cartridge in a pistol barrel.
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