Critical Duty is the slow one among Hornady's .357 Magnum loads on this page: 1,275 fps and 487 ft-lbs from a 135-grain FlexLock, a jacketed hollow point with a polymer insert in the cavity and a band that locks the jacket to the core. Power factor is 172, 7 points over the 165 major floor. From a 25-yard zero the bullet is 1.0 inch low at 50 yards with 396 ft-lbs and 8.1 inches low at 100 with 336 ft-lbs. The case is nickel-plated brass. The recoil estimate is the lowest of the six loads here.

Its two Hornady 125-grain siblings, American Gunner 125 XTP and Critical Defense 125 FTX, list 1,500 fps and 624 ft-lbs, 225 fps and 137 ft-lbs more, at about 14 percent more recoil energy in the same revolver; they are also computed to drop 2.3 inches less at 100 yards and arrive there with about 40 ft-lbs more. Hornady LEVERevolution 140-grain FTX is further out: 165 fps and 158 ft-lbs ahead at the muzzle, about 33 percent more recoil energy, 1.9 inches less drop at 100 yards and 78 ft-lbs more energy there. The non-Hornady loads land closer. Winchester Silvertip 145-grain lists 1,290 fps and 536 ft-lbs, 15 fps ahead. Barnes VOR-TX 140-grain XPB lists 1,265 fps, 10 fps slower, at about 6 percent more recoil energy. Hornady rates its loads under different test conditions than Winchester and Barnes, so those small gaps are published figures, not what one revolver would show.

This is the Hornady load for a shooter who wants the FlexLock bullet with the least recoil of the group, in a duty-size or compact revolver, with a power factor that still makes major. If you want more energy from a Hornady bullet in a revolver, Critical Defense 125 FTX lists 137 ft-lbs more; if the load is going into a lever gun, LEVERevolution 140 lists 645 ft-lbs. For practice, Fiocchi's 142-grain FMJ-TC at 1,420 fps and 636 ft-lbs produces about 34 percent more recoil energy in the same revolver, so it is a stand-in for the LEVERevolution's recoil, not for this load's.