>>588613
One of my posts was capworthy, gowrsh, I feel special.
>>588615
As far as chamber durability and blowy uppiness, in medium frames like the L frame and GP, 7 shot 357 Magnum's are supposedly stronger due to the placement of the locking notch, which is the weakest point in the 6 and 8 shot cylinders. The thinner cylinder wall to cylinder wall in the 7 still isn't as thin as the locking notch on a 6 shot. If you want a traditional 6 shot, and blued steel, yeah, 586 is the way to go in S&W.
If I remember correctly, in M-22 and M-25's the 45 Colt and 45 ACP cylinder walls at the locking notch are like 0.023 inches, pretty thin. You don't want to think about that too much when shooting them, and people who keep it standard 45 ACP don't seem to blow them up, some folks talk about hotrodding 45 ACP +p and 45 Super, well, you can do that, far away from me. Good modern gun steel is wonderful, but don't press your damned luck.
44 Magnum in a 6 shot M29 can handle the pressure for reportedly well over a hundred thousand rounds and still have no problems, with a notch thickness around .043 inches, if I can recall that correctly. So measure your wall thickness in a 7 shot revolver and see what that reads and think about it. I think my M27 6 shot enjoys .073 inches of thickness at the thinnest point, making it a beefy beefcake.
And keep thinking about how little amount of steel there is between your hands, your balls, your face, and that hotload you drop into that cylinder.