I'm trying to convince my wife to leave her long guns at home this season and handgun hunt with me.

I had her try a 686 with a six-inch barrel, but she didn't like the muzzle blast. Would an 8 3/8 barrel decrease the muzzle blast and possibly the recoil?

I don't know about muzzle blast, but I can tell the difference in between my Dads 686 6in with full underlug and my old 29 with a 6in barrel. FWIW. Move up to a 8in barrel with full underlug and it will probably help, BUT you also have the variable of the weight added to the front of the barrel.

I don't think you will see much of a difference, 357's are just plain loud and obnoxious. If you were to go to a 45 Colt with a mediocre loading you might achieve your goal.

Recoil is always increased with lighter weights all other things being equal. If you increase the barrel length you increase the weight, which comes with a trade-off as TCTex mentioned.

Has she shot many handguns? It could just be something that you can work up to after starting with the .38's. Might be better to wait until next season and build up to it.

7dawg9,

I have both the 6" 686 and 8 3/8" full underlug 686. My 6" gun is unscoped, while the longer barrel gun wears a 2X Leupold. The longer barrel and added weight of the scope does soak up some of the "whip" on the sportier loads.

One things for sure, you'll like the longer barreled gun, even if she doesn't appreciate it! Get one - you can use the excuse of just being thoughtful

8 3/8 would probably be easier to control for her but muzzle blast,thats just the nature of the beast and can't be avoided

357s are LOUD and sound rattles my brain. 44 Mag is loud, but tolerable.

Go with 6" 357 with 180 grain bullets and ear plugs.

I enjoy handgun hunting, with handgun loads and at handgun distances. I have both a 6" and 8-3/8" .357's I hunt with.
With hunting loads suitable for killing deer. Your going to get blast. But for me I'd rather hunt with a pistol within it's limits and sometimes not get a deer. I'd modify TCLouis's post a little, With you being in Georgia like me, the deer are a little smaller.
I'd go with a 125gr hollow-point and electronic earmuffs. When I was hunting with a pistol in PA (forever ago) I used a 158gr hard-cast SWC.
I'm just getting back into revolver deer hunting and have been practicing a lot with the 8-3/8" wow is it a tack driver.

I have the longer 686 and love it, but yeah it will still make a racket and recoil. If you reload and chrono, you could ease her into a load that would, for example, expand a 158g XTP reliably and no more. You'd get that fps with less powder given the longer barrel. That's my 2 cents, but many here have way more experience than I.

Kdiver said it, but not loud enough ...electronic muffs are the ticket, I long ago shot my ears out my wife got me a set of electronic muffs and they are unbe,eivable, they reduce the blast, but amplify the local noise. i can hear myself breathing but not the muzzle blast.

I need to get some muffs for my dad and I,.357 magnum in the cold winter air without ear protection is not a good thing ,I was 21 at the time and after that one time I always have ear plugs when target shooting so the muffs would protect us during deer season-john (ears ringing for 3 days on day mentioned when target shooting)