You should not have to worry about factory ammo being too hot for a modern revolver.
I think that is right.
I did a little more research after my last post, and found a chat room where a guy who owned a Smith and Wesson Model 686 had EXACTLY the same thing happen. The common place is the 6 o'clock position on the force cone. Just like mine. He had probably put 10,000 rounds through his, mostly .38 Special as I did, with just a few .357 Mag rounds time to time.
Truth is, I'm low balling the number I've fired with mine. !0 - 12,000 rounds is definitely possible.
Apparently this kind of damage is inevitable in all revolvers, just a matter of the number of rounds fired. it is caused by the blast of hot gas hitting and "cutting" the force cone.
If the frame is split also, then it cannot be fixed. If it is only the barrel, it can be, assuming the gun is of modern enough vintage.
The guy with the Smith had a problem, in that that particular model was apparently too old; S&W agreed to fix it if he could buy an old barrel somewhere. He did, and they fixed it.