A trio of fancy S&W .38s with Magnaports and/or Wood

Shameless Commercial Plugs: I must confess to loving steel and wood, particularly when nicely fashioned into deadly firearms.

Such is the case of three Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolvers we recently added to the offerings at the gun shop where I work, all of which I have posted on gunbroker.com.

The first of these distributor-exclusive beauties is a very nice set of checkered, hand-filling wood grips added to the classic S&W 642 Stainless, Hammerless J-Frame.

Then there's a pair of Magnaported Smiths. I have to confess I have zero experience in shooting handguns or long guns with ported barrels, but the design is well-proven in battle as well in home-defense and competition shooting. Holes in the end of the barrel port some of the exhaust gases up, reducing recoil and helping to stay on target or get back on target quickly.

First is another S&W 642 variation with smooth wood grips, Magnaported barrel and nicely contrasted black-matte cylinder for a two-tone look.

Then there's a S&W 442 variation, same hammerless design as the 642 but in black matte finish instead of stainless. This offering has a contrasting stainless-finish cylinder to create a two-tone look in reverse, as well as a fine-looking pair of smooth wood grips.

Shooting S&W Airweight .38 snubbies with +P ammo can be a bit brisk and even painful after a few rounds. Magnaporting the barrels sounds like a terrific idea to me.

Maybe one day soon, I'll have the money to bring one or all of these beauties home.