The Smith & Wesson Model 19: "Answer to a Patrolman's Prayer"

Wiley Clapp on Handguns writes about the K-frame .357 Magnum that also happens to be my personal favorite size. Great minds think alike.
The Smith & Wesson Model 19

I had a really nice Model 19 square-butt frame with 6" barrel that I foolishly sold way back when I first started buying carry handguns in 2006. Live and learn. I shall replace it sooner or later but I've developed a liking for 4" barrels, so my next Model 19 will likely have a shorter barrel than my first.

I love the smell of Hoppes/Gunscrubber/Kroil oil in the morning

Went shooting on Saturday with these three new-to-me handguns, S&W 469 Mini 9mm, Dan Wesson 22LR revolver and Taurus 65CH .357 Magnum, so guess how long it took me to clean all three?

If you said this morning, you'd be right. I'm not lazy (well yes I am too). I'm also a charter member of the Procrastinators Club but I can never find the time to send my dues in.

I was too tired Saturday afternoon/evening, Sunday is a day of rest, Monday I worked at home so I can put off cleaning for another day. So finally Tuesday morning I had to clean the Smith because I wanted to wear it. Also got the Taurus cleaned Tuesday because it had to go back into the layaway safe at work until I got it paid off.

So I went to work yesterday smelling like Hoppes No. 9

Then finally this morning, I got the Dan Wesson cleaned too. Better late than never I always say. And I gotta confess, I do love the smell of Hoppes, Gunscrubber and Kroil oil in the morning.

Two Wessons and a stainless Taurus 65 go shooting on a chilly day

My sympathies to all my fellow gun nuts who live in the snow belt, which this particular Saturday seems to stretch from coast to coast but mostly north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Here in the almost-sunny South it was mid-40s and with a bit of wind felt like 30s, but most certainly not too cold to go shooting for the first time in more than a month. I did wear gloves, but other than that, it was fun as usual.

The wimp who runs the outdoor firing range I usually go to didn't open up today, but here in the gun-friendly South, there's a place beside the road nearby that locals call "the clay bank" which never closes and is also free.

At right are three new-to-me pistols which I shot for the first time, starting bottom left, S&W 469 Mini 9mm, bottom right, Dan Wesson 722 .22LR revolver and top, Taurus Model 65 stainless .357 Magnum with concealed hammer, 2.5" ported barrel and custom wood grips. All three did fine.

The Dan Wesson was the only hiccup of the day. I discovered it to be the first .22 handgun I've ever shot that does not like CCI ammo. I've got a pair of .22 pistols, S&W 22A-1 and Sig P220 Rimfire, both of which are quite picky but love CCI and have never failed with either standard or high velocity loads. Both are not fond of Remington or Winchester .22 ammo.

But the DW didn't like any of the above. I tried two Remington loads, Golden Bullets and high-velocity, Winchester Super-X high velocity and CCI Mini Max, all of which had one dud per chamber load of six. Not acceptable.

But thank God I bought a brick of American Eagle high velocity just because it was cheap. Because the DW loves AE. I shot a whole box of 50 and it never misfired once. Henceforth, it will be fed only AE, though I will try some Federal Gameshock loads too.

As you probably know, AE is the budget brand of Federal ammo.

Musta been a day for duds, I had one JHP fail to fire in the S&W 469, which wouldn't go boom even after I gave it a second chance. In all I ran six magazines through the 469, three 12s and three 15s, including one mixed magazine of four different JHPs. It fed them all perfectly and shot dead on with the sights, so I pronounce it ready for carry duty.

I'll be carrying it as backup in a Galco small-of-back holster with one of my revolvers as main carry, .327 Magnum or .44 Special Charters, S&W 65-3 .357 Magnum or the Taurus, once I get it paid off from layaway.

I've turned into a revolver guy of late both because I like to shoot 'em but also because you can't beat a revolver for reliability. It's gonna go boom almost all the time and when it don't, pull the trigger again until it does.

The last of the pistols I shot today is a quadruple new-to-me. It's another used pistol from the shop I got to try out before purchase and I love it. Its other three new-to-me counts are:

1) It's a Taurus. I am not a big Taurus fan for their virtually nonexistent customer service. But this one seems quite solid, plus it was customized by an apparently talented gunsmith with a bobbed hammer and a very slick trigger, also with a nice set of wood grips with no sign of Taurus logos.

2) It's a double-action-only revolver, which I have never owned before. But the slick trigger makes DOA shooting a breeze, easy to hold the sights on during the very smooth trigger pull.

3) It's also my first ported handgun with three big holes on top of the barrel, which I presume is more of the unknown gunsmith's talented work. I shot four different loads in it, CCI .38 Special +P 158-gr. and three .357 Magnum loads, CCI 158-gr., Winchester JHP 110-gr. and Cor-Bon JHP 140 gr. With the exception of the Cor-Bon, all shot every comfortably. The Cor-Bon was definitely more manageable than it is shooting in my S&W 65-3, but it is still noticeably hotter and harder shooting. I'll stick to the Winchester 110-gr. for a carry load, which shot to point of aim with the fixed sights, just as it does with the S&W 65-3.

It's no coincidence that the Taurus 65 is quite similar to the Smith 65 with the same model number, both are stainless .357 Magnum six-shot double-action revolvers. The Taurus is an obvious copy of the Smith but I have to say the DAO, slick trigger and ported barrel makes it a very good alternative to the Smith. The Taurus trigger ain't as slick as the S&W Performance Center trigger job on the S&W 65-3, but it's close, which makes it very, very smooth and slick.

According to Bluebook, the Taurus Model 65 blue or stainless was never offered in DAO concealed-hammer with wood grips and a ported barrel, hence my presumption of custom work.

Both Model 65s fit my new Bianchi shoulder harness rig like they were made for it, which will be my preferred method of carry for both these as well as the two Charter revolvers, which also fit the Bianchi rig very well. As Hannibal Smith used to say, I love it when a plan comes together.

Newtonian physics rules vs. lightweight snubby revolvers

Sooner or later, I'm gonna get around to buying a lightweight .38 Special snubby, but every time I've made a move toward one since I started thinking about .38 snubbies back the spring of 2008, something sexier has popped up.

First snubby that caught my eye was a Smith & Wesson 396 SC .44 Special called the Mountain Lite. Then I shot it and learned you can't repeal Newtonian physics that says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

If a handgun is light as a feather, unless it's shooting a projectile that's both underpowered and also very light, it's gonna kick like a Missouri mule, like the "Mountain Bite" .44 Smith snubby. And underpowered light projectiles sucketh when it comes to actually doing what bullets are supposed to do, deter bad actions.

Then I bought a pair of stainless-steel Charter snubbies, .327 Magnum and .44 Special. While neither has what anybody would call low recoil, they're both manageable enough to enjoy shooting and to control for accuracy. And both are more than adequate in the deterrence department, ballistically speaking.

Then I fell in love with another stainless sorta snubby, a S&W 65-3 .357 Magnum with 3" barrel, which is also pleasant to shoot unless you load it up with CorBon 180-grain loads, which I found out the hard way are just too hot for a K-Frame, even an all-steel one.

In between the two Charter snubbies, I almost bought my first Colt, a .38 Special Cobra, the alloy-frame version of the famous all-steel Detective Special. With the factory grips, it beat the hell outa my ring finger, so I bought some gap-filling grips that made it more comfortable to shoot.

But when I had the Cobra almost paid off at the gun store where I work, in came my second Charter snubby, the Bulldog .44 Special. It has a better trigger than the Colt, plus it's a .44, not a .38. So the Colt went back in the counter and the Bulldog came home.

But I have shot one lightweight .38 that both has a good trigger and won't beat you up too bad with +P loads, the new Ruger LCR polymer-frame .38 snubby.

A customer bought one that didn't have the Crimson Trace Lasergrips properly zeroed at the factory so I volunteered for the job of fixing that.

It took me a whole box of Hornady Critical Defense .38 Special +P jacketed hollow points to get those laser grips properly zeroed. It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.

And now Smith is finally stepping up with its first polymer frame .38 snubby, the new Bodyguard model soon to be delivered.

I'll pass on the new Bodyguard .380, 9mm is as small as I go with pistols, but the .38 Bodyguard got my attention with an ambi cylinder release as well as ambi controls for the integrated laser. That's a real feature for lefty shooters like me.

Maybe I'll get a chance to shoot one of the new Bodyguards before I finally buy my first .38 snubby. But until then, I'll just get by with my .44, .327 Magnum and .357 Magnum snubbies.

Here's a S&W video commercial on the two new Bodyguard models.

Search for a .38 snubby leads to 6 revolvers (and no .38 snubby)

Since who flung the chunk, I've always loved pistols. Blame my daddy for letting me shoot his 1911 .45 way back when I was about 10.

Daddy also had a little .32 ACP lemon-squeezer revolver I shot when I was a little fella, but that's another story.

Anyway, I started buying pistols pretty late in life in 2001 with my first being a Smith & Wesson Model 1076, a full-size 10mm that was the FBI's duty handgun from 1990-95.

Credit reading Jeff Cooper about 10mm pistols for that purchase.

Then in 2006 when I applied for my concealed-carry permit, I started looking for carry pistols and have acquired a few since then.

I had no revolvers until March 2008 when I decided to go shopping for a .38 snubby for a backup. But on the way to a .38, I ended up buying a .44 Special. Long story, read it all here.

I tried out a S&W 396 AirLite Scandium Mountain Lite .44 Special which is indeed light, but you can't avoid physics. What goes out one end of a handgun comes back the other way in recoil. I found out why one writer called it the "Mountain Bite." Ouch. So instead I came home with a S&W Model 21-4 .44 Special, a 4" barrel N-frame steel revolver.

And then shortly thereafter I discovered a "Dirty Harry" .44 Magnum S&W 29 in a pawn shop when I was just browsing. The price was so low I just had to buy it.

I love that 4" barrel of the two S&Ws 21 and 29. It's just the right size for handy carry and shooting, or as John Taffin would say, the perfect packin' pistol. Perfect if you don't mind packin' 3+ lbs. of iron.

But like a fool I decided I didn't need two .44 Smiths, so I traded the 21 and kept the 29. But I still kept thinking about a .38 snubby.

And then the gun shop where I work got in the new Charter Arms Patriot .327 Magnum 6-shot stainless revolver model last year. I studied up on .327 Magnum and decided that ballistics nearly matching .357 Magnum with the recoil of .38 Special +P is a pretty good deal, not to mention 6 shots vs. 5 in a typical .38 Snubby. So I got the Charter .327.

Then along came a S&W 14-3 K-38 Target Masterpiece at the shop. It became my first .38 Special, but with a 6" barrel, BoMar Sight Rib and target grips, it's hardly a snubby.

I said it had the best trigger I'd ever pulled, which is why I bought it. And then along came a S&W 65-3 .357 Magnum stainless with a 3" barrel and a trigger job from the S&W Performance Center. It was even slicker than the S&W 14-3 so I just had to buy it. It's sorta kinda a .38 snubby, but not really as an all-stainless K-frame 6-shot. It's most definitely not an Airweight J-frame Smith snubby.

And then along came my second Charter, a stainless Bulldog .44 Special. How could I resist when a .44 is mucho better than a .38? And then I went shopping for a compact S&W 9mm, found a S&W 469 and bought it, but before I could get out of the shop, I bought a Dan Wesson Model 22-6 6" barrel .22LR revolver. That Dan Wesson trigger is just too slick to resist.

So now I got six revolvers and another one in the layaway safe at the shop. (Shhh! Don't tell my wife.) I told her just the other day I probably had enough pistols now. Big mistake.

I have decided to follow the wisdom of Bob Lee Swagger, one of my favorite fictional characters, who told a nice lady, "Pardon me ma'am, but there ain't no such thing as enough guns."

And I realized something sorta shocking about myself today when I headed off to work at the gun shop wearing two revolvers and no pistol. I'm turning into a revolver guy.

A Smith pistol and a Wesson revolver: A pair to draw to any day

I went off in search of a compact 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol today and lo and behold, not only did I find the Smith I wanted, I found a Wesson I wasn't even looking for, a Dan Wesson .22LR revolver that is.

Sometimes a guy falls into the outhouse and come out smelling like a rose.

One of my co-workers at the gun shop told me Carolina Pawn Shop in Charlotte was selling all their used guns to make room for new ones and had some nice Smiths and Colts they had sold at the Hickory gun show.

So I googled the directions, headed off to Charlotte and found the shop. "Guns? We don't sell guns," the pretty little lady at the pawn and jewelry store said. And since there was only one Carolina Pawn Shop in Charlotte, what else could I do but head back home? Shoulda called first. Two hours drive for nada.

I drove up and down the street a couple of miles thinking lightning might strike in the form of a gun shop. No lightning. So I headed home.

Saw a sign for Dick's Sporting Goods in Matthews, so I stopped. Dick don't sell no handguns, the man sez. I bought a couple of boxes of ammo at about the same price as I can get at the shop, but you gotta buy something on the trip.

Then as I'm ready to go home, guy in the parking lot who came out of Dick's when I did asked me if I was looking for handguns? Yep. He pointed me to a small pawn shop just up the road a mile or less.

I found Beltway Pawn Shop right on U.S. 74 and lo and behold, right there in the counter is a nifty blue S&W 469 (first two photos), twin to the S&W 669 stainless (3rd photo) I had and sold to my everlasting regret.

Once upon a time, I got it in my head to upsize from small, carry pistols to large, tactical pistols. The S&W 669 was sold despite the fact that I shot it better than any of my other pistols.

Anyway, here was its replacement at a great price, even less than I paid for the 669 two or three years ago. Then before I could get out the door, this Dan Wesson .22LR revolver just leaped right out of the counter into my hand. Amazing!

It had a nick of two in its deep blue finish but it locks up tight as a tick. Then I pulled the trigger. That was a big mistake. So smooth my pants almost fell down. Again. (See Smith & Wesson 14-3 and 65-4 revolvers with extra-slick triggers in my earlier musings.)

And then the gun shop guy gives me a great price on it, too. What could I do?

So here I sit with the compact Smith I've been wanting, which just happens to fit perfectly in the small-of-back Galco holster I wear at work for a backup gun.

And I've been needing a good .22 revolver to practice my wheel gun shooting with and this Dan Wesson is way yonder more than double-action revolver than I figured I could afford.

Ain't it amazing how the Good Lord looks out for fools and drunks?

P.S. I didn't realize why I had such a hard time trying to find another S&W 669 or the above 469 until I looked it up in BlueBook:

MODEL 469 "MINI"- 9mm Para. cal., double action, alloy frame, 12 shot finger extension mag., short frame, bobbed hammer, 3 1/2 in. barrel, sandblast blue or satin nickel finish, ambidextrous safety standard (1986), molded Delrin black Grips, 26 oz. Disc. 1988.

MODEL 669 STAINLESS- 9mm Para. cal., smaller version of Model 659 with 12 shot finger extension mag., 3 1/2 in. barrel, fixed sights, molded Delrin grips, ambidextrous safety standard, 26 oz. Mfg. 1986-88 only.

Jeez, they only made this great pistol design for two years? What was Smith thinking when they discontinued it? Perhaps the same thing Colt was thinking when they discontinued all their great double-action revolvers.

Para P12-45, Colt Cobra .38 and S&W 65-3 .357 Mag. showoff time

In the spirit of "It's my blog and I can show off if I want to" I finally got around to taking some new photos of my latest carry pieces yesterday, so here they are.

My new-to-me Para Ordnance P12-45 is first up, along with the Galco shoulder harness with double-mag holder which was purchased along with the pistol from the former owner, a retired Navy chief corpsman.

The P12 has several custom features, including ambi thumb safeties and a 3-hole adjustable trigger, which I presume was done by Cylinder & Slide since that shop also customized the chief's former P14-45, which I'm in the process of purchasing also.

I didn't appreciate the customization fully until I tried to order a set of wood grips and discovered that stock P12 grips are not fitted for ambi safeties, like mine. So either I find somebody who can custom fit some grips or just stick with the black Para grips that have already been custom fitted to the pistol. Probably the latter.

Then there's my new-to-me Colt Cobra .38 Special snubby, which is almost paid off. I took the liberty of finding some new grips for it after discovering the painful truth that the original grips fit too high and the back of the trigger guard raps your knuckle when you shoot it.

I have test-fired it with a new set of wood grips, shown installed, and they work fine. Also got a set of rubber grips which I haven't tested yet, but I suspect I'll stick with the new wood grips. I'll be carrying it with my small-of-back Galco holster, belt holsters or a new Bianchi shoulder rig, shown with the Colt.

My Colt Cobra, according to Bluebook, was made sometime prior to 1972.

COBRA (FIRST ISSUE)- .22 LR, .32 Colt NP, .38 Colt NP, or .38 Spl. cal., first issue, 2, 3, or 4 (square butt on early model, later models had round butt) in. barrel, blue or nickel finish, similar to Detective Special, only alloy frame and available in .22 LR, very early guns had plastic grips with silver medallions, changed to plastic w/o medallions, and finally changed to wood grips. Mfg. 1950-72.

It has a square-butt frame, which makes it an early model, but it came with wood grips, which makes it a later model? Go figure. It's old, that I know for sure, and it has a great trigger so it will be a fine backup carry piece. Plus it's a D-Frame Colt, same size as a K-Frame S&W, so it's a 6-shooter, not a 5-shooter, like the Smith J-Frames. I'm math challenged, but I am pretty sure 6 shots in a snubby beats 5 shots.

And last but certainly not least is my new-to-me Smith and Wesson 65-3 with 3" barrel, a great set of grips and a custom trigger job from the S&W Performance Center.

Bluebook says this about it: MODEL 65- .357 Mag. cal., stainless version of Model 13, K-frame, has 3 (round butt, disc. 2000) or 4 (square butt) in. heavy barrels, satin stainless steel, current production uses Uncle Mike's grips, fixed sights, 35 oz. Disc. 2004.

The grips may be the "smooth Dymondwood combat grips" which Bluebook says came on the Model 65 Ladysmith. Whatever they are, they fit my hand perfect and shoot great. I love the 3" barrel, which carries great and shoots great too. I have learned that shooting really hot .357 Magnum loads, like 180-grain Cor-Bon, is not a good idea with a K-Frame. Save those for your N-Frame Smiths. It shoots just fine with 110-grain .357 Magnum loads, which are more than adequate to stop anything short of a charging rhinoceros.

So long EAA Witness P-Carry, hello Para Ord P12-45

Tomorrow is my first Para Ordnance carry day! The Good Lord sent me a buyer for my EAA Witness P-Compact .38 Super/.45 ACP at the gun show in Hickory over the weekend, attended by the other folks at the gun shop where I work. So far I've been able to get away with not spending my weekends at gun shows with the rest of the crew.

That enabled me to get my new-to-me Para Ordnance P12-45 out of hock at the gun shop today and bring her home for good. So tomorrow I'll be carrying the Para and 12+1 rds. of Winchester PDX1 230-gr. JHP Bonded Personal Protection loads, plus a couple of spare magazines of 12 and a backup piece.

I shot the Para P12-45 again this past Saturday at the range and she just loves those 230-grain loads with the sights dead-on at 15 yards. She has a Cylinder & Slide trigger job and some other custom touches, including ambi safeties which makes her perfect for a lefty like me.

I also got my Charter Arms Patriot .327 Magnum back from a gunsmith at the Hickory show, so that will be my backup tomorrow. The gunsmith tried unsuccessfully to install a lighter weight hammer/trigger spring, but said he couldn't find one that would also fire cartridges of any type. That's sorta essential for a firearm, that it actually fires, certainly more important than a lighter trigger pull.

Speaking of lighter trigger pull, I've been carrying my new-to-me Smith & Wesson Model 65-3 stainless .357 Magnum revolver lately, second photo. This little 3" barrel darling has a trigger job from the S&W Performance Center that has to be felt to be believed. Everybody who has tried that trigger has had a shocked expression and a mouth that falls open. It's that good. I guess one great trigger job is enough for the moment.

I got enough from the EAA sale to pay off the Para Ord and also make a down payment on my next acquisition, a Colt Cobra .38 Special 6-shot snubby, third photo.

The Cobra is the same frame size as the Smith 65-3, K-Frame for S&W and D-Frame for Colt. It's a dead ringer for the famed Colt Detective Special, the only difference being an alloy frame vs. the all-steel Dick Tracy snubby. I've got nothing against light carry pieces if they shoot good.

And the Colt Cobra shot just fine when I took her for a test run this past Saturday. She has a good trigger and she's a 6-shot vs. the usual 5-shot J-Frame Smith snubbies, plus the grip is also a bit bigger which works well for my large, long-fingered hands.

And the Colt Cobra trigger is pretty slick too, not as slick as the Smith 65-3 but definitely better than the Charter Patriot .327 Magnum. It's destined to be my everyday backup carry piece.

My only caveat at the range was the discovery that hot .38 Special loads banged the back of the trigger guard on the knuckle of my middle finger no matter how I tried to adjust my grip. I'm gonna find some of those grip fillers for the front of the grip frame that will fit a D-Frame Colt.

Singin' the Single-Action, Double-Action Boogie Woogie

What's better than a great single-action trigger? Only a great double-action trigger, and I have found both and experienced both in a single day.

After my concealed-carry class yesterday, I got my first chance to take my two newest-to-me handguns for a test run and both passed with flying colors. As if they wouldn't. But you never really know how sweet a handgun really is until you shoot it. At left is my new-to-me Smith & Wesson 65-3, a stainless-steel double-action .357 Magnum with 3" barrel, and at right is my new-to-me Para Ordnance 12-45, a 3.5" barrel 1911 .45 ACP semi-auto with a single-action trigger to die for.

The gentleman who sold us the used Para Ord has sent it off to Cylinder & Slide for a trigger job and who knows what else. It has ambi safeties for one, which I'm pretty sure a stock Para 12-45 doesn't have, but the P 12-45 is discontinued, so I can't look it up on the Para Ord website.

It certainly passed the live fire test with the toughest drill I could conjure up. I loaded one of it's 12-rd. mags with a mixture of four different JHPs, two different Winchester 230-grain loads, a Federal 180-grain HydraShok load and some Remington Golden Saber 230-grainers.

The Para Ord munched through that mixed bag like it was its regular diet without a single hiccup. And the single-action trigger can't be more than 3 lbs. or so, but my Lyman Digital Trigger Gauge went tango-uniform some time ago, so I just have to guess about the weight.

And the great double-action trigger? I would have said before I first held the S&W 65-3 there is no way I would ever pull a DA trigger better than the S&W 14-3 K-38 Target Masterpiece .38 Special I purchased from the shop a while back. And then I pulled the 65-3 trigger.

The guy who sold it to us said he sent it to the S&W Performance Center for a trigger job and I believe it. This trigger is so smooth you fall off your chair when you pull it. Add to that a set of finger-groove combat grips that fit my hand like a glove and it was love at first trigger pull.

For you non-Smith lovers, the 65-3 is a stainless version of the S&W Model 13, a blue-steel beefed-up Model 10 K-Frame. Any Smith revolver starting with a 6 is stainless steel. The 65-3 with it's heavy barrel is the 357 Magnum version of the Model 10 .38 Special, the original Military & Police revolver carried by lawmen for nigh unto seven or eight decades.

And this particular Smith 65-3 with 3" barrel is the first such barrel length I've ever shot and I gotta say, three inches is just right for balance and point shooting. The fixed sights are dead on with a Duke's mixture of .357 Magnums and .38 Special +P loads I tried in it, four total.

I'm in love again and this time it's with a great single-action trigger and a great double-action one. For a gun nut like me, it just hardly don't get no better than this.

Fell in love with two new sweethearts at the gun shop

I've done fell in love again with not just one but two new "sweethearts" among the used guns either traded or sold to the gun shop where I work. First along came a Smith & Wesson 65-3 Stainless .357 Magnum revolver with a trigger job from the S&W Performance Center, 3" barrel and a set of black wood fingergroove combat grips that fit my hand just perfectly. That trigger is so smooth I fell in love instantly with the first pull. Right into the layaway safe it went until I can get it paid off.

Believe it or else, I haven't owned a .357 Magnum or .38 Special revolver since I sold my S&W 19 some three years ago. No self-respecting gun nut can possibly live without at least one .357 Magnum or .38 Special revolver. That's wrote on the wall somewhere.

Then yesterday, a gent sold us a whole passel of high-dollar guns, including a Para 12-45 with a trigger job from Cylinder & Slide. One test of that trigger and it was love at first pull again. Now I gotta sell something to raise the cash for the Para 12. My EAA .38 Super/.45 ACP is going on gunbroker as soon as I can find the time to take photos and list it. That's it in the photo with the .38 Super slide in Wonder finish on it.

I've decided to call that adventure a failure. I acquired it in a trade as an EAA Witness P-Compact .45 ACP. I didn't care for the snappy way it shot with .45 ACP, that polymer frame just can't handle the recoil very well. So I bought a .38 Super slide assembly and three 12-rd. mags, upgraded the trigger from milled-face to smooth-face and added ambi safeties.

But which would I rather have, an EAA in a weird caliber that's hard to find ammo for and won't shoot .45 ACP well plus only 8 rds. in a mag, or a Para 12-45 with a great trigger job? Mama didn't raise no fools and that decision is foolproof. I like .38 Super, but I love .45 ACP and I don't have a carry pistol in that caliber. I've got a full-size double-stack Llama IX-C that shoots great and holds 15 rounds of .45 ACP, plus a newly acquired Sig P220 .22LR that will get an upgrade with a .45 ACP slide assembly when I get the cash. But neither of those is a carry .45 pistol.

But a compact 12-rd. Para Ordnance .45 ACP has been on my gotta-have list for quite some time before this perfect condition used one showed up. The Witness .38 Super/.45 ACP is outta here.

In the meantime, I'll add that Para 12-45 to the layaway safe until I can raise the cash.

This S&W 686 .357 Magnum is just too pretty to shoot

Never thought I'd ever say this, but I've seen a Smith & Wesson revolver I don't want to buy. If you've been reading my ramblings, you know I'm a tried and true Smith guy. I love Smith & Wessons, revolvers, semi-auto pistols, all of 'em. I've had a few I sold or traded and I've regretted every one I let get away. At present, I'll have to think a bit to run down my S&Ws on hand.

Undoubtedly my favorite is the S&W 29-3, the Dirty Harry model .44 Magnum N-Frame 6-shot revolver with 4" barrel. It's a tad large and heavy for carry, at least for me. Famous gunwriter Clint Smith totes one as a pocket pistol, but he's a lot stronger and tougher than me.

Two of my favorite carry pistols are S&W M&Ps in .357 Sig, the commander-size 4.25" barrel and the subcompact size 3.5" barrel. And I also have a S&W 22A-1 .22LR target pistol.

The ones I regret are a S&W 19 .357 Magnum K-Frame revolver, a S&W 669 9mm subcompact and a S&W 21 .44 Special N-Frame 6-shot revolver, all of which I foolishly sold or traded away.

I feel like breaking out into a Sinatra song, "Regrets, I've had a few..."

But now I have done the seemingly impossible. Seen a Smith revolver I really don't want. It's a special edition distributor exclusive that will likely be purchased only by Smith collectors. It's the S&W 686 Gold-Plated Black Bear Tracks .357 Magnum that I listed on gunbroker today for the gun shop where I work. It can be yours for a mere $999.95.

As you can tell by the descriptive title and the photos, it's a stainless-steel S&W 686 with a special twist, gold-plating all over the place: "satin stainless steel frame with Black Bear Face etching on right side, gold-plated nonfluted 6-shot cylinder with Black Bear Tracks etched around face, gold-plated trigger, gold-plated hammer, gold-plated cylinder release, gold-plated ejector rod, checkered walnut fingergroove grips with silver S&W medallions" the auction says.

We also have listed on gunbroker a similar distributor exclusive with etched black bear tracks and face on the stainless finish, the S&W 629 .44 Magnum Bear Backpacker 2.5" Ported Barrel and I'd love to have it because it's intended to be actually shot by backpackers in bear country.

But this gold-plated 686 is not only too pretty to shoot, I'd hate to think what it would look like if some fool, like me, should actually shoot it. That fancy gold-plating would probably peel off like tin foil. Or even if it didn't, can you imagine trying to clean burnt powder off gold plating?

If the gunpowder didn't blow it off or burn it off, you'd scrub it off trying to clean up afterward.

Totally impractical, but then it's not intended to be practical, this is a collector's piece. And if somebody gave it to me, I wouldn't keep it for my collection because I don't have one. I don't collect guns, I shoot guns. And if by some miracle I did get one of these, I'd sell it so fast your head would spin. And take the money and buy me a genuine stainless 686 or another nice Smith.

Zeroing the S&W K-38 Target Masterpiece is work and fun

It's somewhat of a Labor Day analogy to say it took a bit of work to get my S&W K-38 Target Masterpiece Model 14-3 zeroed properly with my jacketed hollow-point load of choice. As I noted earlier, work ain't work if you're having fun.

The defense load I chose is the new Winchester Bonded PDX1 Jacketed Hollow Point Personal Protection .38 Special +P 130 Grain. Gee whiz Winchester, what a mouthful of a name!

But according to the reviews I've read this really is a new, improved defense round and Winchester will be retiring their Ranger law-enforcement SXT ammo and replacing it with this new PDX1, so it must really be good stuff.

So I bought a box and headed to the range with the 14-3, thinking it shouldn't take too much work to get it dailed in properly since I had already zeroed it with CCI TMJ 125-grain .38 Special +P.

Wrong again. Every load is different and though it may have been only 5 grains different in weight, the point of impact shifted a few inches with the PDX1. So I slowly dialed it in with the Bomar target sight rib the previous owner had installed on my 14-3. Emphasis on the word slowly.

The clicks on this Bomar sight can't be any more than 1/8" if that. But slowly, a click or two at a time, I brought the impact down and right until it was right on the money. Trouble was the clicks moved it so slowly, I blew a whole box of 20 rounds at more than $1 a round to get it zeroed.

I finally got it zeroed with that 8" bullseye target shown, shooting from a bench rest at 10 yards. The upper-left small bull was the final test with two shots hitting together.

Oh well, I work in a gun store and we sell more ammo with plenty of the PDX1 in stock at the moment.

And it ain't work if you're having fun, which is exactly what shooting my 14-3 is. But I gotta admit, it's a lot more fun shooting it with cheaper ammo. I also took along some of the cheap stuff and me and a shooting buddy enjoyed shooting that stuff up, too.

Now I gotta find me an old Smith snubby with a trigger like this 14-3 if such a wonderful .38 like that can possibly be found for a price I can afford.

K-38 Target Masterpiece is greatness in steel and walnut

I have beheld greatness, held it in my hands and shot it. And lo and behold, I bow at the altar of Smith & Wesson.

At the gun shop where I work, they have a counter full of classic handguns, Smith & Wessons mostly, and I liberated one of the unsung stars of that collection for a test run at the range Saturday. It really needed no test run, being a classic Smith, but if any doubt remained as to whether I'd be plunking down cash on the counter come Monday, all doubts disappeared with the first six shots.

I stood at 100 feet and lined up on a paper plate on a post, took aim offhand and let fly six shots. I figured if I hit the plate at all, it would be a good start. All six rounds of .38 Special +Ps went into the pie plate. I tacked up a bullseye target over the plate and three friends and I proceeded to burn up a box of 50 CCI JHPs. And the barrel was barely warm when the ammo was long gone. That target in the photo is the last six shots fired rapid fire offhand at 50 feet.

I forgot my real camera and I had to make do with my cellphone camera, so the real beauty of this S&W Model 14-3 doesn't shine through in the second photo. More to come later.

It's not a beauty queen, like some classic Smiths are that have been babied and pampered and spent their days resting in a gun safe with nary a blemish on their blue steel and walnut. This old warrior was made sometime between 1957 and 1981, when the Model 14 ceased production, and I strongly suspect it attended and maybe even won many of a bullseye competition during its working life.

It was sold to us in its present condition, most of the bluing gone but still sound as a hammer. (Sound as a dollar doesn't measure up to the standards of this classic Smith.) The cylinder locks up tighter than Dick's hatband and even when in the unlocked position with the hammer down, there is less wobble in it that almost every brand-spanking-new Smith I've ever handled.

It's got a Bomar target rear sight, Patridge front sight and Magna target grips that fill your hand. But that's not the good part. The double-action trigger is so smooth it's to die for, just to stroke it through its appointed path. And the single-action trigger? Well you cock it, you point it at the target and you think "Shoot!" and away she goes. Maybe 2 lbs., probably less. My digital trigger-weight gauge went Tango Uniform, so I can't verify that.

I can say this. Two fellow gun nuts of my generation handled this old Smith before we got to the range and both of them tried to buy it off me before we ever fired the first shot.

And both of them said the first single-action shot snuck up on them when they fired it off. I've got a Smith 29 with a 1 lb. 4 oz. single-action trigger, so I was ready for a light release. The Smith 14-3 isn't that light, but it isn't awfully far from it either.

Back in the pre-1957 days before S&W pistols got numbers, this Model 14 was called the K-38 Target Masterpiece and from the year of its manufacture in 1946, it dominated the bulls-eye target competition scene. In the postwar years up through the 60s, if you showed up at a bullseye match without a K-38, you might as well have stayed home.

It's indeed a target masterpiece in steel and walnut and I shall be proud to call it my own.

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.

Good news from an American industry that's booming

Now for some good business news. In case you haven't heard there are two companies on the blue-chip-stock index of American businesses that are doing just great, in fact spectacular business.

Take a wild guess.

I'll give you a hint. The two stock market acronyms in the chart at right are fairly easy to decipher, but I'll do it for you. SWHC is the famed Smith & Wesson and RGR is Ruger.

What a great time to be working in a gun store. Life is good. And the Good Lord takes care of fools and drunks and this ol' boy who got laid off from another industry job in January.

Another .357 Sig is being built for me in the Sig Custom Shop

Top photo is
step two in my new concealed carry campaign. Step one was my new Charter Patriot .327 Fed. Magnum with Crimson Trace Lasergrips. Step two is a special order I placed today through the gun shop where I work for a Sig P229 SAS Gen. 2 Custom Shop pistol with Sig-Anti-Snag carry treatment, Short-Reset Trigger, Night Sights, Stainless Slide, Custom Wood Grips and of course, it's a .357 Sig.

Sig Sauer's website says:

Quote:

The P229® SAS Gen 2, joining the recently updated P239® and P220® Carry versions, features a melt treatment on frame & slide, SRT Trigger System, short trigger, SIGLITE® Night Sights, and black polymer grips. The slide features an engraved SIG SAUER® Custom Shop logo. The Generation 2 SAS is available in a Nitron or Two-Tone version. The P229® SAS Gen 2 comes in 9mm, .357SIG, and .40S&W calibers. This P229 pistol from the SIG SAUER Custom Shop has gone through a radical dehorning process resulting in an ultra smooth, snag free profile that’s ideal for concealed carry.

The Sig rep said he could get the nice wood grips from the now-discontinued SAS Gen 1 shown in the photo above and put them on my order. "To Hell and Back Reliability" and beautiful, too!

Second photo is what I think will be step three of my plan, a Smith & Wesson Night Guard revolver. I'm mulling over three models, .45 ACP, 10mm/.40 S&W or .44 Special.

Third photo is probably an alternate, say step 3A, a S&W 632 Carry Comp Pro Series in .327 Fed. Magnum. I probably won't have the funds to get both the Night Guard and the Carry Comp, so it will end up being one or the other. For now. But before I do any of the above, I gotta sell off at least two and perhaps three of my current pistols.

Hanging out with the 'Baby Dolls' for the holidays

I've been too busy to blog for a while, but that's a good thing. I had some time off my regular job for the holidays, so I took a part-time job with a local gunshop to keep busy. As a certified gun nut, I shoulda been paying them but they paid me so I didn't argue. What I've been doing is taking photos of their guns for sale on gunbroker.com and posting the photos and info for sale.

I had shopped there and bought guns previously but had never seen what they call the "Baby Doll Counter," down on the pawn shop end of the business, away from the other guns. This counter is full of classic, mostly out-of-production revolvers, almost entirely Smith & Wessons and Colts. And there I saw for the very first time a Colt revolver I'd never seen, a Colt King Cobra .357 Magnum (above) in Colt's Royal Blue finish. See why they call 'em baby dolls?

They also have a Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum, two Colt Pythons .357 Magnum (0nly the blue one is for sale, the Stainless one is reserved for one of the owner's Christmas presents) and a Colt Diamonback .38 Special, none of which I had ever seen before in the flesh, so to speak.

Colt no longer makes any of these revolvers, the Single-Action Army being the sole survivor of what was once a lineup of some of the best revolvers ever made. But they sure knew how to name 'em, didn't they? The Diamonback'll bite you and the Python and Anaconda eat you alive.

On the other hand, you have Smith and Wesson, who used to have some great names, the K-38 Combat Masterpiece, the K-38 Masterpiece, the very first .357 Magnum, the .357 Registered Magnum, and of course, the original Military & Police .38 Special revolver.

And then some marketing "genius"/idiot at S&W decided all those great names had to go. In 1957, the above pistols became, respectively, the Model 15, Model 14, Model 27 and Model 10.

Really gives you the warm fuzzies, don't it? But they're still great pistols and being a Smith guy, I expect one of more of them will end up going home with me. First on my list is the .357 Combat Magnum, but I ain't giving you no link to that bad boy. It's mine, all mine. Get yer own.