John, The Head

After hearing about it from my Chief for some time now, I finally decided to pick up a Smith & Wesson 442 .38 Spl +P 5 shot revolver.

This particular weapon features an unloaded weight of 15 ounces, a 1 7/8″ barrel, rubber grips made by Uncle Mikes, with an alloy frame. The front sight is the standard blade type, and the rear sight is milled into the frame. The weapon is also “hammerless”.

My initial impression when I first looked at it was that it was very light yet still had a solid feel. Fit and finish was pretty good as well. The only “problem” is that the rear sight is pretty small, though if it were any bigger I would be complaining about the snag issues. Let’s face it, you don’t pull out a snub nose to make a 50 yard head shot.

My two most carried pistols tend to be a Sig P229 in .40 S&W and a Kimber TLE/RLII .45 ACP, neither of which are exactly light or compact. A year or so ago I picked up a Kel-Tec P3AT .380 ACP pistol for a “pocket gun”. Though it is a decent weapon, every time I put it in my pocket I think about the failures to feed that I had with it. Though few, it is a constant specter in my mind.

Though this revolver is significantly larger than the P3AT, it is also presumably more reliable. The muzzle energy on the revolver is a bit higher, with my current carry ammo being Speer Gold Dot .38 Spl +P 125gr. Despite the increase in size, it is still a comfortable weapon to carry, and fits well in my side or back pockets. I have ordered a ClipDraw to give me a few more carry options.

Another issue that I had with my P3AT was the injurious level of recoil that I experienced. I am, by no means, a “recoil sensitive” shooter. That being said, the P3AT with combat loads really kind of hurts. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, who concurred with my observation, which made me feel a lot less effeminate. When I first bought the P3AT I fired sixty rounds through it. Thirty from the right, and thirty from the left. I immediately observed bruising of my hand and swelling of the first and second metacarpal bones of both hands. The following day, my hands were tingling.

Granted, it is a “last ditch” weapon, and as such, I could really care less how much it hurts me to shoot, as long as it hurts the other guy at least a little bit more.

When I went to the range today to give this weapon a whirl, I decided to pick up some carry ammo (enter the above mentioned Speer Gold Dot) and some range reloads. I also had a box of Winchester .38 Spl +P 125gr Personal Defense that I picked up.

I began by running the target out to three yards and squeezing off five rounds as fast as I could with minimal attention (if any) paid to the sights. The +P ammo definitely let me know it was there, but the recoil was primarily into the center of my hand and well distributed. Muzzle flip was there, but wasn’t too bad. All five shots were in a nice little group of about four inches, all of which were handily kill shots. I then did a speed reload using an HKS 36 speed loader, which I am not entirely impressed with, firing the next five shots. The weapon is small, and while doing speed reloads I had the occasional cartridge that didn’t fall free of the cylinder, and I found it a bit harder to manipulate than my Smith & Wesson 686-4, which is an entirely unfair comparison, but I felt like throwing it in there to give fair warning–There is, after all, nearly 1/2″ difference in ejector rod stroke between the two weapons.

While working through various drills, I found the trigger pull to be acceptable, recoil to be controllable (your mileage may vary if you are recoil sensitive). Accuracy was to be expected. My 15 yard group was about 6.5 inches and was about five inches or so high. After firing 105 rounds my hands still felt okay, and I felt that the weapon was very controllable. The weapon also functioned flawlessly.

For the $429 I paid for this weapon, I am very happy. Revolvers tend to be highly reliable and I feel a lot better throwing this in my pocket to run to the corner store than my Kel-Tec. This will definately go on my weapon list during the next departmental qualification.

-Head