Attachment 118619
The UC442 arrived Wed. (Thanks JEC!) I took the side plate off and found no evidence of machining chips or anything else awry. The internals had been lubricated. The hand looks a little different than I remember last time I opened up a J frame. (Which has been some time ago, admittedly) I also noticed that the mainspring is painted yellow, I assume indicating it's significantly different than what we're used to on traditional J frames.
The trigger on this particular specimen is smooth. Remarkably so. I've had the chance to dryfire a couple of other UC's some clients received earlier in the year and this specimen's trigger is significantly smoother than theirs was.
I shot 125 grain Speer Lawman FMJ and some Federal Gold Medal Match 148 grain wadcutters. Both tended to shoot a little high of point of aim. My point of aim on the target here (wadcutters used) was center of the "heart" structure on the paper. That's 2.5 cylinders full of wadcutters shot at a realistic J frame pace (.5-.75 splits) at 7 yards with a target focus.
The revolver ran through about 150 rounds without issue.
Attachment 118620
Being the risk taker that I am, I bought two of them at the same time and took the risk that the BATFE isn't going to come around asking me about my nefarious plans to destroy the world by buying two compact revolvers at the same time. I mean, who knows what kind of dastardly deeds I'm capable of with a whole 11 rounds of fury carried on my person!
This is my first foray into the world of .32 H&R magnum. I purchased 500 rounds of MagTech .32 S&W wadcutters and 200 rounds of Lost River 100 grain .32 H&R magnum poly-coated wadcutters. I experienced 4 failures to ignite the primer in 75 rounds of MagTech and 2 in 50 rounds of Lost River. All lit on a second strike. I was hoping the Lost River ammo would be my carry ammo in this revolver, but I'll probably have to look at other options.
This revolver also had no chips or debris in the action, but the action was bone dry. I added lubrication and put the sideplate back on. The trigger on this specimen isn't quite as smooth as the 442, but still pretty good.
The recoil of shooting .32 S&W feels about like shooting a .22 magnum...hardly any noticeable recoil. Shooting .32 H&R magnum is spicier, but still
less than the 442 with wadcutters.
This particular specimen does not appear to like either load I tried in it, shooting both significantly off of point of aim. The point of aim for the target shown was between the eyes, and that fired with significantly more care than I was using for the 442.
If you are used to stacking the trigger on a revolver to shoot for maximum precision, you should be aware that these revolvers seem built to punish that practice. They steer really hard if there's any pause in your trigger press.
The stocks feel good in the hand...but in live fire they seem to squirm something fierce. If you use the Miculek J frame grip they hold still better, but if you use the traditional thumb-over-thumb grip without adding any isometric tension from the upper body they just squirm to beat the band.
Shooting both back to back, I would swear to you that the stocks on the two revolvers are different. Just grabbing the 442 off the table or out of the pocket I land in a better grip than the 632...and I can't tell you exactly why. I'm going to try different stocks on the revolvers and try these stocks on some of my other J frames to try and figure out what's up.
The sights are certainly highly visible...well, at least the front sight. If you just grip the gun hard, look through the sights and row through the trigger in one smooth, relatively quick motion the rounds will hold inside the black of a B8 easily out to 15 yards. You will find hunting X's difficult as the front sight is almost as big as the B8 at that distance. The sights on these are exactly the inverse of the sights on an older gun like my usual 638. The 638's sights are tough to see with any sort of target focus, but if you close an eye and find them they're very precise. These sights practically jump up and down to be noticed when you have a target focus, but it's difficult to judge where the front is at in the U notch of the rear. The tendency is to have the front sight elevated at least partially out of the notch when working at speed.
Given the way the gun squirms during recoil and trigger reset, the front sight tends to settle high anyway...so you have to be a bit careful. It's not quite like using XS big dots, but it's close.
It will take more work to dial in the right loads and get used to working with these...doubly so on the .32 as it's a completely novel chambering to me. .38 spl is the easy button if you already have .38 J frames and you're looking for the most plug and play option.