Any small 9mm revolvers out there worth buying?

[37th Mass]

I've been reading the 642 vs Bodyguard .38 thread, and getting an education J Frames, the Bodyguard and the LCR. I can see the appeal of a small revolver as a BUG.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a BUG in the same caliber as your primary pistol? I understand the difference between rimmed cartridges like the .38 Special and rimless cartridges like the 9mm, but haven't revolvers for rimless cartridges been done before? Even with moon clips, it would seem that a 9mm revolver could be useful.

When I search Gunbroker for 9mm revolvers, I see only a few Taurus, Astra, and Charter Arms models. I'm a little leery of them. Any thoughts?

[jlw]

My boss has a S&W 940 in 9mm, and we both qualified with it as a backup gun. It's a neat little package, but the trigger on this one could use some work.

[Tamara]

I'd not bother unless I could get a Smith. It will eat from moonclips.

I know that, for example, out of five Taurus 905IB's I sold in '05-'06, four had to go back to the factory. One came from the factory with so much endshake that the firing pin could not reliably reach the primer enough to more than faintly dimple it. An 80% defect rate does not fill me with confidence.

[98z28]

The 9mm small frame revolver seems like a great back up, but I would try and shoot one first. Believe it or not, the recoil from a 9mm is pretty intense when it is launched from a small revolver. And I'm not all that recoil sensitive.

The Smith 940 was THE back up gun in 80's according to the salty guys at my department. It is a great option if you can find one. They still seem to be popular so you shouldn't have any problem getting your money back out of it if you decide it doesn't work for you.

FWIW, I wound up sticking with a Smith 640 (357 mag) over the 940 because of the recoil issue.

[JHC]

Why hasn't the 940 re-appeared? Seems like a guaranteed winner? Especially now that S&W has developed the lightweight models to handle .357 pressure.

[TGS]

Why hasn't the 940 re-appeared? Seems like a guaranteed winner? Especially now that S&W has developed the lightweight models to handle .357 pressure.

Because people associate 9mm with being weak, whereas .357 Magnum and .38 git-r-dun.

It then blows their mind when they find out a 9mm+p defensive load recoils the same as a light .357 defensive load, because imagine that...they're the same.

[Tamara]

Because people associate 9mm with being weak, whereas .357 Magnum and .38 git-r-dun.

^This.^

Plus, auto cartridges and moonclips are a big turn-off to your average revolver buyer. Rimless revolvers are a niche market. (Which makes the fans of the 10mm Auto S&W 610 such figures of pity. If it's hard to find enough buyers of 9mm and .45 revos to justify the occasional production run, imagine the poor fans of the 10mm wheelgun, which are less common than left-handed Latvian Hindu jet pilots...)

[37th Mass]

Thanks folks for the replies. I did see one 9mm Smith on Gunbroker, but the price was crazy high. It would be much cheaper to buy a new J Frame or LCR and several boxes of .38 SPL ammo.

[NickA]

You can have a j-frame converted to 9mm for a few hundred bucks -
http://www.pinnacle-guns.com/revolver.asp

I have no personal experience with it though.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[gringop]

Because carrying somewhat easily bent moonclips in your pocket sucks when your life is on the line. All that fast reloading goes away when a bent clip means the cylinder won't close.

S+W has had a few production runs of 9mm J-frames they just don't sell for all the reasons that others have mentioned.

If only they had named them something like "The Magistrate"

Gringop