Looking for some advise on a revolver purchase, but first - a little background.
I have posted some of these questions before, but for different reasons, and lack of funds have prevented me from taking any action. However, I now have both the funds and a good reason to move forward.
I currently carry a G26 IWB as a primary (and usually only) gun. I will occasionally carry a 642 no lock as a second gun (on my ankle and tuned by Denny Reichard, but more to be given to my wife or daughters in an emergency or for a secure way to carry a spare gun when I travel on business throughout my state).
I am not in LE.
My 642 is loaded with Federal 148gr WCs. They shoot to my sights with little recoil, offer good penetration, and are easy for my wife and daughters to use as well.
I have little confidence in any HP consistently opening up when fired through barriers from a 2” barrel, the recoil from a +P out of an air weight slows down my followup times and/or opens up my groups, and DocGKR has stated that a HP which fails to open up causes less wounding than a full WC. This has lead me to move away from my original 135gr +P SBGDs and start carrying the WCs.
However, some recent injuries along with trying to read the political tea leaves have caused me to consider a scenario where I could not use a semi-auto handgun. Either I no longer have the physical strength to properly and safely manipulate one (load mags, rack slide, control recoil) or perhaps new laws will remove from consideration any semi-auto action.
Should either of these scenarios occur, I would rather have my preferred alternative in place and ready to carry rather than begin the process of looking for, and possibly not finding what I want.
This new revolver would be carried in a belt holster (IWB or OWB) and would replace my G26. I would then likely be more religious about carrying my 642 as a 2nd gun.
I could carry another 642. I already have one that has also been tuned by Renny Reichard, but while I am confident in the WCs on a 2nd gun, I would prefer my primary have something with a little more authority. One of my concerns is shooting through auto glass. While I do not envision having to shoot from the outside of a car in, I can envision being forced off the road and having to shoot from the inside out. A heavy bonded JHP makes more sense here than a soft lead WC. Even if the JHP doesn’t open up, it should still penetrate better (or so I understand it).
With all this in mind, I am looking at a revolver with one or two features that my 642 doesn’t have - more weight and/or more barrel.
More weight would dampen the recoil of a +P and offer faster follow up shots (putting me where I am now with my 642 and WCs), and more barrel would help the HP to reach high enough velocity to encourage expansion.
A 6th round would be a plus, but to go this route I would either need a much heavier platform (GP100 weight) or go with one of the newer models (Kimber or Colt). The Ruger 3” GP100 interests me, but it’s a lot of weight to start EDC, while the newer options are just that - new. I do not want to be a beta tester and both companies do not exactly have a stellar reputation for QC.
No one has a stellar QC reputation anymore, but at least Ruger and Smith have options out there that have been fielded for a long time.
For these reasons I am leaning towards a no lock 640 Pro, a 2” DAO SP101, a 3” SP101 converted to DAO, or an old (like 30 years old) 3” adjustable sight S&W Mod 60 (again converted to DAO).
The 2” 640 Pro and the 2” SP offer easier carry and enough weight to dampen the +P 38s I would start loading in the gun. I have no intention of loading them with magnums.
The 3” SP offers weight and extra barrel, but would be more expensive (I would need to send it out to bob the hammer and DAO it), and I suspect the longer barrel will be a little harder to carry (especially IWB).
The 3” M60 is not +P rated and would be the most expensive option (the initial purchase price plus having Denny Reichard work on it - well worth it but still expensive). My biggest concern with the M60 are the adjustable sights and the lack of +P rating. I prefer fixed sights on this kind of gun and I would practice with it frequently. I practice with ammo similar to what I carry.
I am also not sure if the extra inch offers enough velocity boost to really enable HP expansion. The negatives of a longer barrel (harder to carry IWB and more barrel for an assailant to grab) may be more significant than the slight increase in ammo performance that an extra inch provides.
The Ruger LCR series has some nice features, especially the trigger, but there is something about the LCR that I don’t like. I can’t really articulate what it is, but there is something about them I don’t like.
A 9mm revolver has occurred to me. Both the LCR and the SP101 can be had in 9mm. I would think the performance of the 9mm would be superior to a +P .38, but I have heard of frequent extraction issues, and if the moon clips bend the gun can be rendered useless. Also, any spare ammo carried in moon clips just looks flimsy and easily dislodged. I suspect 9mm is not the way to go in a wheel gun.
Anything with an internal lock is out. A used pre-lock K-frame or S-series Ruger is likely to be way too expensive, even before I DAO it.
Any suggestions on my thought process or on the options I am considering (or other options I hadn't considered) will be appreciated.
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Originally Posted by Moonshot
