Still carrying a 442 as a bug, but now in a Ritchie ankle holster.
Still carrying a 442 as a bug, but now in a Ritchie ankle holster.
I need to pick up a .327 LCR to play with. I love me some little .32 revolvers, but have had mixed results with the LCR; I got fed up with the clips for 9mmP and the 22 LR had a really heavy, not smooth trigger pulled compared to my .22 j-frames (at least they were heavy but smooth). Never owned a .38 spl either, so maybe one of those if I find a good deal.Originally Posted by RevolverRob
I used to see those ... ?Lone Star? 4 barrel 22LR with the sliding barrel assembly around here years ago in the pawn shops but never bought one. Those Colt single barrel .22 short ones used to be surprisingly popular / common around here back in the 80s. My experience with the COP .357 I had a long time ago turned me off on anything with multiple barrels and rotating firing pins. That said, if anybody brought our a replica Remington Eliot derringer in .32 long, or a replica Lancaster for that matter, I would probably have to buy one just to fidget with.
Last edited by revolvergeek; 02-01-2022 at 11:32 AM.
Thinking of https://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/HJS/hjs.html from Brownsville, TX. There was also a single shot 380 and recall Wiley Clapp reviewed it in Guns and Ammo way back when.
Funny story - I was in Florida for the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting in Fort Lauderdale. Since my mom was living in WPB, I decided to stay with her for a visit. On the last convention day, I saw a sign that the next day they were having a gun show at the convention center. Since I was staying over, I came down. Pretty pricey as compared to TX. Anyway, there was a table full of 22 LR HJS guns for $85.00 Being out of state - no go. The guy said he would do an FFL transfer but that wasn't worth it for an $85.00 gun. I was tempted to bring my mom down to buy one. However, explaining to an 80 year old woman why we were making a long trip for her to buy a gun - and the complicated was it going to be a gift, law entanglement possibilities - no way.
If the Iver Johnson gun comes out - maybe, just for Yancy grins.
Maybe they can make one in that new Federal Super Carry 30 cal. The old ones came in various 30's. Now that would be a fire breather. I recall Yancy shooting his Sharps at a tiger. However, I think his Native American friend with the double barrel was more effective.
What was the problem with the moonclips?
I've been thinking of getting a 9mm gun for use in ECQC. Though I have a buddy with a 9mm SP101 I could probably just borrow.
I kept beating them up, dropping and bending them. I kept trying to treat them like speedloaders and just carried them loose in pockets instead of getting carriers for them. Mostly me just being a idiot, but I was getting most of the bulk of a speed loader without the durability and got annoyed. I should have just dropped them into a pill bottle or got some carriers from Del Fatti
Hmm at $85 a pop I might have been tempted to have several of them shipped and con .. err.. I mean talk some of my coworkers and friends into buying them for snake guns with shotshells for yardwork. We have a lot of venomous snakes around here in the summertime....
I have never had any good luck with traditional derringer patterns. I have had several American Derringer company guns but they are too heavy /unsafe to carry, too slow to shoot and every one that I have had so far the barrels were not even close to regulated. I have a #1 in .38 spl that the barrels show over a foot apart at 10 feet. The .410 models were popular down here in the early 90s mostly as snake guns, but I think that they have been replaced by most people with the variety of 45LC/.410 revolvers available now.
After roughly 30 years of trying I just have never been able to find anything that works better overall for me for pocket carry than a ,38 spl j-frame (or quality equivalent) for balance of reliability / drawing / ballistics. I probably will more more to .32 mag / lighter loaded .327 mag at some point if I keep having problems with my thumbs, but still on the basic platform.
Yesterday's temperature was about five degrees Freedom with a windchill of -15°F (closer to -10° where I made my fire in some trees).
Across the brook was a ledge face with dangling globs of ice. The Ruger LCP in my daypack was plenty accurate enough to hit the baseball-size ice features, had enough grunt to kick them down, but the gun had failures to return to battery after shot one, shot two, and shot three. After that, it was warm enough to run. Also worth noting that the first ejected case went in a very unusual direction for that particular pistol and landed notably closer than the rest. I was a little surprised the slide had even moved rearward enough to catch the next cartridge.
The gun in an outside hand pocket of my jacket was a revolver. Trigger weight may increase a bit as the lubricant thickens but I've yet to have one not run; even in much colder conditions.
Going back to brass, I recovered three cases. A 43% brass retention rate does not make me happy in a long-term ammunition shortage.
That’s always been my concern with small autos. My experience with them is minimal, but between magazine feed issues, and the inevitable ingestion of the usual carry detritus, I’ve never viewed them as reliable. I tend to ignore my carry piece a bit, and for that reason alone the revolver gets the nod for me.
Working diligently to enlarge my group size.
I had an emergency appendectomy nearly 1 year ago that forced me to give up AWIB for a while so I needed another option. A local fun store had a 642 performance center with crimson trace grips. The two tone looks, polished trigger, and beveled cylinder forced itself upon me. I did a slight variation of the @Lost River j-frame grip mod, subbing in a Limbsaver archery vibration reducer for the leather strip. The laser grip helped me get acceptable hits while the grip mod made recoil manageable. Slipped into a Mika front pocket holster the thing is stupid easy to carry everywhere in anything. J-frame life became really easy.
Which is all rather ironic because the first gun I ever purchased was a 342 Ti. This was around the time that Her Majesty’s Redcoat S&W cut their deal with Slick Willie and the Arkansas gang. I ignored the boycott and got a “good deal” on the 342 Ti. But I couldn’t shoot it worth a darn, it hurt to shoot, so it stayed in the back of the safe. The only reason it was never traded off was because I figured it wasn’t worth anything or I forgot I had it.
Well, fast forward to my new born again J-frame life and it is time to replace the batteries in the 642 so I needed a backup. I pulled the 342 Ti out of the safe, put in an Apex duty kit, but some model paint on the front sight, did an @Lost River grip mod, and took it to the range. While the 642 prefers the 110 Hornady load, the 342 prefers Federal Gold Metal Match Wadcutters. The grip mod made it much more controllable and I was able to get acceptable hits.
In between all this I purchased a 43C “for my wife.” With the Apex kit it is the most fun firearm I have purchased in many years.
I need to get courageous and channel my inner @JCN and radius the cylinder release on the 642 and 342 so it stops opening up my thumb during recoil. However, another benefit of the @Lost River grip mod is that you can remove some hockey tap, wrap your bleeding thumb, and drive on.
All that to say, J-frames are fun and useful for me.
I ordered a 43C for my daughter’s birthday. She enjoyed shooting mine (and shot it pretty well for someone at her level)and thinks she could carry it more often than her Shield.
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