Blindsided by S&W 43C

[Polecat]

These little J frames in .22 mag do seem a bit “delicate,” maybe not the right word, but very little tolerance for dirt etc. For example, some brands of ammo stick worse than others, often impeding ejection. Long range sessions can leave powder flakes and resdiue under the ejector star and hamper the pull after you close the cylinder without realizing why it seemingly binds at times.

But hey I love ‘em. They are really light weight, even fully loaded. Gives you 7-8 shots. I use mine mostly for quick late evening trips, cauese it is so easy to tote around. I am reallly leaning toward the 43C.

[JHC]

These little J frames in .22 mag do seem a bit “delicate,” maybe not the right word, but very little tolerance for dirt etc. For example, some brands of ammo stick worse than others, often impeding ejection. Long range sessions can leave powder flakes and resdiue under the ejector star and hamper the pull after you close the cylinder without realizing why it seemingly binds at times.

But hey I love ‘em. They are really light weight, even fully loaded. Gives you 7-8 shots. I use mine mostly for quick late evening trips, cauese it is so easy to tote around. I am reallly leaning toward the 43C.

I love my 351C. It's been very powder residue tolerant with weekly shooting albeit not the kind of volume my big pistols get. But more tolerant than my 50 year old K-22. I will count myself fortunate. A 43C will have to be in the cards too.

[Bratch]

I was able to put some rounds through the 43c today at lunch. I’m really liking it.

This little thing can shoot even if I can’t. This was 8 rounds at 15yds and 8 rounds at 25 yds. That dot is really big at 25. I’m still trying to figure out the elevation but overall pretty pleased with it.

Picture is rotated left. The rounds were hitting high.

[Wheeler]

I was able to put some rounds through the 43c today at lunch. I’m really liking it.

This little thing can shoot even if I can’t. This was 8 rounds at 15yds and 8 rounds at 25 yds. That dot is really big at 25. I’m still trying to figure out the elevation but overall pretty pleased with it.

Picture is rotated left. The rounds were hitting high.

In my experience the dot covers the head on a SQTA-1 target. It also shoots to point of aim at that distance with Mini Mags. At 100 yards I aimed about 6" high at the top of a steel plate and hit it once out of eight shots.

[Bratch]

In my experience the dot covers the head on a SQTA-1 target. It also shoots to point of aim at that distance with Mini Mags. At 100 yards I aimed about 6" high at the top of a steel plate and hit it once out of eight shots.

I was covering the blue with the dot on those. Also was shooting Remington Golden bull which probably isn’t the most consistent.

[johnnywitt]

Couple of things, first off, I don't wanna make anybody mad here, but the 351 just gives you 1 less round, way more blast/flash, expensive ammo, and gives realistically no more velocity outta that barrel length than the 43c- longer barrel length and the .22 Mag is a way superior round- kinda like a .357 in a 2" J Frame.
The 43c, however, is money with a Wolff Spring Kit and some CCI 36GR Mini Mags. Counter intuitively, out of the 2" barrels they give some of the best penetration because they essentially don't expand and they actually beat the penetration of the 40gr ammo. There's a video on YouTube of a guy testing .22 out of a NAA Mini Revolver in FBI Gel.
I own 2 of the N/L 317's and they are really nice understudy to a 342. I like them for hiking/backpacking in snake country with CCI Shotshells and for putting down big game animals that are wounded. Some of the SV and non standard ammo will not shoot POA/POI. I think S&W Regulated the sights (at least on the 317) for HV 36GR Ammo IMO.
Also, I have a 3" barrel S&W 63 and I'm pretty sure that you could swap out that Big Dot front for the Hi-Vis that comes on the 63 (you don't have that option on the 317's).
Well, time to drink a beer!
Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

I just wanted to recap here on the 351c. I was wrong about the .22Mag in the 1 7/8" barrel. It does give more blast and flash, but it gives you .22LR Rifle velocities. The only drawback is the price of the ammo. I guess the upside is you can still buy ammo for this caliber at Wally World.

[jtcarm]

I think youll like it. I had a glass shop cut me a piece of 1/4" glass about 6x8 inch, they sand the edges to make them safe. Be sure they understand it isnt for a window or they may not sand it at all. i asked for minimal sanding, just enough to make it safe to handle. I told them it was for polishing small gun parts and I wanted to be able to get into a corner as tight as I could. They did a fair job. It may be worth asking to leave one side nearly unsanded (JUST barely enough to be safe), and do the other 3 a bit more for handling comfort. It makes a perfectly flat surface to work parts on. Ive noticed my stones wear unevenly over time, the glass and wet-or-dry ended up working very well. I cut pieces of the paper in sizes adequate for what I'm working on.

If you want to go slow, use finer grade paper and keep checking it. You need to keep changing the area you work on or get a fresh piece of paper pretty often. A couple sheets of each goes a long ways though. If you cut it up into smaller pieces, write on the back of each piece what the grade is. Its easy to lose track.

Besides a nail, you can also use the shank of various size drill bits, chucked in the drill backwards for polishing holes. Ive been doing that for an AR rifle barrel extension opened up for M4 upper to match the ramps.

I use pieces of Corian as a lap plate.


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[jtcarm]

Yellow drywall anchors are universal in the rimfire world. But they don't feed very well in semis.

Tipton Snap Caps 22 LR

22lr Plastic Safety Snap Caps/24 Pachmayr 3200

They wear out pretty quickly, though. This is one reason I have the habit of being on mailing lists and stopping in the local Academy when I'm driving by. Snap caps are one of the things that sometimes are discounted massively.



Agree with the Ruger advice. Mine came out surprisingly nice.

I like to use the small-diameter stones. They are dedicated for working on guns, so they don't get worn out doing other stuff. I use baby oil because it's cheap and doesn't hurt anything when it gets on my skin. Dispensed from a needle tip bottle. I picked up most of the stones from Enco before they were absorbed by MSC Direct, when they would have significant discounts site-wide and free shipping with no minimum.

Midway sells a set that is almost identical to the one Brownell's sells, for about half the price. It's rare that I buy anything from Brownell's, as they are usually the most expensive place to buy anything they sell.

You can get that set, plus the same thing in a coarser grit that will knock down the big lumps and rough edges a little faster, from Zoro tools. Good vendor, I use them a lot. They also sell through ebay. They often have hardware that's difficult to find anywhere else, and if you get on their mailing list, they sometimes have substantial site-wide discounts.

+1 on Zorro. That’s where I buy my stones.

Good prices & fast shipping.

[TCinVA]

I would strongly encourage anyone who's carrying one of these rimfire revolvers in .22LR to get yourself some Federal "Punch" ammo for it. The testing I'm seeing seems to indicate it reliably penetrates to FBI standards...and the accuracy even from these little snub revolvers is excellent. This is my last 4 rounds of the box at 25 yards:



It's likely more accurate than that, but my ability to manage the sights on that gun isn't good enough to achieve a better result. I would expect that Federal will eventually produce a .22 WMR version as well.

It seems to burn cleaner as well, cutting down on fouling which allows the revolver to run better through a larger number of rounds fired during a practice session. Even so, the revolver will eventually get dirty enough to bind up and impact the trigger weight and that leads to pulling shots off target:



The cheek shots and the almost pierced ear are a direct result of the trigger weight suddenly increasing dramatically from one shot to the next.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

I love my 351C. It's been very powder residue tolerant with weekly shooting albeit not the kind of volume my big pistols get. But more tolerant than my 50 year old K-22. I will count myself fortunate. A 43C will have to be in the cards too.

That's interesting. Historically - I had a SW 651 way back in the 90's, IIRC. That's a 2 inch SS hammered gun. After 50 rounds of some 22 Mag - who knows what - it jammed up solid with gunk. I had to use a tsunami of a cleaning spray to free it up and then take it apart. I noted that when I shot it at 7 yards, it left a cloud of black on the paper targets. Don't know if today's ammo would do such. I sold it - wish I kept it just because but I needed the bucks and didn't want to deal with the ammo issue. I had a SW 317LS and hated the trigger. Also needed the money and sold it. Sidebar, took it to the local, pompous ass LGS who offered me a terrible low ball saying: It's a uuuuuusssed gun! So took it to the gun show for $100 bucks more in a sale. His store went under quickly.