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still for wife
duckdog150
Member Posts: 6 ✭✭
lots of good advice,espicially liked the hole in recliner,are there lots of differences in revolvers or it just a brand thing?
Comments
Revolvers vary substantially in size, weight, & ease of firing. Some brands are made better than others; an inexpensive gun will probably not be made as well as an expensive one. Plus, personal experience has shaped the opinions of many of us. Most women do not shoot as much as men, so it's important that your choice be appropriate for your wife.
One of my lady friends decided to buy a Taurus for self-defense, but bought it without first asking my advice. She took it to the range, & found that she couldn't fire it double action; she has to cock it first --- not a good thing. She refuses to admit she made a mistake & trade it in, so she carries a gun that she may not be able to use.
I have heard from many Taurus owners how quickly they repair their guns & return them to you. However, most Colt, S&W, & Ruger owners will tell you their gun has never broken on them. I'd rather have a gun that I am confident will not break on me.
Most current revolvers have a heavy trigger pull. The only brand for which lighter replacement springs (by Woolf) are readily available is S&W. So, I tend to recommend to females that they get a S&W J-frame, & then have a spring kit installed, have the trigger smoothed, & put on rubber grips. Not expensive upgrades, but they make the gun a joy to shoot.
Most will disagree with me, but I give my girls wadcutters to shoot in their .38's for self defense. Low recoil, low noise, & no danger of chipping a finger nail. And, no perp will take 2 wadcutters to the chest & shake it off.
Neal
S&W Model 637, 5 rounds, 15 ounces. Impressive accuracy for a snubby.
The .38Sp+p has plenty of punch for personal defense, but she can still hang onto it; no problem with those Uncle Mikes grips.
If you must go american may I also suggest Ruger or even a used Colt Detective.
My two cents is this. I'm 48+ and am planning my gun purchases carefully for my retirement years. I had a S&W 60, 65(3" hvy bbl), 686(4"bbl) & a Taurus 417Ti. Sold the 60 about a year after I bought it ( too small, I'm 6'3" with big mitts) gave my 65 to my son who loved it since he was young (great gun) & who sold it for something else & regrets it. Would not part from my 686 but that Taururs weights 1 lb., 1 ounce (unloaded) & 7 shots. Used 357 loads with a 125 SJHP but does not kick at all. You almost feel the heavier grain bullets but the magnaport job it comes with really helps with controlling it. I use this as my self-defense gun with 38+P 125 SJHP with great accuracy. Autos may spit alot of ammo, but you leave shells behind. If you kill a lowlife who's friends would seek you out it be best to stick to a revolver. If you need to turn yourself in you would have the option. Besides if you have good control and aim one shot should do it. Also you are not dragging all that weight around and it's pretty concealable.
on the smiths.I found hers on GB for a steal at $325.
http://smith-wessonforum.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/500103904/m/228102718/r/208102818#208102818
The Taurus lock can't do that.
By D.K. Pridgen
Reprinted with permission from The Complete Book of Guns 2003
One area of handgun design where Taurus has excelled as of late is titanium revolvers. Why titanium? Steel, carbon or the stainless versions are an integral component of most modern firearms, and will surely remain so for years to come. The reason is simple. Steel is reasonably easy to machine, durable, and can handle the pressures and stresses of firing handguns. However, steel has two significant drawbacks for firearms, weight and propensity to corrode.
Over the years, this didn't seem that significant to me. One just carried a heavy firearm or chose one incorporating aluminum alloy, and kept the firearm clean and coated with a light film of oil. Simple!
More folks than ever are carrying legally, as the abundance of concealed carry licenses indicate. With that, one thing became immediately clear. Many soon found handguns bulky and heavy, quickly taking the enthusiasm for carrying to a lower level. A clamor for more compact and lighter handguns arose, and the firearms industry, seeing the market potential, responded with chopped versions of some models, and increased use of polymer and exotic metals in others.
Weighing in somewhere around two thirds the weight of steel, titanium has plenty of strength for handgun use, at a significant reduction in weight. With it incorporated in handguns the weapons weigh less than aluminum alloy models, withstanding the rigors of operation like steel. Not a bad thing! On the downside, titanium is more difficult to machine (and produce). This causes an increase in cost, one the consumer seems more than willing to pay. (For Taurus revolvers the difference is about $100.)
Gun Details
For a while, titanium construction was the purview of revolvers, but Taurus amended that with their PT 111 pistol, mating a titanium slide with a polymer frame. Despite that, the bulk of the Taurus Total Titanium designation resides on revolvers-revolvers such as the 651 SH2C, chambered in .357 Magnum that I received.
The matte finish five-shot revolver was really light! My wife snaked it from my hand, and commented on how much nicer it would be to carry than her all-stainless-steel snubby (17.3 vs. 25 ounces), and she went on to note that the .357 would deliver quite a punch. Maybe, I thought, but the punch might be noticeable on the shooter's end, too.
Despite that little thought, I had to admire how well Taurus had done on the 651 SH2C. The SH2C designation differentiates the Total Titanium version from its stainless steel brother, the SS2, and indicates that this snubby comes with the Shadow Gray matte finish. With that straight, I'll drop the suffixes and just go with 651 for the titanium model.
The 2-inch barrel includes three gas ports on each side of the integral front sight and a full-length underlug. The front sight is a 0.125-of-an-inch-wide ramp with glare-resistant horizontal grooves. In addition to the traditional milled groove atop the frame, Taurus has added a modified rear sight protruding slightly above the top strap; a round top, square notch, black blade, retained by a screw from the right side of the frame. This addition should compensate for the propensity of ported, fixed sighted revolvers to shoot low.
In addition to the traditional cylinder lockup point at the rear, Taurus has incorporated a spring-loaded detent system on the yoke. The cylinder latch received a nice amount of dehorning and is trimmed on the bottom to accept speedloaders. The ejector rod lacked sufficient length to push fired cases completely from the cylinder, but I had no difficulty getting ejection with .357 Magnum cases, utilizing the "muzzle to the sky and a snappy push to the ejector rod" method. Serial numbers, model numbers, Taurus' name, and so forth are laser etched into the titanium.
What sets the 651 apart from previous Taurus models is the concealed hammer's design. A large, integral hump extending from the back strap to top strap shields all but the serrated top of the reconfigured hammer. This nubbin also contains the Taurus Security System. While most shots will be taken double-action-only, with a modicum of effort it is possible to snag the hammer spur, drawing it back for a (hopefully) more precise single-action shot.
As befits a revolver intended for defensive mostly DAO shots, the trigger on the 651 is moderately wide with the face polished smooth. Applying ten pounds of pressure to this trigger caused the hammer to rise and fall, popping a primer. There was no stacking during the trigger stroke. The SA trigger pull was a crisp 2.5 pounds.
The effective boot grips are twopiece, black Santoprene, a synthetic, feeling similar to rubber. They enclose both the front and back straps, with an integral pebbling and finger grooves for enhanced control, leaving the square butt of the frame exposed. The fingerbanging area between the triggerguard and frame is filled, a swell at the top of the grips holds the hand away from the frame's hump, and the left side of the Santoprene grips are thinned to allow use of a speedloader. All are positive features.
Range Time
How was the Taurus 651 to shoot from the bench? Mildly put, it got my attention! Like shooting a big bore rifle from the bench, it can be done, but provides no fun. Even wearing a pair of Uncle Mikes shooting gloves did not prevent me from experiencing more recoil than I'd have liked. Still, I muddled through and tested seven loads.
Standing on my own hind legs, the perception of recoil dropped appreciably. The same is true of that big bore rifle. I found burning up about 50 rounds of .38 Special +P and .357 Magnum not that onerous of a chore, even without the Uncle Mikes glove!
This is a nice shooting snubby, dropping five single-action shots into 15-yard groups that measure 2 to 2.5 inches from the bench. That is certainly acceptable accuracy, given the short sighting radius and abbreviated sights on short-barreled handguns. Free-hand groups, fired DAO, as during a confrontation, will open up to over three inches for most of us. However, most of us will not be using the 651 to dissuade an attacker from 15 yards away, but from arm's length range.
I don't really care for porting on a defensive handgun. However, it is a definite plus for this lightweight revolver! And, on an even more positive side, the porting allows the use of any bullet weight and design.
I did my range workout from leather provided by High Noon Holsters. This was my first experience with these nice folks but surely will not be my last. Using an adjustable polymer paddle for attachment, their Speedy Spanky includes a tension screw for the triggerguard and excellent molding and construction. Also supplied for examination was their horsehide pocket holster, the Pocket Grabber, showing the same attention to detail and good design. A textured polymer is wrapped around much of the exterior to provide friction to keep it in the pocket during the draw.
What's a revolver without speedloaders, including the ultra compact Bianchi Speed Strip? I use all the applicable speedloaders on hand whenever I do a range test. This facilitates the accuracy/ velocity portion and provides an initial feel for how well the revolver and grips work with different models. When I move into extended testing, I continue to use speedloaders. I managed to put models from Safariland, HKS, and Dillon Precision (SL. Variant) to the test on this run. All worked flawlessly with the shorter .38 Special rounds, and also with the .357 Magnum ones. This is typical. The longer rounds usually need a tad more jiggle to slip in.
I took the opportunity to do an evaluation of a set of Crimson Trace's Laser Grips. Not surprisingly, as well as the 651's enhanced sights worked, putting the laser dot on the target and pressing off a shot is a tad more accurate. However, a brief discussion with CT's Mike Zoormajian led me to add two more wrinkles to the range exercises.
First, instead of static hole-punching, I worked out the 651 while moving, as one would during a confrontation, using the laser to guide my shots. Impressive. I returned one evening to repeat the efforts during low light. Equally impressive and deserving of a closer examination. It looks like my investigation of Laser Grips for defensive work has just begun. Just what I needed-another project!