Close quarters self defense

[Glaciers]

Well I shoot a Rossi 3” with adjustable sights, a CA Bulldog 3” fixed sights which Karyn snapped up and it’s “her gun” period. The Rossi is a heavy 5 shot, seems well made. Got the CA and the Rossi back in the 80’s, can’t really remember, been a while. I really like the model 60 Lady Smith and the Ruger SP 101 in 357 stuffed with 158 or 180 soft points.
I trust the 357 non hollow point more than the 44 spl. A bears head is like an engine block and the 357 can deal with that pretty reliably.

 

[JustJim]

For a brief time I had an S&W similar to the one Ben posted. I polished the trigger face, chopped the hammer spur, and converted it to DAO. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of showing it off to a cop-buddy who wanted it for a retirement gift for his partner. Can't remember what he traded me.

Glaciers, I've got a jacketed load for my SP101 that will go in a steer's forehead and bust up several vertebrae. I've never had a 44 Special load that would do that.

The right load in a 45 Super will--my old boonie-load put 7 of 8 rounds through a 300+ pound black bear. The last shot (I think) entered the chest, took out a vertebra, and exited the top of the skull.

 

[Jeff H]

Well I shoot a Rossi 3” with adjustable sights,...

M720? I've had two of them and they were very nice guns with excellent DA and SA triggers. Well put together too. I eventually traded off the first one, because I always ended up carrying the Bulldog.

The second one came by way of asking my dad to cover my table at a show one morning when I knew I was going to be late. The guy at the next table sold it to him. The guy at the next table knew I liked 44 Specials and tried to sell it to ME the day before. "Nope, trying to pare things down... and you're not helping." He understood and didn't mention it again.

So, before I got to the show, my dad bought it from him because he knew I'd want it, but didn't know I already passed on it and the guy didn't know what he was up to. When I showed up, and as my dad was leaving, he took it out of his pocket and handed to me, winks and says "take your time paying it back." I didn't have the heart to tell him.

I held onto it for a few years and my brother saw it and wanted it. Now he has it.

 

[Glaciers]

Glaciers, I've got a jacketed load for my SP101 that will go in a steer's forehead and bust up several vertebrae. I've never had a 44 Special load that would do that.

That is exactly why I carry the little 5 shot 357’s around the homestead, penetration. If I’m going out into the country side I will carry aS&W 4” model 29 with healthy 300’s pushed relatively hard. If I’m going into big bear country I carry a SRH 5.5” 480 with 410’s.
But, first choice is a rifle.

 

[oscarflytyer]

I carry a few dif ones. Summer - 380 LCP. Winter (til recently) Shield 45. Both with extra mags. A Star 9 BM on rare occasions. But lately, and because I have found a very good pancake leather provider, I am carrying more wheelguns.

If I want to go super light, Taurus 6x 38 (think outside pocket LCP). But I also recently got a Ruger Redhawk (heavy!) 45 Auto/45 Colt. In the good holster it carries VERY nicely! Winter time I can carry very concealed. I love it. It is way bigger and heavier than Ben's 44 Snub, but I love it.

Also have a cpl 38/357 4" that carry basically same in the good leather I found, and conceal well.

PS: for good leather pancakes, check out Azula Holsters. Brand I am using and very happy with.

 

[Glaciers]

Yeah Jeff a Rossi 720. I like it.

 

[Missionary]

We are down to two Rossi 720s and happy to have them...The 5 shot 44 Special is a fine get-together idea.
The Ruger is a heavy beast but will digest any load.
I have seen one cracked frame S&W. But I would buy one when I find some gold.

 

[richhodg66]

A little off topic, but I noticed a while back that Charter Arms made a Bulldog variant with a 6" barrel and asjustable sights, I wouldn't mind having one of those in the least.

 

[Glaciers]

I’ve seen the Bulldog 4” with adjustable sights, my BIL has one, it’s a nice pistol. It does look a little awkward, can’t imagine a 6” Bulldog.

 

[Bret4207]

May not be the best choice to take out 7 or 8 , but 1 or two bad guys are in dire straights with this one !! !

Chances are if you even show the gun all 8 of them will beat feet.

 

[Bret4207]

Glaciers, I've got a jacketed load for my SP101 that will go in a steer's forehead and bust up several vertebrae. I've never had a 44 Special load that would do that.

You aren't loading it heavy enough or you're using the wrong bullet, or both. I had a 429421 backed by 6.5 Unique (a mid range load) go in the front of the skull of a cow and out the neck.

 

[Winelover]

One word shotgun, preferably 12 gauge.

Wouldn't mind a Taurus/Rossi in 44 Special. Scarce as hen's teeth. Wish they would reintroduce them. We have a couple of local Taurus dealers. Never nothing in stock but 38's. Recently, tried to order a Taurus snub-nosed 22 LR, was told impossible to get. Found out the same on the internet. So, I went with the CA Pathfinder.

Lightest 44 Special is the 2.50" Bulldog at 21 ounces, unloaded. It's handful, even with moderate loadings. I limit my self to 2-3 cylinder full at a session. But it's a joy to carry. It's my backup bowing hunting piece.

Wish someone would come out and compete with CA in the lightweight large caliber market. Hint, hint............Ruger (LCR).

 

[Jeff H]

I’ve seen the Bulldog 4” with adjustable sights, my BIL has one, it’s a nice pistol. It does look a little awkward, can’t imagine a 6” Bulldog.

Hmmm, I know I'm weird this way, so take this for what it's worth, but I've always thought the lines of the 4" "Target" Bulldog were great.

I just let my last one go a year or so ago. It FELT even lighter than the 3" and was an amazing companion while working outside. Never noticed it on my hip.

My dad, when he had access to the machines, would mill that amorphous front sight off, mill a slot for a proper, hardened steel sight and pin it in with two pins. HUGE difference. As for the rear sight, I finally cured that last summer by making a screw-on FIXED rear with some real definition on the inside edges of the rear notch.

I should NOT be doing this, but I've been stalking a 4", Stratford production Police Bulldog 38 with the tapered barrel and fixed sights on an auction. The Police Bulldog was a six-shot 38 on the Bulldog frame. I've always seen these as having utterly classic revolver lines and they just fit and feel like a revolver should - to me.

I do wish at times I'd kept the ones I had and had bought more of them when I could. The Strattford production guns, and most of the Bridgeport guns were great guns.

HOWEVER, if you was a really nice, classy, "Smith-like" compact 44, the Taurus and Rossi revolvers were great guns. I was no fan of the fluteless-cylinder Rossis, and both of mine had flutes. Their muzzles were a bit clunky, aesthetically, and Taurus really beat them on that point with the properly sculpted muzzle and underlug.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

View attachment 31915 One word shotgun, preferably 12 gauge.

Wouldn't mind a Taurus/Rossi in 44 Special. Scarce as hen's teeth. Wish they would reintroduce them. We have a couple of local Taurus dealers. Never nothing in stock but 38's. Recently, tried to order a Taurus snub-nosed 22 LR, was told impossible to get. Found out the same on the internet. So, I went with the CA Pathfinder.

Lightest 44 Special is the 2.50" Bulldog at 21 ounces, unloaded. It's handful, even with moderate loadings. I limit my self to 2-3 cylinder full at a session. But it's a joy to carry. It's my backup bowing hunting piece.

Wish someone would come out and compete with CA in the lightweight large caliber market. Hint, hint............Ruger (LCR).

S&W did make the 396 Nightguard in 44 Spl. with a 2.5" barrel. Good luck finding one.

Charter Arms and Taurus are about the only manufacturers that were able to pull off the trifecta combination of an affordable DA 44 Special revolver, with a barrel less than or equal to 2.5” and a cylinder that wasn’t overly fat.

In my world, a snubnose must have barrel of 2.5” or less to qualify as a snubnose.

If you add 44 Special chambering to that criterion, the choices get pretty slim. Technically a S&W model 24 or 624 with a 2.5” barrel would qualify as a snubnose, but that fat N-frame cylinder is getting rather unwieldy. There’s just not a lot available that checks all the boxes.

The L-frames can be had in 44 Special or 44 Mag (remember the 696?) but the shortest factory barrel in the 696 was 2.75” AND it was built on a steel L-frame.

I like the concept of a snubnose 44 Special but the options are far from numerous.

 

[KeithB]

I have a 296 - a hammerless scandium L-frame - that I carry in the winter. Don't know the weight but it's pretty light. It wears Crimson Trace grips so it's set up identically to my Scandium J frame which is my summertime carry piece. I'll try to find a photo somewhere.

 

[Winelover]

S&W did make the 396 Nightguard in 44 Spl. with a 2.5" barrel. Good luck finding one.

In my world, a snubnose must have barrel of 2.5” or less to qualify as a snubnose.

In my world, they must also be hammerless!

Besides being rare.................and thus expensive, the 396 Nightguard has a exposed hammer. Light weight pistols should be pocketable.

 

[Jeff H]

In my world, they must also be hammerless!

Besides being rare.................and thus expensive, the 396 Nightguard has a exposed hammer. Light weight pistols should be pocketable.

Not exactly hammerless, but Charter did the best job of the three "affordable" numbers (and many more expensive ones) with a spurless hammer, which does not give up the mass of a spurred hammer. On the small frame, short-swing hammers, you often end up with heavy DA triggers because of the stiff hammer springs required. I think Taurus falls down badly on this, having moved the firing pin to the frame, adding a transfer bar and lightening the hammers with MIM parts with intentional voids cast into them.

You soak up some momentum with the in-frame firing pin, and took that mass off the hammer as well. Then you soak up more momentum with the transfer bar, make the hammer lighter for its already short swing and you're stuck with a very stiff DA trigger just to get the primers to go off.

The older Taurus models, weren't especially tiny, so they had decent DA triggers. The Rossi (again) was the nicest out of the box, and Charters have very good DA and SA triggers, but if they don't, it's easy to get them there. Charter parts seem to be through-hardened, but current Taurus parts seem surface-hardened, so I won't touch the sear/sear notch on those and am very careful about smoothing anything else.

But, back to the bobbed hammer on the Charters, they still have the one which rearranges the mass instead of just lopping it off. Watch for those and grab them if you see them. OH! And there were earlier/not so late (earli-mid-eighties) stainless, 3" Bulldogs that had STAINLESS grips frames. Watch fro those too. I KNOW, I HAD them, so there was at least three made that way.

 

[Winelover]

Not exactly hammerless, but Charter did the best job of the three "affordable" numbers (and many more expensive ones) with a spurless hammer, which does not give up the mass of a spurred hammer. On the small frame, short-swing hammers, you often end up with heavy DA triggers because of the stiff hammer springs required. I think Taurus falls down badly on this, having moved the firing pin to the frame, adding a transfer bar and lightening the hammers with MIM parts with intentional voids cast into them.

Yep, my two 342 J-frames have heavy triggers. However, Ruger got it right with their hammerless LCR. I have one in 357 Magnum. So it's not unattainable. My Bulldog is the shrouded version..............better trigger than the two Smith's.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

In my world, they must also be hammerless!

/\ Totally Agree !! /\

At least no hammer spur.

 

[Jeff H]

Yep, my two 342 J-frames have heavy triggers. However, Ruger got it right with their hammerless LCR. I have one in 357 Magnum. So it's not unattainable. My Bulldog is the shrouded version..............better trigger than the two Smith's.

The LCR/LCRX is an anomaly - INNOVATION. It was good to see someone do a DA from the ground up, and they did it right, as it's not just a curiosity. Previous to that, I think it was Charter who turned things with innovation, though borrowed from a couple other older designs, it was done well. Ruger borrowed from Charter and did what Charter did with High Standard, by improving, though Ruger really beefed everything up. Ruger did the world a service in implementing the trigger-group, as Charters can be a bit of "fun" to put back together.

It was a long time coming, but the LCR concept was a breakthrough. I wish they'd make more 357s and some 44s. The concept could be upsized a little for the 44 and still be a great trail gun. Danged if they haven't gotten expensive though! I got the 38 LCRX not long after they came out and paid $400.

Being a 3" with adjustable sights, I'm OK with having a hammer on it though. It's physically large, even though it weighs nothing, so, not like I'd carry it in a pants pocket.

I would be very interested in how bulky a 44 Special LCR/LCRX would be, but I don't think I'd be ashamed to carry one.