I have decided that I'll buy the S&W 640 and after that I'll see what other semi-auto pistols I could buy in future for possibly attendance and training for practical shooting competition matches locally - hopefully a semi-auto that could be carried as well (as far as I know they are based on IPSC rules etc).
I don't want to spam or advertise, but my decision about choosing the revolver got a lot easier after watching this video (I've been fallowing this channel for some time - good info on there):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVPiic-ELoM. It really gave me a perspective of the possible situations where I would be glad to be able to draw and fire if necessary.
Additionally I was walking with my pregnant wife around the block yesterday and we walked by a house which had gates open and a rottweiler standing at the gates. The thing was that the owner just drove his car inside the gates and was stupid enough to allow the dog to stay somewhere near... So we didn't see the dog until we went by the gates. Distance between us and the dog was something around 5-7 yards. Fortunately the dog was just standing and didn't even want to run out on us. This also gave me some perspective of whether I could have drawn a semi-auto, chambered a round if the dog would've attacked us - I understood that the revolver would have been the best thing if that would have happened.
Also I though about the reloading aspect. Law allows reloading for hunting and competition guns. I though that maybe I could buy some kind of cheap Taurus .38 Special revolver with long barrel and register it as a competition gun so I could load .38 Special rounds. That could work - I would carry factory ammo, but would practice at range with my reloads (say 80/20 - reloads/factory ammo). I would need to import .38 Special bullets (through some shop - they only have rifle bullets in stock), small pistol primers are available, powder is available (not for pistols though, but I could order the same manufacturers pistol powder from shops selling it) and I could collect my own cases. The question of course becomes would that be cheaper - it could same me possibly some 25% on ammo - did a little calculation of prices. Although that doesn't include my time... The biggest problem with this is the equipment. One shops has Hornady Lock-N-Load Classic Kit for sale and it costs 550$ (+ I would need to buy the dies separately which is additional cost). The price of me importing this kit from USA is a bit higher than this price. If there are cheaper kits available possibly I could get it cheaper. My calculations show that: Sellier & Bellot factory .38 SPL's cost 0,46$/pc., I could possibly reload for something around 0,35$/pc. not including the value of my time. So if I want reloaded round's price to stay pretty much the same I cannot add more than 0,02$/pc. from the investment needed from equipment (which is, lets say 600$). So 600$/(0,02$/pc.) = 30k rounds. If I can afford to shoot 60 reloads per months this gives me ammo for 500 months, which is 41 year and 8 months.... OMG, there is no way this is reasonable for me. The only way would be if I would reload for someone of something - but my time is too worthy of doing that so I don't see reloading as a real option for me. What do you guys think?
Today I noticed one of local shops selling a .22LR revolver (
Revolveri - Veikals medniekiem | ZOMMERS) which I could possibly buy to get some additional live fire training - cheapest .22LR stuff goes for around 0,10$/pc. locally - revolver shouldn't have any problems with the cheap stuff, or should it? This revolver costs 230$. If I buy this and disperse its cost to 40 months of training, I can afford to shoot 25 rounds of .38 Special and 50 rounds of .22LR monthly. Although it doesn't seem worth it - 50 rounds of the actual .38 Special seems money better spend, as from what I understand the main thing I'll be training in live fire drills is recoil control, as drawing, reloading, trigger control and aiming I should be able to train with dry-fire and airsoft drills (at least to some reasonable extent).
So in the end it seems that the best way to compliment my training could possibly be with an airsoft revolver... although it would cost me around 175$. From what I understand it would only give me some feedback for my shot placement, thus I would be able to train trigger control (if trigger is at least somewhere near to the actual trigger on the S&W 640) and aim (would see where my shots go on a target). The only other possible advantage would be to implement it in some force-on-force training which I could try to set up in future with my friends. What do you guys think - is it really worth spending 175$ for an airsoft revolver or would I be better of with spending that money for additional 380 rounds of .38 Special, which I could split up and add to my monthly training ammo or just use at my first few live fire training sessions to boost my initial development?
P.S. On of the "Lucky Gunner" articles was about S&W 640 Pro. Article suggested a good modification for the trigger -
https://store.apextactical.com/WebDirect/Products/Details/192058. What do you guys think about it - should I change the springs in that S&W 640? Of course before that I'll try measure how heavy is the trigger on that S&W 640 and possibly then I could lighten it by these springs. Will it still be heavy enough to not cause any problems (safety wise) while carrying? On top of that I'll see if there are any gunsmiths locally and if they could actually convert that S&W 640 .357 Magnum to 9x19 with moonclips - this could come in really handy. Although I'm not sure law allows such modification - will need to verify this. Also not sure if there are any moonclips for 9mm for cylinder of S&W 640. I could possibly design them myself and find a steel manufacturer (some small local shop) who could cut them for me on CNC.
P.S.S. It seems that there will be problems to find online shops from where to order Safariland Comp 1 speed loaders and speed strips (possibly some pouches for speed loaders and maybe something more). Problems are related to international shipping. Anyhow I wonder if there would be someone who could possibly help me with ordering stuff (thus with shipping it to me)? I'm not sure how exactly it would work out but if there is someone who would gladly help I'm sure we could figure a way. That would be especially good because one could send it as gift of something else without adding an invoice to it, so I wouldn't have to pay that extra 21$ tax for my goods.
Anyway, thank you guys - I wouldn't have been able to come this far with my limited amount of knowledge without your help - I really feel that I've already learned a lot in this journey of handgun world.