One of my most favorite guns to take to the range is the LCR9mm. As a Pocket gun enthusiast I love shooting short barrel firearms. When the LCR9mm came out, I jumped on it. Horrible shot at first. But I loved the challenge. And I knew it would require a lot of practice and 9mm for me was the answer. I always have thousands of it on hand, reload it and buy in bulk. And I like the ballistics, which continue to improve all the time.
I also wanted the gun to have the well built Stainless steel tank build. No more cheap aluminum on a gun that I get a lot of range time.
It was a perfect caliber for myself. RECOIL IS NOT HARSH BUT ON THE FUN SIDE JUST BEFORE BECOMING UNPLEASANT. I had shot the 357 and for me, it was out of the question. Just way to harsh, actually brutal. I knew I would never get the amount of training in one session that I needed.
I love the Moon clips. Once I start using them, I never looked back. And so much cheaper than speed loaders. I normally load up 40 of these before each range session. Makes range time easy.
Recoil 9mm vs 357
Genitron list the recoil using the 'Standard Recoil" of the 357 around a scale of a whopping 19 vs around 7 for the 9mm. So the recoil is a huge difference. About the same or just a little more than the LC9S semi auto. The 9mm is also much more quiet, and None of the flash of the 357.
I go to the range at least once a week. I wanted to further my competence with the LCR snubbie,
so a practical buy was the LCR22. Just received it last week and I have to say, it is just down right fun to shoot. A perfect trainer.
Do not let the internet junk of the 9mm jumps crimp. Yes, at first I had to find out what the gun like and the gun does not like some cheap range ammo. Yet it will have plenty of ammo that is totally reliable. I have not had a crimp jump in thousands of round and my favorite is American Eagle for range time.
Yes, the LCR or Snubbies is a acquired skill and you will have to put in your time training. But once you do, they are very fast and accurate. Easy to carry. And they are just downright fun to shoot. Ruger did this one right.
http://www.genitron.com/Compare-Handguns