I can imagine that a short-barreled 38 Special may have some merit as a concealed weapon..... But a lot of these short-barreled magnums seem wildly impractical to me. And actually shooting some of them appears to be more of a stunt, to me, than anything resembling useful. For example, the, "Mag-na-port 'Combat Mini' S&W M29-", in post #15, while it looks like a piece of fine workmanship, I would have no desire to actually shoot it. Especially not with real magnum loads. It's a piece of art. Some of these could even be dangerous to the shooter, with way too much horsepower to weight ratio. Some may sell well, primarily due to the, "cool-factor", that can be generated in the minds of the potential customers. Like the rumors I've encountered about how it can be fashionable at some Texas barbecues to wear a beautiful gun that is to be seen and perhaps shown, but seldom if ever fired.