I have a
S&W 65LS which I absolutely love. It is smaller, lighter and handier than the L-frame. It has fixed sights and a 3" barrel but is still highly accurate. It is well balanced and is truely a great gun. With medium and mild strength (for a .357) .357 loads it will probably last as long as the heavier L-frame, with stouter loads it will wear out faster but will likely last as long as you want it to. I definately like the K-frame Smiths (if you really want something bigger buy a N-Frame .44 to make it worth the extra size
).
Do people really shoot the .357 a lot? Or do you mostly train with 38+p and only shoot the .357 occasionally?
Actually the .38+P has become (to my great surprise) one of my favorite rounds. It has very mild recoil (at least compared to .357) for quick follow up shots yet is very effective for self-defense. That said, I use it for occasional practice and fun (just like the .357) but I don't think many people use it for training with the gun very much. If you want to use lower powered (and cheaper) training ammo it is better to use regular .38spl as it is MUCH cheaper than either .357 or .38+P ammo.
? Also, how is the 38+p for defensive purposes?
It is supposed to be very effective. It isn't quite as powerful as the .357 but there are fewer overpenatration issues and since it isn't as powerful you can get faster follow up shots. However, there are .357s and there are .357s, some are stronger than others and there is certainly a brand/load of ammo that will work great in any, reasonably sized, gun (I find moderate strength 125 gr loads, like the Winchester USA brand .357, are very controllable in my 65LS). I love the .38+P round and wouldn't feel undergunned with it, I probably use it (for home defense purposes) almost as much as .357s in my gun.
A couple things I didn't really like. I'm used to having the slide lock back after the last round is fired from a pistol. It gives me a good feeling that the gun is empty. With the 686, I couldn't visually tell if all the rounds had been fired.
I have a friend who keeps pulling the trigger and when it doesn't fire assumes he fired off all the ammo. Makes me very uncomfortable as it could be a slow burn situation (don't want to pull the trigger on a dud, open the cylinder and then have it go off
). Kind of dangerous but, even after sometimes finding unfired rounds with indented primers that way, I can't get him to stop.
I got in the habit of counting my shots. If you have a gun with 6 bullets in the cylinder and you've counted 6 shots you know you're empty (same with 5 or 7 shot revolvers, you just need to keep in mind how many it holds). Never had a problem once I got used to it (doesn't take long). Now I'm so much in the habit of counting my shots that I do it when shooting an auto (just need to keep in mind how many you loaded). It quickly became second nature and there is no danger of being shot by treating a misfire unsafely.
)