Thanks to everyone who offered advice on what options were out there for my wife's intended revolver purchase. For anyone who remembers, she was looking for a 3 inch 38 special, preferably in blue with a 6 shot cylinder.
Here's what happened.
We must have spent an hour going through every revolver in .32 H&R, .38 Spl and .357 Mag that the store had, and they had a very wide selection. Almost everything was either a .38 snub ultralight scandium/titanium/kryptonite or a 4 inch stainless .357 Mag, if you were looking for a gun in either of these categories the choice was endless.
She became bored with the wheelers and suddenly started talking seriously about a Beretta Cougar in .45ACP, but they only had the mini in stock (must everything be about concealed carry these days ?) and she didn't like that even with the grip extension magazine they offered.
Meanwhile I was still working my way down the revolver cabinets, double actions gave way to single action SASS cowboy pieces so I almost stopped looking, but there was one cabinet right at the end of the row that had the "miscellaneous" pieces in it. I called her over and there was a blued .38 Special so she asked to see it.
The gun had a 4 inch barrel with a full underlug and a vented rib, 6 shot cylinder, red ramp front sight and a fully adjustable white outline rear sight, soft rubber finger groove grips and a nice compact frame size. It was near perfect, if the barrel would have been 1 inch shorter it would have been absolutely perfect.
It was a Rossi R851, price $257 NIB and now it's ours.
Now I know that a lot of people would turn their nose up at a Rossi, but we put 300 rounds through it during the past week at an outdoor range and it shoots like the Devil himself. Accurate, utterly reliable and very mild in recoil, I don't know if it is rated for +P but that isn't an issue, .38 Spl standard pressure is just fine for any application that springs to mind.
We used 130 grain Winchester FMJ and Federal 110 grain Hydra-Shok. I used the JHP on some 1 gallon water jugs and got perfect expansion with the bullet stopping at the far wall of the second jug (left a deep imprint).
The trigger is a tad heavy and stagey in DA, but the SA breaks like a glass rod at maybe 2.5lbs (guessing).
We both love it.
Thanks again to all who made suggestions.
Mike H
Here's what happened.
We must have spent an hour going through every revolver in .32 H&R, .38 Spl and .357 Mag that the store had, and they had a very wide selection. Almost everything was either a .38 snub ultralight scandium/titanium/kryptonite or a 4 inch stainless .357 Mag, if you were looking for a gun in either of these categories the choice was endless.
She became bored with the wheelers and suddenly started talking seriously about a Beretta Cougar in .45ACP, but they only had the mini in stock (must everything be about concealed carry these days ?) and she didn't like that even with the grip extension magazine they offered.
Meanwhile I was still working my way down the revolver cabinets, double actions gave way to single action SASS cowboy pieces so I almost stopped looking, but there was one cabinet right at the end of the row that had the "miscellaneous" pieces in it. I called her over and there was a blued .38 Special so she asked to see it.
The gun had a 4 inch barrel with a full underlug and a vented rib, 6 shot cylinder, red ramp front sight and a fully adjustable white outline rear sight, soft rubber finger groove grips and a nice compact frame size. It was near perfect, if the barrel would have been 1 inch shorter it would have been absolutely perfect.
It was a Rossi R851, price $257 NIB and now it's ours.
Now I know that a lot of people would turn their nose up at a Rossi, but we put 300 rounds through it during the past week at an outdoor range and it shoots like the Devil himself. Accurate, utterly reliable and very mild in recoil, I don't know if it is rated for +P but that isn't an issue, .38 Spl standard pressure is just fine for any application that springs to mind.
We used 130 grain Winchester FMJ and Federal 110 grain Hydra-Shok. I used the JHP on some 1 gallon water jugs and got perfect expansion with the bullet stopping at the far wall of the second jug (left a deep imprint).
The trigger is a tad heavy and stagey in DA, but the SA breaks like a glass rod at maybe 2.5lbs (guessing).
We both love it.
Thanks again to all who made suggestions.
Mike H
