Mosin,
I can understand your affection for the .22 that belonged to your Grandpa, I have two rifles I inherited from mine, one dating back to about 1905, the other given to him by my father & uncle in 1951.
I can understand your desire to own a .38.
I can also understand you don't have a lotta money to spend.
But there are some things YOU need to understand:
The RGs are very low quality, regardless of whether your Grandpa liked his & regardless of your sentimental affection for it.
Just because your Grandpa didn't know enough about guns to get a good one, or wasn't willing to spend the money for one, does NOT make the RG brand worth owning. I do not mean any lack of respect toward your Grandpa in saying this, but as you're growing up there are certain realities in the world that need to be faced.
RGs will not hold up over the long run like a much better made domestic .38 from a known maker like Ruger or S&W.
Trigger pulls will not typically be very good, in any RG caliber.
Accuracy will tend to be variable.
Parts will be difficult to find when something breaks.
Ergonomics are relatively poor.
No real aftermarket grip choices to improve ergonomics.
Re the parts thing, somebody may come along shortly & mention Numrich as a source. If & when they do, keep in mind three things: Those parts will almost certainly be used (taken off other broken guns that Numrich bought for parts resale), they may or may not be fittable to your gun, and the cost of having a gunsmith fit them will far exceed the value of your .38 RG.
Not knocking you in saying the following, but it sounds like you're about 15. If so, you have a good beginning interest in firearms & that should be encouraged.
But- making bad choices in getting started shouldn't, because you'll waste a lot of time & money, and you can very easily pick up bad habits with bad equipment that'll be hard to overcome later on.
We all had to start somewhere.
We've all wasted money on poor decisions that didn't work out, for various reasons.
As I told you in another thread, I had an RG 10 when I was 17.
It was my second gun, my first was a .36 Navy percussion Colt replica.
I was living alone at age 16, had very limited money to shoot with, knew very little about guns, and those two (percussion & .22 Short) were the most affordable to actually use, for me, at the time.
Neither I nor your Grandpa had access to the Internet gun forums, an advantage you now have.
Had I known, at 17, that I was wasting my money (a whole $17, brand new) on that RG 10, I would never have done it.
You are being told repeatedly here that the brand is inferior.
LISTEN!
You have the advantage of free & ready access to knowledgeable shooters with lifetimes of experience.
LISTEN!
Re your first "serious" handgun, take it from somebody who shoots for a living: The .38 LCR is not the best choice for a first handgun for a beginner.
It is not the most accurate .38 on the market, and recoil can be unpleasant.
You're seeing this written by somebody who's fired a Smith .460 Mag one-handed, and who's put over 5000 rounds of +P .38s through the LCR (in addition to standard vel loads).
I have experience in comparisons, a LOT of experience in comparisons.
You're also seeing this written by a former police firearms instructor going back to the days when cops carried revolvers.
I've trained & qualified cops on .38s that had trouble learning the gun, in STEEL form, even in what many of us consider a very mild caliber.
Even an all-steel .38 with standard velocity loads CAN take some learning by a novice.
The lightweight snub LCR may look cool (unimportant), but can handicap your learning (very important) at the beginning. This is not knocking the gun, just saying it's a purpose-built niche gun, best used for concealed carry & short distances.
At your stage of the game, carefully consider practicality, known rep, longevity, and ergonomics.
There's nothing whatever wrong with buying "for looks", but that comes later, after you've learned the basics on a quality gun, and when you have more money to spend on "fun" stuff.
You have plenty of time, sounds like, to educate yourself more about guns & what's involved in the decision-making process before that first-buy decision has to be made.
I'll toss in a .22 example that may illustrate something for you. The same principle applies across the board in any gun type and/or caliber.
That RG 10 was bought because I wanted to shoot a lotta .22s, and Shorts were cheap. It couldn't penetrate the abandoned washing machine I tried it on, and the only time I took it rabbit hunting (remember, I was very young, very un-knowledgeable, and very much wanting to use the thing) I did somehow manage to hit a rabbit that was stupid enough to freeze in the headlights (we did things differently back then in a farm environment where rabbits were pests that cost farmers money) right in front of the car on a dirt back road that night.
It only disabled the critter, had to empty the gun from a foot away to kill it. Not the way I prefer to do business.
Gun was stolen from my car later that summer, but even if it hadn't been, it was pretty much useless for the purpose I bought it for. It would never have held up over the years like the Ruger Single-Six I bought five years later that can handle any good .22 LR, Long, Short, or .22 Mag load on the market & is still running strong after 40 years of ownership, with full factory & local gunsmithing support, if needed. It's my highest-mileage gun, and no RG ever made could possibly have held up through all that shooting, or done what that gun has done for me over the years.
Buy right the first time, and it may easily last you a lifetime.
Buy cheap, and it'll often end up costing you more in the end when it doesn't last or doesn't get the job done.
I'll add another one.
When I went through the police academy, I took the second best shooter award of the class with a very basic fixed-sight S&W Model 64 in .38 Special.
Another officer couldn't keep her cheaper off-brand revolver running through the range sessions.
I bought that .38 Smith when we transitioned to autos later on at my PD. Still here, still running fine 33 years later.
One of the most basic .38s made by S&W, it has the QUALITY that's infinitely more important than any Cool Factor.
Take your time, do your research, buy GOOD, even if it has to be used, and GET THE QUALITY TOOL THAT'LL BOTH DO THE JOB YOU WANT IT TO DO & HOLD UP FOR THE LONG RUN.
Believe me, and I'm well-qualified to say it: The RG brand IS NOT that tool.
Don't be in a hurry, do your research, make an informed & realistic choice.
You'll still end up trading & selling because something else may end up working better for you in some aspect, but at least you can cut down on wasted money somewhat & shorten your learning curve by going with quality at the starting line.
Denis
