Beautiful the days of hand fitting, If all the dirt etc were cleaned off you would not see the side cover seam We shot those as kids at my uncles range fun times
I realize that marketing size creep now tells us that you need a .454 for gophers, and how our ancestors survived hunting Deer without 155mm howitzers is beyond me.....
in the real world a .357 is still good for deer, predators, and automobiles.
Some genius tell you you don't have to aim a shotgun?
Yep, those geniuses are generally found at the local skeet&trap range and will make those who "aim" a shotgun look like pure amateurs after they go clean for that round. }}
I refer to the myth that the shot pattern will spread to cover an alley so there is no need for aiming.
In house distances in the real world give a spread of a few feet so "pointing" is needed to hit a target the size of a man........much less the vital area on a turkey.
At 25 yards even an improved cylinder choke just covers a b8 target. Try a shoot n see turkey target life size and see if "aiming" is required.
Yes some comment intended with Just Joe's insistence that it's smart to shoot through doors, discharge firearms randomly skyward, and how a 12ga. is easier to shoot than a .22.
No implied comment on lead, swing, follow through, or other technique to aim a bead sighted shotgun at a flying target.
It can mess up the highly learned and practiced pointing techniques to put rifle sights on a shotgun. I had a wild turkey federation Winchester with fibre optic sights and had to relearn/ignore them when shooting trap. They made aiming like a rifle at ground targets practical out quite a ways. Making nice cloverleaf holes out at 50 yards with Remington Buck hammers.
X inches per yard.... depending on choke and load.... longest sight line you're likely to see outside a real mansion is maybe 20 yards?
So while I do NOT suggest bird shot for home defense, ( save it for clays and birds ) here's a real world test.
Again, Once I thought a nice trap load would be fine for in home use, less wall penetration, etc. At close range, the shot column is practically a solid mass, so That was my choice.
I've since been convinced by both ballistic tests, and real world experience that I was Wrong. The clincher was a report of a police officer who had loaded up with bird shot for qualifying, ( yep, Dumb and Out of date local police rules ) and forgot to reload with buck. When the call came, he shot the bad guy, and failed to stop him. And was killed because of the Wrong ammo.
Shotguns have a wonderful property in that you can tailor your load out for optimum effectiveness on target. From #12 shot like lead sand to 000 buck with .36" balls, Buck & ball modern defense loads like Winchester PDX1 through Buck Hammer slugs massing over an ounce.... You have the choice to pick the best for the job. Unfortunately you can also choose wrong.
That is also true to a much lesser effect with, say, the .357 magnum. A light .38 load will probably not be as effective a fight stopper as a full goose magnum, and not in the same league for anti-bear uses as a hard cast large meplat big game/Hog/Bear load.
But even so, none of the choices is utterly useless in stopping a violent attacker.
I'm not trying to pontificate here. The concept of "stopping power" is widely debated, with formulas, specifications, and voodoo. Depth of penetration, size of hole, and hard to quantify damage are all used by one expert or another...
Also years of data gathering by dedicated Law enforcement experts with a clue about guns.
I will simplify it to "doing enough damage to vastly reduce the attacker's chance of continuing to be dangerously violent"
There are many cases of folk getting shot by various weapons and still functioning, in too many cases still capable and willing to harm others. So even a .357 with ammo built to the latest FBI specs may not save lives.
But it has a better chance than pen knife.
I'm sure we'd all prefer to have a Star Trek Stunner which would harmlessly stop a would be murderer or rapist.
The setting that disintegrates walls...... maybe not.
The subject of my original post is a .357 magnum...not my favorite but likely the most versatile for a majority of the uses one may need a sidearm for.
Lastly, the Airweight .38 Special. This little guy is fun to shoot and goes with me everywhere it's not prohibited (save for maybe the beach). IMG_4598 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr
Rick_a: I really like that Smith in .45 ACP as a carry gun. I don't have it now but back in the day when my small framed wife was carrying I got her a real nice Rossi model 720 in .44 special and loaded it to suit her with 185g. Hornady XTP's at a mere 750 FPS. Recoil was fine for her and the XTP's mushroomed to .700 in water at close range; i.e. a 55 gal. drum 2/3rds full and dented the bottom of the barrel. We both felt fine with it as a defensive weapon all be it a little heavy as its all SS, adjustable sights, 3" barrel & 5 shot. I can't even find one anywhere now so those that have one are evidently keeping them. I should have. Being "old school" I really like this thread but currently carry a modified Glock 30. for obvious reasons.
In May, 1948, Smith & Wesson changed their simple "Made In USA" rollmark to a more complex four line bilingual version. This was to combat the many Spanish counterfeit revolvers being produced. For collectors, the 4 line rollmark indicates a definite post war gun.
Bob, almost anything in a five shot 44 special has become a bit of a collectible. The only one left on the market is the Charter Arms Bulldog. Taurus and S&W make 4" 5 shot 44 Mags, but nothing in a snubbie.
Just got to handle a KEL-TEC P3AT. Was expecting junk, what I saw was a nice little utilitarian .380 that can go anywhere any time and that (for $240) I won't loose sleep over it being in an outside pocket while I am on a motorcycle in the rain.