I'm shopping for a revolver.....could I get some info?
 

Sometime soon I plan on buying a revolver. As for it's use, I'll be keeping it for home defense, possibly conceal carry in the future. Occasionally I might take it to a range. I'm pretty picky about the style of the revolver...I'd want a blued model with wooden grips, preferably a Smith & Wesson, and preferably in .357 caliber with a 4 inch barrel or shorter. I don't want anything bigger.

I'm willing to spend 500-600 dollars on it. I've looked around online for different models, trying to get an idea of what I'd want. The Smith and Wesson Model 19 looks to fit what I'm interested in. I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me what other revolvers are out there that fit this criteria?

I know you can get a quality Smith & Wesson for 5-600 or less, but I suggest you stay away from current production models. For concealed carry, I highly recommend you get either a slim automatic or a J-Frame .38 though, cause trying to conceal a full size revolver is a pain. If you just want a home gun though, a full size is fine. If you need a .357 Magnum, of course the 19 is an option, but these reuqire a sufficient amount of care, since they have very touchy blued or nickel finishes which are pretty to look at, but spoil if you don't take care of them. That being said, as a gun you might use for duty, not a fantastic choice. You can get a Model 66, which is the Stainless Steel version of the Model 19, or get the tougher L-Frame 686, but, again, try and get an old production model, one with the firing pin on the hammer (it's a feature on the Smiths). Also, I say the L-Frame is tougher because in rare cases, the K Frame revolvers have sustained forcing cone cracks from firing hot .357 loads over a long period. Though this is rare, an L-Frame will never have that problem. You can still get a K frame and shoot .38s for practice, and pack .357s for serious business, or just use lower power loads (158 grain soft points are good all around bullets for targets and self defense. Even a weak .357 Magnum is still better than the strongest 9mm or A good quality .45 Auto.

I got a Smith though and I swear by their product line. Forget Taurus or Rossi or even Colt cause they cost too damn much, get a Smith.

Maybe a Smith & Wesson Model 13 with a 2" barrel like the gun used by the lobby guard in the Matrix and Sean William Scott in The Rundown. Or the Mode 65, the stainless steel counterpart.

.357 Magnums are kind of overrated, they hit hard but are going too fast. Imagine a 9mm, a notoriously fast round know to pass straight through a target, this loosing the kinetic energy, now put a lot more powder behind it, so now it is even faster. But boy does it blow up a pumpkin nicely.

If you want a good concealed carry gun, I'd recommend a Para-Ordnance Warthog or Nite-Hawg, it's a 1911 gun (so it will be reliable if maintained), holds 10+1 (nice for a .45 pistol), fits in the hand well for a compact, and did I mention it's a 1911? Roughly a $500 gun.

13s and 65s are a bit harder to find, and the service sights are garbage. Those are collector guns and not much more.

Aside from substantial recoil, .357 Magnum is an excellent round. Just gotta learn to tame it.

As for a Warthog, I think the guy wants a revolver, but that's an alright auto I guess. Freakin' small though.

Thanks for all the input. You guys are being a lot of help, I really didn't know what else to look for besides a 19, thanks for bringing other models to my attention.

The only things I'm certain about is wanting a Smith & Wesson revolver, blued steel, and wooden grips.

Any more information on different models and reccomendations is greatly appreciated ^^

Get a Taurus Judge.

Excalibur hasn't exactly mentioned what the Taurus Judge is, it's a big revolver that has a cylinder size capable of taking .410 shotgun shells, but it can also fire .45 Long Colt rounds. It's big as hell and is pretty much a house only gun, stainless steel I think too. It won't fit your desires I don't think.

Also, if you don't absolutely positively need .357 Magnum, but you can settle for .38 or .38+P, the Model 15 is a K-Frame .38 with adjustable sights.

NO, please don't tell me you TOO have been fooled by the Taurus Judge! This gun has become a new movie fad simply because it is a shotgun revolver, but guess what? The 410 gauge shotgun shell is commonly used on small birds such as dove and small ducks. Meaning, even the 3" Magnum shells are not much more than a .45 LC that fires birdshot. And those commercials on Outdoor that show a women draw one from her purse on muggers is fake. A 410 does not completely disintegrate watermelons. And now that all the gamer fans saw Max Payne use one, it could be the next Desert Eagle for gun tha everyone loves because it is almighty. Don't drink the Kool-aid, the gun ain't that great. If anything, it's a good snake gun, maybe a good self-defense gun, but it certainly not what Hollywood is quickly making it out to be. (Sorry if I over reacted, whether or not you just suggested it or promoted it, I need to let people know this).

I only mentioned the 13 and 65 because the pickings were getting slim. Try a Ruger, maybe an SP-101. They've just released this new .327 round, which is shorter than the .357 Magnum, but is more powerful with less recoil. Look interesting but most people probably won't spend money on new ammo when .38 and .357 do fine (and if the 1000% ammunition price tax goes into effect, don't even bother buying ammo anymore, just buy a reloading press)

And as for the Warthog, I know he wanted a revolver, but he mentioned concealed carry and that tends to come up. Look on the Shoot 'Em up page, the Nite-Hawg fits pretty well in his hand.

Irrelevant but I always keep everyone informed, I'm working on Mr & Mrs Smith right now, should have it on by friday. It's been on the bottom of my DVD stack for a while and I figured I'd do it since MPM mentioned it should be done (it's a POPULAR page). Some of the things people uploaded on there right now are totally wrong by the way (The M201-Z is a S&W Gas Gun, Jolies custom 1911 in the store is some custom S&W auto, etc.)

Speaking of Max Payne it puzzles me how a five shot revolver fires six shots in every scene, and they don't use quick cuts. Is there a possibility it isn't a Judge or maybe they just add the sixth shot in post production.

I was trying to avoid bashing the Judge cause Excalibur is still mad at me for my last joke, but......... yeah, I agree.

Now all we need is some popular new video game to advertize how "badass" it is so we can hear gamer nerds talk about how their favorite guns are the "Deagle and the Judge", as if they've ever even held one of them. I just shuddered. Being a gamer myself, I know the exact type of people I speak of, so any gamers out their should not take offense, unless they ever used the term "Deagle", then you begin to enter that class I mock so passionately.

I wouldn't mind owning a Judge just to shoot for fun (or try some small game pistol hunting) but I wouldn't carry it in Alaska because I'm to believe I have a badass shotgun revolver that can send people flying and kill bears. It just isn't right.

Oh, come on, I've fired the judge. My Marine buddy bought one of the last ones that are coming out for a while. With the Obama scare, it's hard to get one. The thing packs a pretty good punch, though no shotgun would send a person flying, that's movie myth again.

And how many movies have you seen a Judge in? I've only seen it in the TV series Flashpoint and in the movie Max Payne.

A judge won't send you flying, but it will certainly wound you hard if you get shot by one

And Yournamehere, bashing a gun and mocking my response are 2 different things. Opinions and insights are appreciated debating back and forth, immature comments like the one you did is stupid, but back on topic.


I was looking at a Judge before Max Payne came out and I knew it doesn't blow bathroom stall doors out the way it did. Now the desert eagle is a waste of money.

Personally, I'm just throwing a revolver off the top of my head that my buddy has and seem to love it.

If I want to get a revolver for the fun of it, I'd love to get my hands on a Smith and Wesson Schofield

Do you ever watch the Oudoor channel on wednesday when they something other than hunting on? They have a commercial advertizing the new 3" Magnum Judge, shows a women draw it from her purse on two muggers. Then it cuts to watermelons and they a disintegrated on impact from the gun, which is very unlikely. A 12 gauge birdshot wouldn't likely blow away a melon. But the .45 Long Colt it also fires would make a noticable hit. A 410 is the smallest shotgun round and definately not an almighty mini shotgun. The .45 Long Colt it fires will likely do a better job of stopping someone since a solid .45 has more impact than a scatter of tiny birdshot (or still tiny "buckshot"). So while the gun looks nice, the .45 Long Colt is a better bet as far as I'm concerned.

I've always wanted a nice Schofield to shoot. I reccomend something other than Uberti though if you buy one. Ubertis look beautiful but are usually expensive and easily damaged do to lighter metals. So if you want a pretty one to play with, an Uberti works, but if you want a serious gun to shoot, find a better company. 3:10 to Yuma did an excellent job of making them look awesome, with a little help from Ben Foster's great gun handling do to Thell Reed's gun training. Uberti recently released a shorter model in .45 Long Colt, which saved the original ammo problem.

No i dont watch the outdoor channel. I look at spects of a gun, watch real footage of it being shot to judge and then, if i can, go find one and handle it. That's how I roll

I'm working off those first two steps and will try to shoot one at some point. If necessary, I could even make a video showing right away that it doesn't destroy melons, and use the commericial as a comparison.

I as well as other members would disagree. Twas funny.

As far as the blowing up of melons is concerned, a few of my friends and I attempted to do this with a specific brand of firecracker that was shown on the news blowing up a watermelon in a demonstration as well. We all went to a clear space in the park, and stuck one in. The single firecracker barely cracked the thing. We then stuck several in there, it failed to kill the watermelon as well. So, having no other options, we did what anyone else would do, and that's bash it with a hammer until it was reduced to a melony pulp like it should have been with the firecracker. I don't know why, but the people on the TV like to kill watermelons with stuff, whether or not they are truthfully illustrating the murder weapon is capable of doing so. Can't blame 'em, it's fun.

I like the Shcofield too, but I just wanna try any top break, like a Webley. I always found the automatic ejection to be a plus, though I couldn't get one to open a while back. Oh well. As far as revolvers go I'll just have to settle with my Model 19. Poor me.

I'm skeptical about Taurus revolvers based on my experience with them. My grandfather owns an older-model Taurus 850 stainless which he bought for conceal carry, and I don't like it even though he seems to. Usually, I can gauge the quality of a weapon just by holding it, and handling the 850 SS, it felt like a cheap piece of crap that I wouldn't trust my life with.

Dunno about the Judge (never handled one before), but if it's put together as poorly as the 850, I'd advise against it.

Yeah Taurus is a clone company, and their merchandise isn't always quality, and for the same price as any one of their revolvers, you can buy a good ol' American Smith or, for a few dollars more, a Colt. But, again, I stress this a lot, Smith & Wesson all the way, baby.

Eh, they're hit-or-miss. I have often praised the PT92 (which I used to own), though mostly for ergonomic reasons. But their revolvers, at least the ones I've handled, don't seem as good to me.

I've only fired a single S&W revolver, which I think was a Model 19 that belonged to somebody at my Dad's range (until recently, I didn't know jack shit about S&W revolvers, so I couldn't tell you off the top of my head for sure).

The PT92 and the PT1911 are probably their only decent products. The former is just an improvement on the original Beretta 92 and the PT1911 is just a budget higher grade 1911 built with an Imbel frame, which is dumb cause you can just buy a Springer Loaded. Still, Smith makes good autos and 1911s too, and in America, so Taurus pales in comparison.

Doesn't Taurus make a lot of their guns at least partially at the Miami plant now?

At the very least, the good thing about buying a Taurus is the warranty and the way they listen to customer feedback. Also, the PT92s that they make nowadays (which aren't at all like the older one I used to have) are a WAY better buy than the Beretta 92FS, IMO.