The LG-405 is the most compact and has some nice cushioning built right into the grip to help with recoil. They are the best of the CT offerings, IMO.
The LG-305 makes the weapon more comfortable to shoot (larger grips generally help the shootability of the J frame considerably) but also makes it more difficult to conceal.
I use the LG-105 on my 442. Compact and cheaper than the other options, but also not as comfortable to shoot as the other options.
For a concealed carry piece I would suggest sticking to the 105 or the 405, with a strong preference for teh 405 if you can afford it.
I don’t think I need (or want to pay for) a scandium frame .357.
A wise choice…as the .357 loads in these revolvers don’t buy you any additional performance. Just more blast, recoil, and general unpleasantness. Personally I think the aluminum framed revolvers are plenty light enough for any reasonable purpose.
I just don’t see ever firing .357 out of such a small gun, I think it will be limited to .38 +Ps tops.
As far as I know there is no .357 load that can beat the performance of the Speer 135 grain +P .38 spl Gold Dot load from a J frame.
I like how the 442 is no snag, but I think my wife would like the ability to fire single action as well. Is the DA pull on any model better than another?
The trigger varies a bit from sample to sample, but in general the triggers on J frames are all heavy. They can be mastered, but it takes quite a bit of practice…which can be decidedly unpleasant with some of the super-light guns. The J frame is one of the most difficult handguns to shoot well if for no other reason than physics. You’ve got a weapon that weighs about a pound and yet has a 12-15 pound trigger.
Still, there’s no better combination of power, reliability, and concealability…and that’s why we all carry them.
The 638 is a good option, as long as it doesn’t turn into a single action gun on the range. Most practice should be done with the trigger you’re going to use in a real fight, namely the DA trigger. The ability to cock if you need/want to is certainly nice.
We couldn’t dry fire the weapons at the shop we were at “for safety reasons” :rolleyes: so I really didn’t get to feel the triggers of the various weapons.
That shop sucks.
The only j-frames I have ever fired is an old 36 which had a very smooth and sweet trigger in DA and a crisp SA trigger. It was a really old gun though and probably not indicative of a modern offering.
Trigger impressions are highly subjective, so it’s difficult to offer input here. The only way to judge the trigger on the guns is to pull the trigger. If a shop is so uptight that they can’t handle a couple of dryfires on a production gun (I could understand this policy if it was some rare expensive collector piece…not on a modern production J frame) then find somewhere else to buy, in my opinion.
One thing I think you should give careful consideration to:
The reason for the J frame’s popularity as a carry gun is the superb reliability they offered for such a long time. S&W f**ked all that up by installing those idiot locks in their revolvers.
There are documented instances of those locks spontaneously engaging under recoil, especially in J frames using +P ammo. This means you pull the trigger, the gun fires, and then the action locks up like Obama without a teleprompter.
Not cool. Still, it’s not a reason to avoid the J frame. S&W actually produced a run of lock-less 642’s and 442’s. If you would prefer the 638, then buy one…just remove the idiot lock. It’s pretty easy to do.