A medium frame revolver with a 3-inch barrel is my sweet spot for inside the waistband carry, whether appendix or on the hip. It doesn’t hurt that I think the 3″ K-frame is just sexy.
I have a couple of 3″ Ks without locks that I will introduce, later, but I wanted to start with the workhorse in my stable. The Model 19 CC is a gun I wouldn’t mind losing to evidence after a shooting, or shooting to pieces with high round count practice. I had to cover the lock hole with a lock delete so that I could bear to shoot it. I later added a Bowen Rough Country rear sight and painted the front sight white so it was easier to see. The grips are Hogue Bantams.
I am not a fan of comps or porting on self defense guns since I will likely be firing it at some point without hearing protection and I don’t need it to be louder. For me, the pops are muted during adrenal response but the concussion indoors without ear protection can be distracting enough to make me blink on occasion. I haven’t really noticed the comp being different from any other short barrel revolver with the +P .38 loads that I normally run for defensive purposes. I don’t run magnums through K-frames any more so there is no worry about that.
The barrel is actually about 2.5″ with the comp taking up the last 1/2″ of the barrel shroud. The front sight looks a little strange in that location but the barrel is long enough to get the velocity I need from Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel 135 +Ps. I don’t notice the shorter sight radius to any degree, which could just be due to my aging eyes. It has a full length extractor rod so it is easy to eject .38 Special cases with only a press of the thumb.
The trigger on this gun is okay. It has a definite hitch when the cylinder locks up and there is about an 1/16″ of roll off just before the hammer is released. About half of the shots in the above group felt staged as I felt that false wall and rolled through it, while the rest of them went off without me feeling the wall. The single action still works and I use the hammer to pull back and free the cylinder to check for high primers but I have only fired 2-3 shots from single action with the gun.
Obviously the gun shoots fine for what it is. If I had to fire a .357 Magnum round through a K-frame, then this would be the gun. If I had to cross a swamp with it, I would be fine with that. Meanwhile, it has done what I have asked of it and if something goes wrong, I am sure I can get parts or S&W service to get it fixed. It isn’t the prettiest gun but I have faith that it will do its part if I do mine.
Leave a Reply