Thursday - May 14, 2009

Try One And See

A big moment in the 458 household today ... my wife finally found the time to go and pick up her own new SP101 from the gun shop. So she is now an official gun owner, all legal and everything. Yay!

I guess I’ll be getting her a shooting range membership for her birthday. Money well spent. And now she and I have matching pistols. Isn’t that cute?

We were talking to one of the ladies behind the counter. When my wife said she was here to pick up her new Ruger pistol, the woman asked if she had ordered an LCR. “Oh, you’ve got to try this pistol” she says, and brings out her own LCR to show us. Her gun is still new; she hasn’t yet put 2 boxes of ammo through it.

Oh. My. God. I’ve never seen anything like it. Ok, it’s kind of strange looking, with a polymer lower, and aluminum frame, and the most pared down cylinder ever. But ... the pistol weighs almost nothing.  13.5 ounces. It’s very small, and for a revolver it’s very thin. The grips are small, but they fit perfectly. What little weight there is is balanced just right. And the trigger ... is orgasmic.

I’ve been around revolvers for ages. I’ve had my hands on dozens, maybe hundreds of different models. From antique to modern, from big to little, from all the top companies and from a number of unknown brands. And I know that Smith & Wesson has this ... cult following almost ... that touts what marvelous and wonderful triggers the S&W double action revolvers have. Up until now that belief has had some merit. Ruger revolvers are more noted for their beefy construction; “everybody knows” that Rugers have crunchy and heavy triggers when new. You have to shoot at least 500 rounds through them until they smooth out a little. And even if you do a lot of internal polishing and spring replacing, the best you’re going to get is something nearly as good as what S&W makes.

Those days are over.

The LCR has the finest, smoothest, easiest pulling trigger of any revolver ever made. Pretty much period. And this is a pistol with an internal hammer design - those pistols are infamous for awful triggers. Ruger shaped the LCR trigger perfectly. It’s thin, light, and very well radiused on the sides, so your finger just slides into place with no resistance at all. And unlike the internal hammer revolvers from Taurus and S&W, the initial part of the trigger pull does not require enormous effort while the latter part just falls through. The LCR pull is even, smooth, and quite light throughout the entire stroke. And I’m guessing that, since it’s still a Ruger, the trigger is only going to get better with time. There is only a slight bit of crunch on the backstroke, but the return is still light and positive.

This is a pistol that was designed from the ground up to be a carry piece, and it was designed to also fit people with smaller, weaker hands. Which it does. Ladies, this is what you want, if you want a purse gun with the rock solid reliability and zero learning curve of a double action revolver. Try one and see. If you do, you will be putting your name on the order list.

Oh, and the gun shop lady says hers is pretty accurate too. She has no trouble hitting a 6” paper plate target at 25 feet. That’s more than good enough for a pocket pistol.

The LCR is chambered in .38 Special +P. Which means it’s almost a .357 Magnum. And while a .357 Magnum is quite a lot of cartridge in a bigger pistol, in the short little barrel of a snubby the performance difference is very small compared to the .38 +P, except for a whole lot more noise and flash. It’s hardly worth the bother.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/14/2009 at 12:23 PM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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