At least it's the 3" model?
Even more embarrassing, and a fact he tried to hide from me, was he paid full MSRP for it at Daryl's Gun Shop in State Center, Iowa.
He thinks of it as a home defense gun.
We're not so sure.
Happily, we've never had to find out.
I had one for a while. They're honestly not bad revolvers. Being able to take .410 shot shells makes them handy to have in snake country. I finally swapped mine for the Bond Arms Snake-Slayer derringer I now have.
ReplyDeleteSame comment from a friend living in south Texas. Having rattlesnakes and feral hog and wanting a handy gun on hand is a tall order. He said that it was easy to index the cylinder (pulling trigger back until cylinder stop was lifted allowing to rotate) if a hog showed up. He always kept shotgun shell for 1st shot.
Deletejrg
I'm in Texas and snake country is pretty much everywhere. We've got a couple kinds of rattlers, coral snakes and copperheads plus the one I really hate -- cottonmouth. This revolver is a decent choice if you are going into an area where you know there will be snakes. I have an American Derringer Model 4 which is also chambered in .45 Colt & .410 3". That's what I keep for snakes, with #4 buck because it patterns pretty well. If I was buying something new today I might consider a Judge. All that said, there are almost no poisonous snakes in Iowa. A few rattlers in Madison County and maybe a few other limited areas. In practice you're almost never going to have to worry about snakes up there, especially because 2/3 of the year up there it is too cold for snakes to be out and about anyway.
DeleteWould buying an S&W Governor below MSRP have been less bad? These still seem more of a we did it because we could sort of thing rather than anything useful and don't seem to do anything better than a normal .45 Colt or .44 Special or Magnum and some CCI shot shells.
ReplyDeleteNew Judges were available for well below MSRP at the time, it's a testimony about the scarcity of gun shops in Iowa that Daryl's can ask full price for guns.
DeleteThe real tragedy is if they bought it after June 11 2016, because the massive Brownells retail store is just 42 miles away that gun shop.
DeleteIowa is fud land. Most of the few gun shops there cater mostly to bird hunters. I remember being told "we don't carry any 'military' calibers like .223, .308 or .30-06". Like those weren't also common sporting cartridges. Lots of yellow dog democrats in Iowa, even in the rural areas.
DeleteI've fired this puppy a couple of times and always thought that the grip was too small for the cartridge being fired (both cartridges). I chatted with a po po man at the range one day who was putting one through it's paces; what he said makes great sense to me. He said that folk in his profession stuff this between the drivers seat and the center console of their cruisers so they have firepower immediately available should trouble come suddenly upon them. He said that the small grip was actually a plus when the weapon was used this way.
ReplyDeleteWho'd a thunk it!