Suggest a 3" revolver!

Sistema1927 said:

As the owner of a 3" Kimber K6S, I will say that while it is too large for me to carry in my pocket (something that I can do with any 2" J-frame), it wears smaller on the belt or in the waistband than any K-frame, including my 2" (pre-10) Military & Police round butt.

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Is it the barrel length that makes it unsuitable for pocket carry?

Triggernosis said:

Is it the barrel length that makes it unsuitable for pocket carry?

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That, and the fact that it has a bit more bulk. I checked out a 2" K6S in the pocket, and it was going to print too much. It is physically impossible to make a 6 round cylinder as small as a 5 rounder, but Kimber came close.

S&W 686 plus 3 5 7 mag

Ratshooter said:

OK here you go. Its not a real fancy gun. I have read that S&W just made a short run and the rubber grips were original to the gun. I didn't get the box and docs. Its in my simple home made holster. I am not a leathersmith so don't laugh too much. And this reminds me I was wrong. I do own another 3" gun. A S&W model 30-1 that I do have the box and docs for.

View attachment 884685 View attachment 884686 View attachment 884687

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This gun looks a lot like that, 9mm though:

Tilos said:

This gun looks a lot like that, 9mm though:

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Good looking gun. I didn't know those were made.

Ratshooter said:

Good looking gun. I didn't know those were made.

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Due for release this month...

Charter arms bulldog classic 44 special.
https://charterfirearms.com/products/34431-44-special-classic-bulldog

Sort of have this thing for 3” barrel revolvers. Can’t go wrong with either one of these!

Tilos said:

This gun looks a lot like that, 9mm though:
View attachment 887387

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I would like to see a new thread to follow this, when someone has one in hand to test.

I love three inch revolvers. Just bought a Colt king Cobra. Can't wait to get it to the range

Chiappa Rhino 30DS.


S and W 686 Plus 3".


Ruger GP100 3".


Bonus:

.38 Spl.:Buffalo Bore Standard Pressure Short Barrel Low Flash Heavy .38 Special Ammo 158 Grain Soft Lead SWC-HC (Item 20C).

.357 Mag: Buffalo Bore Lead-Free Tactical 357 Mag Low Flash Short Barrel 125 Grain Barnes XPB (Item 19H).

RealGun said:

I would like to see a new thread to follow this, when someone has one in hand to test.

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Here's the best of 3 vid tests out there;

My local shop sells the RIA 38sp 4" barrel/fixed sights M200 for$199

Tilos said:

Here's the best of 3 vid tests out there;

My local shop sells the RIA 38sp 4" barrel/fixed sights M200 for$199

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That's a giveaway that the gun is sized for 38 Special. These semiauto round revolvers are always adaptations rather scaled exactly to the round intended.

RealGun said:

Any six-round, .357 caliber is going to be bigger than a J-frame. Why exaggerate? But if your ox is gored, never mind.

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They fit all the j frame holsters I have tried. They are remarkably close in size. So close it’s hard to fathom how they stuck 6 rounds in it.

Maybe someone can measure but I read somewhere that the K6s cylinder is only .09 inches wider than a j frame cylinder.

SteadyD said:

They fit all the j frame holsters I have tried. They are remarkably close in size. So close it’s hard to fathom how they stuck 6 rounds in it.

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I know holster fit as pretty forgiving, especially leather or fabric. My Redhawk fits in an N-frame holster, while again surprisingly close in dimensions. I think generally the size of the cylinder frame determines the true category size. Judged as a lump in your hand and of similar barrel length, yeah they could appear close.

RealGun said:

That's a giveaway that the gun is sized for 38 Special. These semiauto round revolvers are always adaptations rather scaled exactly to the round intended.

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The 9mm RIA is more pleasing of a profile with a full length cylinder for me, not a shortened cylinder and the barrel pushed back into a 38 frame opening.
like this:
http://www.smith-wesson.com/firearms/performance-center-model-929

RealGun said:

I know holster fit as pretty forgiving, especially leather or fabric. My Redhawk fits in an N-frame holster, while again surprisingly close in dimensions. I think generally the size of the cylinder frame determines the true category size. Judged as a lump in your hand and of similar barrel length, yeah they could appear close.

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If you look at the weight and dimensions of a model 60 or 640 they are almost identical to the K6s

I just looked it up. The 640 is slightly longer, slightly taller, and the K6s is slightly wider in the cylinder.
K6s cylinder width is 1.39 inch
640 cylinder width is 1.30 inch

They both weigh 23 oz.

These guns are practically identical.

SteadyD said:

If you look at the weight and dimensions of a model 60 or 640 they are almost identical to the K6s

I just looked it up. The 640 is slightly longer, slightly taller, and the K6s is slightly wider in the cylinder.
K6s cylinder width is 1.39 inch
640 cylinder width is 1.30 inch

They both weigh 23 oz.

These guns are practically identical.

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Yep, that's what I've been saying, but a certain person or two just can't accept the facts. And the facts are, the K6S is a six-shooter K-frame in spirit, but in a J-frame package.

I love my S&W 686+ it is a little heavy for carry compared to a k frame, but is better for continuous magnum loads.

Triggernosis said:

Yep, that's what I've been saying, but a certain person or two just can't accept the facts. And the facts are, the K6S is a six-shooter K-frame in spirit, but in a J-frame package.

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What is it that allows the K6 to safely hold 6 rounds of 357 and the J-frame not? Similar in size does not mean identical.

RealGun said:

What is it that allows the K6 to safely hold 6 rounds of 357 and the J-frame not? Similar in size does not mean identical.

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The cylinder is designed differently with "flats" rather than flutes, allowing more room for the 6 vs. 5.
No one is saying that it is "identical" to a J-frame - we're saying that it's closer to a J-frame than a K-frame. The cylinder on the K6S is 0.08" of an inch wider than a J-frame cylinder - that's 2 mm - not identical, but pretty darn close.

Here's a picture for comparison.

This is an excerpt from a report from therevolverguy.com about how they did it.

Quote:
So, it was critical to the Kimber team to marry the popular 6-round cylinder without deviating much from the outer dimensions of S&W’s flagship defensive snubby, the Model 640. Could it be done?

Yes it could. The Kimber team started by offsetting the location where the bolt comes out of the frame to lockup the 6-shot cylinder. This was necessary to maintain the integrity of the cylinder walls, particularly with high pressure .357 Magnum ammunition.

Consider a gun where the bolt window is located in the bottom center of the frame. When the cylinder is in battery, the bolt rises up from the 6 O’Clock position to engage the notch in the cylinder and lock it in place. If the cylinder is a 6-shot cylinder, then that would place the bolt notch directly over the center of the chamber, where the walls are thinnest. This creates a potential structural weakness—a place where high pressure gas could rupture the cylinder wall and escape.

You could solve this problem by increasing the diameter of the cylinder, to ensure that enough material remained after you cut the notch on the outside to safely contain the pressure, but that would require a bigger frame as well. Your small frame would grow larger and the gun would get heavier, to boot. Not ideal.

So Kimber took another approach, and shifted the bolt window outboard on the starboard (right, for you non-nautical types) side. By offsetting the bolt that direction, the notches on the cylinder could be moved so that they wouldn’t fall directly on top of the chambers. Instead, the notch could could be cut over the web that separates adjoining chambers, where the cylinder walls are thickest. This allowed Kimber engineers to safely contain Magnum-level pressures in a cylinder with the smallest outer diameter.

Going one step further, Kimber milled flats on the outside of the cylinder, which reduced the outer diameter. Instead of being a perfect circle, the cylinder now had more of a soft, hexagonal shape. The flats reduced the width of the gun at the point where it’s normally fattest, giving the 6-shot cylinder of the K6s a width on par with the 5-shot S&W Model 640 (1.39” versus the S&W’s 1.31”), as well as an identical weight (23 ounces). Kimber had built a 6-shot J-Frame!
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