642 Club Part Deux

Suppose that, in some future world,
you were restricted to two guns:
one handgun, one long gun.
(OK, maybe two handguns,
but only one long gun.)

We know that one handgun would be a 642.

Click to expand...

It almost sounds like the old SNL Super fans skit where every answer was "Ditka" (The Chicago Bears Coach)

I don't own a 642 yet, but it's on my short list, but so are diapers right now.

Of the guns I own I'd pick a 10/22, a MKII, and a 2.5" model 19.

Can I join The Club?

Hello everybody.I've spent many days reading ALL the posts of Part1 and Part2.This Thead is drive me crazy.
I officially submit my membership card request because three weeks ago I've purchased a very sligthtly used S&W 649-1 .38SPL. I've spent over a year looking for this gun since I obtained my gun licence in June 2007.
The little beauty had only 5-SHOTS (sorry,I mean fiVe shots ) out of the barrel. The old man that sold me the gun gave me also the original box,papers,a ZED handmade leather belt olster (I think American made),a set of Pachmayr Decelerator grips,the original bronze brush and two boxes of Fiocchi 148gr SJHP. In one of the boxes 5 cartriges were missing in action as he told me! One week later I went to the range with 50 Fiocchi 148gr SJHP and 50 Fiocchi 158gr CPTC. No problems of course: my 649 has an incredible accuracy, a good DA trigger (great in SA), and it is a really eye opener for the semiauto-only guys that attend the range. I was shooting at 15 yards in DA mode (the one I absolutly prefere) very slowly, staging the trigger and olding the gun like Jerry Miculek as I always do, just to test the accuracy.
I'm very happy to have finally found the gun I've desired for so long time.
I also own two other revolvers: a S&W 686 Plus 2,5'' barrel and a Ruger SP101 DAO.
Even if I'm italian and here, as you know, there are many great semiauto manufacturers (Beretta,Bernardelli,Tanfoglio and so on) I'm in love with revolvers. I also like semiauto (my father owns three) but I do prefer revolvers.
In the future I would purchase a 642 and a 340PD but to do that I must obtain a collector licence because here in Italy you can own only three "defensive" guns as mine are classified (can you belive that? Too bad).
This is my very first post on a thead, hope you appreciate this.
I will add pics of my beauties when I understand how to do that and when arrives the set of Pachmayr Compac Professional grips that I've ordered from Midway (the Decelerator are great for shooting but completely change the appearance of the gun).
Greetings from Italy,5-SHOTS.

5-shots welcome. Things must be slow in Italy if you read both threads. What part of Italy? My son spent Jan-May 2004 in Florence as part of his architecture studies at Kent State.

5-Shots, Welcome.

I was in Italy in back 1974. I was in the Italian Alps, then we went down to Viareggio on the western coast. I remember the Hotel was the Astor Hotel.

It was a beautiful place, untouched by "Americanism" back then.

Membership Application.

Like it so much the wifes gonna get it, and I'm getting another one.
(or maybe 340M&P...can't decide if the $$$ is worth it just to carry the .357 power).

My Christmas List for 2009

In Ohio I would take my S&W4506 and my Henry .22 lever action; in an environment with more dangerous four-legged animals I would probably choose my AR15 as the long gun. The 4506 is more than sufficient for two legged predators anywhere on this planet if I do my job. The 642 is a compromise not an ultimate solution.

Thanks for the welcome

308win and Inspector I really thank you.
I'm from Sardinia (the second main island of Italy a little bit smaller than Sicily). Yes,here the life is very long,slow and easy if you want and I do want that. I studied in Florence many years (I'm a mechanical engineer) and I was there in 2004. The world is a landing!
Greetings,5-SHOTS

5-shots It certainly is a small world! You and my son may have been wooing the same young ladies in the same bars. He and one of his roommates got to be very friendly with a group of Serbian emigrants that owned one or more night clubs and they paid my son to bring in business. He would go out and meet young female American tourists and steer them to these particular bars for which he drank and ate for nothing and was paid a fee per person. Not a bad gig. He made enough to take a couple of trips to Spain and Portugal and one trip to the French Riviera. He really liked Spain.

My younger brother is a retired LEO and lives on his sailboat. He has been talking about teaming up with another person or two and sailing to the Mediterranean to spend a winter. He has a 38 foot Hunter. It is big enough for deep water sailing but he has some reservations about whether it is really built for it. It has all of the electronics - navigation, communications, auto pilot, radar, etc. - for extended sailing.

308win: who knows? It is possible that I saw him somewhere in Florence during those months, maybe in a bar or in one of the night clubs you have told, taking a round on the streets or in the university refectories. I also have a chance to spend a holiday in Spain (Sevilla) with a friend both invited by some spanish girls we met in Florence but I couldn't do that due to university exams:banghead::banghead::banghead:. Instead my friend went there anyway...
I think that spanish people are very nice and frankly. Sardinia is very close to Spain in landscapes; maybe Sardinia is wilder. The beauty of Sardinia's coast-line is something of insuperable (this is for your brother).
I don't know how much his sail boat is tight but i wouldn't cross the Atlantic Ocean with anything but the battleship Missouri. Ok,I'm excessive.

And now let's talk about J-frames. Six or seven weeks before I purchased my 649-1 I tried a mid of '90 S&W 36. It was probably a transitional model: it had the square ejector star but also the hammer firing pin and the stock Uncle Mike's grips. That was the time I definitively felt in love with J-frames. It had the better factory trigger I ever tried on a revolver (and mine have very good triggers also); I was almost a sniper with it and I don't think that J-frame sights sucks. After I fired it I was almost touched. The owner, a really good IPSC shooter, told me that a bunch of people asked him to sell it but he always said no thanks. It was his very first handgun and it goes with him almost everywhere. After this experience I realized that I really do find the 649-1 I was looking for and finally got it.
The range I attend probably opens on February, I can't wait one month to shoot my Bodyguard again...
Greetings, 5-SHOTS

I haven't checked in for a long time (maybe a year or so) but I wanted to ask you "642 Sages" a question...
(By the way, I shoot a 637 with Hogue Bantam grips. I love this gun!)
My question is:
Do any of you trim a Speed Strip down to just four slots? I see most pictures here putting two rounds on either end of a six slot Speed Strip and I understand the concept for doing this but I wondered if anyone has had any experience with trimming off the tab and the two first adjoining slots and just leaving the last four slots for easy of pocket carry or possible carry in the coin pocket of your jeans. Any thoughts?? If this has been addressed, I'm sorry as I am only on page 60 of my 642 Part 2 required reading...!
Also,
Do any of you reload? I have found that a Lee Hand Press and some Lee .38 Special carbide dies (about $50.00 total cost) have totally taken the financial sting out of shooting this little critter. I usually load 158 gr. LSWC's over 4.6 gr. of Unique (a .5cc Lee scoops worth) and I absolutely love this round out of my snub.
Anyway...thoughts on the Speed Strip question??

Welcome back kmystry. I load 5 rounds on my speedloader. 3 and then 2, this works for me.

I also reload. I like 3 grains of Winchester 231 under a HBWC. For carry it's Buffalo Bore std pressure 158gr LSWCHP's

New to the boards, here's my 642.

I don't use speed strips

However, I do reload. I am working up a load and have various test loads using Speer 158g LSWCHP bullets. I also will be shooting these loads non+P.

I believe several of the test loads I have ready to check on paper include Unique powder.

Some new "black" S&W products


S&W 442 ported berrel




S&W 438 Bodyguard




S&W 442 pink grips

Try again


S&W 438 Bodyguard




S&W 442 pink grips




S&W 442 ported barrel




What do you think?

Well, last night I sacrificed a Speed Strip and cut it down to just the last four slots and guess what??? It worked wonderfully! I loaded up four dummy practice rounds (no primer or powder) with my favorite 158 gr. LSWC's and I started by loading the gun with spent casings (for safety) to emulate a totally fired cylinder, unloading quickly and then reloading with the modified Speed Strip...all in all I had the process down very quickly.

You start, of course, with a just-unloaded open cylinder and it is held open in the classical way with your left hand fingers through the open cylinder port so the cylinder can be turned with your left fingers. I found that using your right hand to hold the Speed Strips, load first from the bottom two slots, popping them in with your RIGHT THUMB and tearing off the Strip UP and BACK then slightly rotate the cylinder to the left with your left hand. At this point, you will find your RIGHT THUMB directly over the next two cartridges in the Strip. Proceed to load the top two slots as before with your RIGHT THUMB and then tear away the Strip with a DOWN and BACK motion by sliding the backside of your RIGHT MIDDLE FINGER down the Speed Strip and pulling on the Strip (DOWN and BACK) with your RIGHT THUMB and FOREFINGER. This enables you to close the cylinder almost every time on the lone empty slot lining up with the hammer (which is how you would want it for 4 continuous shots.)
It's actually much harder to explain how to do it than to just do it!! It comes quite naturally.
It works...try it!

I would NOT consider a ported barrel version.

Unless there were particular physical deficiency issues in hand strength.

There are two reasons for NOT having a ported barrel on a carry gun:

1. It does lessen the velocity, thereby reducing energy and bullet performance WRT to penetration, expansion, etc., and

2. The port may well also create a problem insofar as burns / blast / distraction for the shooter.

Other than that, the appearance and design issues are, IMO, strictly personal taste.

I prefer a DAO--YMMV.

Jim H.

A hearty welcome to all new club members!

kmystry - Thanks for the 2x2 speed strip lowdown.

I would NOT consider a ported barrel version.

Click to expand...

I'm with you Jim. Snubbies need all the velocity and sight radius that they can get, and that particular design offers neither.

rd

I'm not too sure of what to make of that pink grip...it might be ok for the better-looking half, but for me....um....I'd plead the case for keeping it REALLY concealed...!!

Well, it seems I am choosing the right snubbie for my next gun purchase. Very popular it is! I don't think I have enough time, ever, to read both of the huge club threads.

Anyway, hopefully I won't get ripped off too badly by my local gun shop, as his prices are pretty steep. But I have a few questions.

I've been looking at some ammo, and come across many differing opinions and suggestions for good SD rounds for the .38 snub nose. I have realized that +p is the way to go, but as far as grains, velocity and ft lbs I am confused on.

I've read here, and elsewhere that the Remington R38S12 158grain is some of the best that can be used. But I cannot find anywhere online that actually has some in stock. So I wanted to know what other ammo I could look for that is very effective. Could some of you give me some suggestions, maybe what you personally use?

I am very excited though, I think for my first revolver purchase, I cannot go wrong with the 642. I may even go today to order it if his prices aren't too absurd. BTW, whats a decent price point? It seems the 642 typically goes for under $500 in most every online place I have looked at. So I guess that is a good reference?

In central Ohio they can still be had for $369+tax.

Bought mine on auction yesterday

Although I'm sure the Internal Lock isn't an issue on the 642, I waited until I found one without (on an auction) and purchased it. I'll be using their Lay Away option, until all of the 'junque' that I put on EBay clears. My wife balked at me getting another gun, but didn't mind when she found out I was making space at home by getting rid of some of my 'junque' (she calls it "junk").

The 642 will go in my pocket when I'm not able to conceal my Glock 27. I can't wait to get it - I actually stopped at a gun store while on the way somewhere today just so I could play with one.

Google Robert Mika Holsters

and order yours now, as I'm sure his lead time is at least 8 weeks. Several months ago, when I ordered mine, the wait was about 6 weeks.

I got a round cut and a square cut. So far, I have only needed the round cut. The guy's holster is "perfection personafied!"

I had an Uncle Mikes pocket holster and half the time I pulled my 642 from my pocket, the holster would come out with it and my pocket would be half turned inside-out. With the Mika holster, they work JUST AS DESCRIBED ON HIS SITE -- that is, the holster has stayed in my pocket every time I have pulled my 642. In fact, it is actually a bit of work to pull both the holster & gun out of the pocket. I first have to pull the gun, then remove the holster.

Congratulations on your purchase! You won't be disappointed! See if you can get some Speer Gold Dot 135 grain +P ammo designed for Short Barrels!

Thanks Inspector! What are the advantages of either the Round or Square cut Mike holsters?