I'm not much of a revolver guy, but here are my thoughts on the matter. Take them for what they're worth, which is probably what you've paid for them.
danez71 (the OP) talked about this being a "traveling gun," and mentioned hotels. So it's a "traveling gun," as opposed to a "camping gun."
danez71, what kinds of trips are we talking about here? IMHO, ammo availability only really becomes an issue if you want to go to the range while on the road. So the duration of your projected trips comes into play here. If you're talking about 2-3 days business trips where you're going to be in meetings from 8 to 5, you're probably not going to the range. If you're loading up a van and touring 4 states over a 6-week period, that's a different story.
With all of that said:
- I would expect everybody and his dog to carry 9mm and .38Spl;
- The .357 Mag LCR would give you a little extra flexibility, allowing you to practice with .38 and load it with .357 Mags as your carry round. As others have noted, the LCR is a bit brisk with .357s. I would call that an understatement, from what little experience I have with LCRs.
- Looking at bulk prices, .38Spl is actually more expensive than 9mm, and more than just a smidge. (This came as a surprise to me.) That said, most folks don't shoot hundreds of rounds at the range through small pistols.
Personally, I'd go with the .357 Mag. I don't know much about the .327 round, and it may be fine, ballistically speaking. But the .357 Mag gives a little more ammo flexibility. (I have a hard time imagining being able to find .357 Mag, but unable to find .38Spl, but I guess it could happen.) The extra weight should help tame a little of the recoil.
Again, worth what you've paid for it.
(Note from the OP/me: If this turns into a 'state bashing fest', I'll ask for it to be closed)
Spats has some good points/questions/statements that I'll address to put into perspective, more.
CA is shoving legislation to ban internet purchase/sale of ammo. Its been vetoed before (just a couple years ago) but there is no guarantee it will be again. I will be in CA for at least another 5 yrs before going back to AZ due to family reasons.
As much as I like the idea of the 327, its a 'No-Go' right now because its not on the shelf around me.
Regarding 'traveling gun' - I frequently go on 2-3 day trips to a little mountain community/ski resort (Frank probably knows it/about it) as well as other trips. CA is an 'unloaded and locked while driving' state. I
don't leave the gun in the hotel room (more like a group of small cabins). With dinners and breakfasts etc on a weekend trip with the wife, I'm unloading/reloading around 5 time or more.
Camping and woods (desert) activities - Id still mainly use my semi's and the LCR would be brought for fun and practice.
I acknowledge the crimp jump potential but I'm still not seeing
failures. The overwhelming reports of crimp jump are really that the bullet creeps out just a bit (doesn't fall out). That's why I've been sometimes calling it 'crimp creep'.
The worst Ive seen in terms of 'failures' is 1 obvious staged event on you tube, 1 report on some forum that was light on details, and the next worse was a ricochet and light sound that was attributed to crimp creep but could have also been a bad round from the factory. We've all seen report of squibs from factory ammo.
Given how much people like to inflate problems on the 'net,,,,, actual accounts of
failures must not be happening and crimp creep is being analyzed to the 'Nth degree. And you know that most of the rounds fired out of these are bulk-mart ammo.
Ive rationalized it to something that I should be aware of but not overly concerned with. I'll make sure the defense ammo for traveling isn't a problem and shoot bulk-mart ammo for fun.
I asked before, if someone can point me to believable reports of "failures" from crimp jump in 9mm LCR's, Id surely appreciate it.
Since my centerfire handguns are 9mm, the appeal of a 9mm revolver makes sense .
The equally ubiquitous 38 would require keeping another stash of reserve ammo, albeit, of lessor quantity. That's not something I'm eager to do. And of course I'll want to shoot it so that means replenishing 2 calibers instead of one. (Ill probably only buy 1 or 2 boxes of 357 in its/my life and just shoot 38's.)
Thanks to THR members and their thoughtful posts, Ive rationalized that, for me, the negatives of each choice are about equal. The mind is a wacky thing....
