I shot 50=60 rounds today. Though carry up was a bit tight on a couple of chambers, this quickly regulated itself(as is the expectation with out of the box da revolvers) and it arrived at a very smooth, unstaged pull. Having shot a variety of 2" snub revolvers, I found this one instinctive with no "retraining" needed. The sights are visible and well regulated on this example and the revolver easy to shoot effectively. These were fired about 1 second apart:
The recoil is a bit stiff but not enough to shift the grip in my hand. I think it might distract or fatigue a new shooter. I had partially regulated the laser sight before leaving home and refined the adjustment at the range. Before I did any regulation, I fired five shots on the head of this target at a slow pace.(my first shots from the gun) The head of the target was in partial shade and it was barely possible to find the laser dot at 50 feet. The part of the target in bright sunlight obscured the laser entirely as did the black target board.
Indoors, and in the dusk, the dot is instantly visible and usable from some pretty odd shooting positions-however useless it is in bright sunlight or open shade..
These arrived locally a few days ago and are selling slower than the LCPs. They are also selling at the prices mentioned by other posters with mine retailed in the $660s and coming out about $735 with tax. The may well sell for less after the current prevailing disorder but right now, its a seller's market. I don't begrudge seven bills for a perfectly functioning concealment arm with many practical advantages. - particularly when the businesses will see the bulk of their sales gurgling down the porcelin vortex when the current buying frenzy dries up.
Currently there are very few 38 special rounds available. Our local stores have almost enough to allow purchasers a single box and do not sell them otherwise. There are no premium loads including the +P 135 grain speer goldot snub load which really does expand at 960 odd fps from a 2" gun. The bullets themselves are unavailable even if you stocked up on primers a few monts ago. I used a bulk machine cast 158 swc over 3.5 grains of bullseye and a hornady 158 grain swchp over 3.7 bullseye. The first load gets 743 fps from a 2" smith j frame which is right there with the standard 158 RNL for velocity.The lead hollow point will expand at 950 fps but I expected nothing of the kind from this standard velocity loading. I was not dissappointed. Even though I bored out the hollow cavity to one eighth inch ,beveled the cavity and stressed the inside with a sharp knife, the bullets, fired through one foot of water and into dry telephone books, didn't expand a whit. I did find the penetration to be quite comforting though.
The first look at these by long term gun people produces disgust at the overall appearance and the notion of plastic for major structural parts. I believe that new shooters- a great many of whom are not gun enthusiasts at all, might not be put off by the appearance at all. Although I developed an early prejudice in favor of classic Smith Hand Ejectors, I do not find the LCR at all hard to look at. The early reports I've seen on these -some even from credible sources- are not turning up functional problems with them. Prior to purchase, I fed lead bullets into the chambers and otherwise established that there were no gross diameter differences as have shown up on another recent Ruger innovaton and some long standing production revolvers from the company. There is no uneven case swelling nor any tendency for fired rounds to stick in any of the chambers. The indwelling key-lock is out of sight, unapproachable short of removing the grips and not so far, prone to self-engagement and spontaneious de-wat of the weapon. This is a Martha Steward Good Thing.