Thanks, Prodigalshooter, I will check out Ranch Products.
farscott - you make very valid points. Moon clips are a question mark but if reliable then the sheer abundance and quality versions of 9mm ammunition make the little revolver at least interesting and useful. BTW, they are supposed to be coming out with lightweight versions of this revolver but not as of yet. For my purposes...mostly fun...all steel is just fine.
Stainz - ditto agreeing with you. I don't know if I can compare the "crack" since at the range I always wear both plugs and earmuffs, but the noise and blast of the Taurus seemed less than, say, .357 110 grain loads from a snubby Smith or Ruger. Just my perception, don't have any measurements.
Also, and this is just my own gut feeling, I can see the day, not too far off, when the wonderful 158 grain LSWCHP+P is a thing of the past. I think only Winchester, among the big 3, still offers it. My thinking is that with the abandonment of the service-model .38 special, there is less, much less, demand for that load and with the increased popularity of extremely lightweight snubbies in .38 special, we see more and more development in the 125 grain and even lighter category. They are nice loads, but to me the big virtue of the .38 special is that big ol' (relatively) heavy lead load. Given a choice between 125 grains at 900 fps and 115 grains at 1050-1100 or so, I'll take the latter more often than not. I hope I'm wrong about the big .38 load, but good 9mm loads are abundant and likely to be so for the foreseeable future. I just see the 158 LHP as slowly fading from abundant supply and more options are better than less options.