The 5 1/2" Redhawk can handle rounds that will turn a Smith into a pile of stainless shards. My favorite Self defense revolver was my 2.5" Python, followed by the 2" Cobra. Wish I still had both.
Why do you suppose there are there so few of those 5.5-inch Ruger Redhawks available?
The phrase "wish I still" is one of the most common on gun forums. It's a hard lesson. When one reflects on what one needed the money for, or which guns they think they needed to trade for, it's a phrase I oft hear repeated. I don't think I ever would have ever gotten a 2.5-inch Python as the 4-inch or 6-inch Python is a far more desirable gun, but I've been through these things. It's like breaking up with a girl you deeply love, but it's far more painful. Sometimes you think you want something like a laptop computer or a digital camera, and you think you can make it up later. Or you think you want a car. Meh. (As a friend once said, if you have a gun you can always get a car. But if you have a car, you can't always get a gun. He was very wise, my friend!)
I tend to trust a gun with power. A 4" .357 has that, so that is what I tend to prefer.
My last defense revolver was a Speed Six .357 mag., which could handle any sitrep, that I can imagine.
Yes. Even many gun afficianados underestimate the power of the .357. But the power has to be tamed. The most ferocious animal in North America would have to be a bear or a cougar, I think. A friend was checking fenceposts for his father-in-law's huge ranch in Utah years ago when a cougar dropped from a tree and rushed him. He quickly drew his Dan Wesson .357 revolver from his shoulder holster and fired two rounds, the first of which missed. The second shot dropped the beast in its tracks. Like me, my friend was a cat lover and when he called the incident in, he was told not to touch the body. Some ranch hands decapitated the animal and sent its head to the CDC in Denver.
"It was the most beautiful animal I'd ever seen," he told m me. His remorse was short-lived, however, when the CDC reported to him a few days later that the animal was rabid. Several of the more experienced ranch hands had suspected as much when told it had happened during the day and because it was an unprovoked attack.
S&W Model 19 4". One of the finest SD revolvers of all time. IMHO.
Yes, but all I hear is Colt Python this and Colt Python that. Price aside, if given the choice between a mint S&W 19 with countered chambers and a stamped sideplate and a mint Python, I'd take the Python, especially if the Model 19 was a Model 66 (2.5-inch, please). I think there was a time when you could have gotten both a Model 19
and a Model 13 for what you could have gotten a Colt Python for.
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