Today, we have medium-sized revolvers in easy-to-carry weights that fire .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .44 Special, .45 Colt, and even the mighty .41 Magnum.
For each such gun that finds its way into the field, there are several small-frame “super-lights” that are being carried in .22 Long Rifle, .32 Magnum, .38 Special, and even .357 Mag. The majority of these are .38s.
The reason the little super-lights are so much more popular than the big ones doesn’t have much to do with the fact that they’ve been around just a little bit longer. It’s a convenience thing. There is a huge market among civilians with CCWs and cops already overburdened with equipment. People want small, powerful handguns that don’t drag and sag when worn on the body. Let’s examine some of the weight standards we’re talking about.
A seven-shot L-frame snubby is a good “envelope” for the ultra-light .357 concept.
Smith & Wesson’s Centennial “hammerless” revolver is a case in point. I own them in all four of the different weight configurations. It’s interesting to see how they “weigh in,” in more ways than one.
Model 640 all-steel
This is one of the first of the re-issued Centennials, produced circa 1990 with the frame stamped +P+. I’ve always carried mine with the 158-grain +P FBI loads. It shoots exactly where the sight picture looks. It is very accurate, and head-shots at 25 yards are guaranteed if I do my part. Recoil with the +P is stiff; not fun, but not hard to handle either. Shooting a 50-round qualification course with it is no problem. It weighs 19.5 ounces unloaded.
Model 442 Airweight aluminum-frame
As with the 640, this gun’s barrel and cylinder are machined entirely from solid ordnance steel. This gun shoots where it is aimed. It is reasonably accurate. A perfect score on the 50-round “qual” course may not be fun with the now distinctly sharper recoil, but it is not my idea of torture, either. A perfect score on the qualification isn’t that much harder to achieve. The more visible sight configuration on the newest Airweights helps here. Weight is 15.8 ounces unloaded.
A recoil-absorption glove is a most useful accessory when shooting the lightest, smallest-frame revolvers!
Here are the four S&W Centennials discussed in this chapter. From top: all-steel, Airweight, AirLite Ti, and AirLite Sc.
Top, a factory brushed nickel Model 442 Airweight, and below, an AirLite Ti. Both have Crimson Trace LaserGrips. The lower gun is one third lighter, but feels twice as vicious in recoil. The author prefers the Airweight for his own needs.
Model 342 AirLite Ti
This gun’s barrel is a thin steel liner wrapped inside an aluminum shroud, and its cylinder is made of Titanium. Like most such guns I’ve seen, it hits way low from where its fixed sights are aimed. I cannot shoot +P lead bullets (the “FBI Load”) in it because the recoil is so violent it pulls them loose. Jacketed +P is the preferred load. The one qualification I shot with this was with jacketed CCI 158-grain +P. Recoil was so vicious I was glad I had a shooting glove in the car. When it was over, I was down two points. Rather than try again for a perfect score, I took what I had. It was hurting to shoot the thing. This gun is not as accurate as the all-steel or Airweight, putting most .38 Special loads in 3-inch to 7-inch groups at 25 yards. Weight, unloaded, is 11.3 ounces.
Model 340 Sc Scandium
Chambered for .357 Magnum, this gun manages not to tear up the FBI load in the gun’s chambers, but doesn’t shoot it worth a damn for accuracy. Admittedly, this isn’t the most accurate .38 Special cartridge made, but the load gives me about 5 inches at 25 yards in my Airweight, versus 15 inches of what I can only call spray out of this gun, with bullets showing signs of beginning to keyhole. This gun also shot way low. Recoil with Magnum loads was nothing less than savage. The little Scandium beast was somewhat more accurate with other rounds, but not impressively so. After five rounds, the hands were giving off that tingling sensation that says to the brain, “WARNING! POTENTIAL NERVE DAMAGE.” When passed among several people who shoot .44 Magnum and .480 Ruger revolvers for fun, the response was invariably, “Those five shots were enough, thanks.” I didn’t even try to shoot a 50-shot qualification with it. Unloaded weight is 12.0 ounces.
The little notch at the tip of ramped front sight is an improvement on current S&W J-frame snubbies with all-steel barrels. This is the LadySmith Airweight.
Accuracy is in the barrel assembly. The 342 AirLite Ti, left, has a thin barrel within a shroud, and a too-high sight that makes shots print low. The conventional one-piece steel barrel of Airweight LadySmith, right, delivers better groups and proper sight height puts shots “on the money.”
The thin steel barrel sleeves of the Ti and Sc guns just don’t seem to deliver the accuracy of the all-steel barrels of the Airweight and all steel models. All four guns are DAO, so it wasn’t the trigger. The same relatively deteriorating accuracy was seen in the super-lights with mild .38 wadcutter ammo and big Pachmayr grips, so it wasn’t the recoil. To what degree this is important to you is a decision only you can make.
Now, let’s put all that in perspective. In the 1950s when all this ultra-light gun stuff started, Jeff Cooper defined the genre as meant to be “carried much and shot seldom.” Alas, the days when we can do that are over, at least in law enforcement. Any gun we carry on the job is a gun we are required to qualify with repeatedly. As I look at my 340 Sc and 342 AirLite Ti, it occurs to me that if I’m deliberately going to do something that hurts like hell, I should go to Mistress Fifi’s House of Pain and at least get an orgasm out of the deal.
The Model 340 Sc 12-ounce “baby Magnum” was among the first S&Ws to receive integral lock treatment; note keyway above cylinder latch.
A warning on the barrel shroud of AirLite Sc: it reads, 357 S&W MAG/NO LESS THAN 120 GR BULLET.
This is why, for my own small backup revolver needs, I tend toward either the Model 442 or the Ruger SP-101. While the latter gun is even heavier than the Model 640, it fires the .357 Magnum round with very controllable
