[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Those are great guns, Steve, but they are HUGE as far as .38/.357's go. N frame Smiths are simply big guns, no two ways about it. 27/28's are great plinker and fun guns, but pretty impractical to carry, even in the woods. Just too heavy.

That's what spawned the K frame 19's, as a matter of fact. Bill Jordan talked S&W into it, reasoning that it was better to carry a .38 all day long that could shoot a limited number of .357's in a pinch (like on duty), than it was to carry a full size .357 that you could practice with with .38's in it.

I love my M19 and feed it as intended. My daily plinking load is the RCBS .38-150 SWC over 5.0 grains of 231 for about 900 fps. Easy on the gun, easy on the shooter. When I'm carrying it, it gets the same bullet over either 14.5 grains of 2400 or 16 grains of 296 for just about 1,300 fps. It changes the character of the gun entirely. It's also rather obvious the poor little thing isn't going to put up with much of that. While the 27/28 would, you still don't want to yourself.

So, if you want something to carry, I would highly recommend the smaller K frames over the N frames. If it's just going to be a plinker and/or nightstand gun, then you can't go wrong with the bigger N frame. It's all about how you are going to use it.

I carry a 6" 28-2 in the woods all the time. Don't really notice it is there to tell the truth other than when it hits something, especially in the briar patch.