I have a half dozen S&W J frame 38's. Round butt, square butt, Bodyguard, Centennial etc.
With a 5 gallon bucket of 38's loaded, I went out to play. I have a 3/8 steel cutout in the shape of a standard police silhouette. Mounted on some heavy coil springs and to a tractor rim base.
I shot them all out to 25-30 yds, single and double action. Shot while moving and so on.
Then at 10 yds played with a gun in each hand.
It really didnt matter what the pairing was. The double action motion was consistent and hits were easy. I then tried to swap out one S&W for a colt detective special. WOW! The length of cycle was so much longer ( and smoother) it threw my brain way off. I usually ended up with only 3 shots fired from the colt, to a full cylinder of the S&W, from not completing the full da cycle on the colt.
I set up a police silhouette beside my steel one, and did some two gun, two target shooting at 7 yds. That was hard, and not practical, but fun to try anyway.
I'm sure PD Shooter has done a bunch of this stuff, would like to hear what he does for fun shooting.

Interesting. Conclusions?

I to prefer the S@W type trigger over the colt.

When my eyes were younger I found that the smaller revolvers very accurate.

Making first round hits at 50yards was easy.

I once killed a yote at 32 steps with a 125gr Rem JHP out of my 2 inch 38. Bang flop took him right below the chin and broke his neck.

I have done a lot of right and left hand shooting but never two pistol at one time.

My back up handgun for years was a 2in 38 and 125grJHP's rode very nicely in a shoulder holster.

Good revolvers are tough to beat in the right hands.

Conclusions....
One gun, properly aimed is the way to go. It offers the least chance of mistakes when the pressure is on.
But, with practice, at close range, you could lay down a good deal of firepower with two guns. Two guns and two targets is just fun for hand eye coordination. I dont think there is any practical value.
If someone used just a Colt detective, it would be a doozy, it's so smooth. I shoot more S&W revolvers, so it's not as natural for me.
PD, did you ever chrono the speed of your carry load in your 38?

I feel the same about the actions on Smiths, shorter and when properly tweaked if necessary smoother and therefore better for accuracy at least for me. The J Frame smiths are very good carry revolvers and are easy to hide reliable and accurate although it truly is hard to master and requires a lot of trigger time. It is to me the best backup pistol and in a full contact attack the best to retain in a struggle. As for J frames, to me the old ones are best and I will never be without one.

quote:

PD, did you ever chrono the speed of your carry load in your 38?

125gr rem JHP 930fps out of a 2 inch

quote:

If someone used just a Colt detective, it would be a doozy, it's so smooth.

I have a 1973 colt cobra.

I find my self short stroking the trigger on it.

I have some where north of a hundred thousand rounds through Ruger and S@W revolvers.

99 percent of them double action.

There is enough difference with the colt that it causes me a bit of trouble.

Interesting thread.
I’ve had a Colt Detective Special for many years and carry it often. One nice feature is I can use my Smith K frame speedloaders. Even shot a few snubby matches when they still did them. I like the way it fits much better than the Smith J frame. I really wanted to like the little Smith’s having several K frame revolvers but no matter how much I tried different grips it’s just too small for my large hands to be consistent with.

quote:

One nice feature is I can use my Smith K frame speedloaders.

Same with my cobra.

PD shooter,
interesting you could short stroke it, with just the colt in hand.
Goes to show how strong muscle memory is from your S&W's.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
PD shooter,
interesting you could short stroke it, with just the colt in hand.
Goes to show how strong muscle memory is from your S&W's.

I can differently out run the trigger on it. When shooting a slower double action pace no trouble.

But when I try to shoot it as fast as my Smiths or Ruger's. I end up short stroking it and not getting cly. rotation on it.

As I stated before well north of a hundred thousand rounds fired and then close to ten times that dried fired.

So I would say my fingers are well tuned to S@W and Ruger styled triggers.

We had on our department an old ex Vietnam vet former spook that could that could shoot expert on the old 50 yard police course with a model 36 snubby. I have never seen anybody that good with the short barreled pistol before,

quote:

Originally posted by Rolland:
We had on our department an old ex Vietnam vet former spook that could that could shoot expert on the old 50 yard police course with a model 36 snubby. I have never seen anybody that good with the short barreled pistol before,

The handguns are very capable of fine accuracy it the shooter that is the limiting factor.

Colts stack and S&Ws release as you double action pull. Always been that way and that's why S&W was more popular with bad guys and cops. Both actions can be greatly improved, IMO S&W are the better of the two, the python might be the exception!

I qualified with a Chief special mod 36 Lwt ( 37 )every 9o days mostly about 80 but a few times low 90s, required double action..whe I retired they gave me the gun at the party..I mostly carried a 9mm Browning HP and shot in the high 90s..I gave it to my grand son..

I owned a Model 37 3 inch for a short while.

But back then I didn't own many handguns and doing a high volume of shooting. With the ones I had.

I knew I would have worn it out.

So I sold it.

A buddy of mine who has been in a wheelchair for most of his adult life, carried a bodyguard in his pants pocket. I asked him why he didnt carry something flat, a PPK or the like.
No, he said, a revolver is bulky and doesnt look like anything but a handkerchief. He pulled it out of his pocket, and stuck between the cylinder and barrel was a dime. Wedged in tight enough I had to get pliers to remove it!

Im very comfortable with a S&W mod 36 or 37 with the hammer de-horned and a double action trigger job..