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I took our friend out to our local sportsman’s club to try out her new Ruger LCR Double-Action Revolver (. 38 special), with Crimson Trace Laser sites today. After our test run, I think I may get my wife a Bersa 380 instead, which she has fired before and loved.  One of the problems for some women is the slide action on a pistol. It is too hard on my S&W M&P9 for our friend to operate, and it is difficult for my wife. So a revolver seemed like a better choice. And for concealed carry, we want a safe, smaller firearm. A revolver is unlikely to go off by accident and the S&W is too big to carry, but  we found out today that there are difficulties with a revolver…

Years ago, I had a snub nose 38, but I found I could not hit the broadside of a barn with it. The double-action trigger’s pull was so hard that I was all over the place with it. Using the LCR, even with it’s lighter trigger action, reminded me of the problems with revolvers in general. A couple of helpful gentlemen at our sports club suggested we use dummy rounds (empty shells) with the laser to see how our trigger pull caused motion in the barrel.  Even using the two handed stance, it was amazing to see how much the trigger pull caused the laser to move off target.   We got better as we practiced, and I dare say, someone attacking within 10 feet would be in a heap of trouble, but it was difficult to score bulls eyes with the revolver. Out of 50 rounds, we probably got it in the black 5 times.

The other issue was the site position. Because of either the gun’s layout or our wrist action when pulling the trigger (and inadvertently moving the barrel!), to get the shot on target, I had to put the front site over and above the target. A shot using the traditional 6-o’clock position made me shoot way too low. Let’s just say, I would have made a male attacker, at 25 feet, into a soprano.  At 5 to 10 feet, the revolver is deadly, but down the hall, you might scare him to death before you did any real damage.  The bottom line, the hefty trigger pull for a woman, or including someone like me, not used to revolvers, makes using the LCR more difficult than I imagined.

Just to make sure I wasn’t just off my game, I picked up my M&P9 and put 9 out of 9 in the black or the bulls eye right way. The difficulty of the double action makes me wonder if the S&W Bodyguard, with the lighter trigger action, might not be a better deal for most people, in spite of the bad placement of the laser activator.  However, I am now re-thinking my desire to get a revolver for concealed carry.  I will take my wife to check out the slide action on a Bersa to see if that makes more sense for us.