Call It a Weakness

Hi. My name is Daddy Hawk, and I have an addiction. I like guns. Some more than others. I have spoken of my love affair for firearms before and 1911s in particular. Say what you will about a 100+ year old horse pistol, but John Moses Browning made arguably the most enduring handgun design of all time. It's a home run of engineering and mechanical art in my humble opinion. 

That said, I have a confession to make. As much as I love a nice 1911, I would take a 3 inch Smith & Wesson K frame (or L frame for that matter) revolver over a 1911 just about any day of the week and twice on Sunday. 

I'm not going to get into the esoteric weeds of firearms Nerdvana detailing the history and development of the various frame sizes. Suffice it to say, you would be hard pressed to find a better balance of power and portability in a medium framed revolver. Here are a few choice examples of the breed stolen shamelessly from FaceBook and other places. 

Smith Model 10 (.38 Special). Per the creator of this custom masterpiece: it started life with a 4" barrel. A 3" heavy barrel from a Model 13 was put in its place, slab sided and the cylinder flutes slab sided off as well. Trigger and hammer replaced with polished stainless while the frame and barrel were reblued. A normal 4" Model 10 weighs in at around 34 ounces. This one should be about 4 to 6 ounces less. 

The same gunsmith that made the Model 10 above, tweaked this Model 65 (.357 Magnum). It was a police trade in with a 4' barrel. The 'smith swapped out the 4" barrel for a 3" barrel from a "Lady Smith" Model 65, gave it a matte stainless finish and polished the cylinder turn ring. That is just gorgeous in my opinion. 

Last up is a bone stock example of a 3" Model 686+ which is an L frame, 7 shot, .357 Magnum. It's a little heavier than the K frames, but it will handle a steady diet of the heaviest magnum rounds that would wear down K frames over time. The K frames are guns that you mainly shoot .38s out of and carry with magnums for serious purposes.

Modern, polymer, striker fired pistols have NOTHING on these revolvers aesthectically. Tell me those aren't beautiful, well balanced guns. I dare you.