I switched. I carried J frames for the last half dozen years or so, always on the belt, never in a pocket - my front pants pockets are already full of stuff I'm not going without (money, small flashlight, knives.) And I never found drawing from a pocket to be convenient or reliable unless I was standing up, so . . . belt carry. I like the dead nuts reliability, and even the possiblity of shooting through a jacket pocket (to which the gun has been discreetly transferred from the belt holster) with a revolver. Carried 38s and, for a while, 32 Magnums - an extra round, and with Buffalo Bore ammo just about as much muzzle energy as a 158g 38 Special +P.

And I could shoot 'em all pretty well, but not for very long. I couldn't stand more than a dozen or so full power loads out of any 2" J frame, whether alloy or steel, without it starting to hurt. (Alloy guns do hurt more and sooner, but even steel gets uncomfortable - for me - real fast. I can't even shoot a 120-round IDPA match with 38 Specials in a 3" K frame unless it has a cushioned grip on it, and that's spread over several hours.)

Recently, I had a chance to try several of the micro 9mm autos, and did so to prove that they were even worse than J frames in the pain department and so I could stop even thinking about 'em. But I found the opposite to be true - went through over 100 rounds checking 4 different guns, and ALL were comfortable to shoot, even the last magazine out of the last gun tested. (This test took less than an hour.) And none had a single malfunction of any sort (they were all well broken in rental guns.)

The attraction of comfortable practice coupled with the additional capacity and near-instant reloadability made me decide to switch pretty much on the spot. The fact that there is now an IDPA class for these guns is a bonus - so I can compete with what I carry like I did when I carried a Glock 26, but can NOT do with a J frame outside of the rare (around here) BUG gun match.

So I picked a 9mm Shield for its best-accuracy and -capacity among those I tested, and the $75 rebate helped close the deal. I have almost 1000 failure-free rounds through it so far, and am delighted with the choice. Turns out that using 147g Speer Gold Dots or Federal HSTs I get a bit more energy than I had with Remington 158g 38 Special +Ps or Buffalo Bore 100g 32 Magnums out of any of my J frames, so I'm even a bit ahead there. AND I can stand to practice with that power level (using lead bullet reloads for practice - lots of 'em.)

As for dumping the revolvers, that remains to be seen. Will probably sell some of the 32s, keeping a couple just because they're fun and accurate to shoot with soft ammo. I'll sell my 49 simply because I'm never going carry a blue gun again, and maybe the 640 because it would probably bring the most. The several alloy 38 J frames show some (or a lot of) carry wear, and so wouldn't bring much in a sale - they may just hang around for my kids to argue over.