I was wondering if people use 5 or 6 round strips. I have some tuff quick strips and the tab is maybe a half-inch? I was thinking that a 6 round would give more of something to get a solid hold on. Or maybe I'm missing something?

My Tuff 5 round strip works very well, retention of the rounds if fantastic.

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Never Forget

For my .38 Special Airweights, I use the six round Bianchi speed strips with four rounds on the end opposite the tab and also sometimes use the eight round Tuff strips with four or five rounds in the middle so I can grab the strip with either end.

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Centennial Every Day

I use six round strips, either Bianchi or Tuff, and load with six rounds. I know it is only a five round gun, but six rounds gives me the ability to fumble one, or have an extra. I can also use the same six round strips for my K-frames.

Tom

I use 6 round Bianch strips loaded with 5 rounds. No issues for me w/ round retention (or lack thereof).

I have mostly the Bianchi 6 shot speed strips and only a single 5 round Tuff strip. I use the Tuff strip when using my Safariland dump pouch that will hold 6 loose rounds, or a single speed strip with 5 rounds. I recently acquired an older Safariland double dump pouch designed for LEO use (looks like it came off of Barney Fife's gunbelt), and after removing the inner plastic boxes that gave the dump pouch shape, and helped to protect the ammo, I found that each pouch would hold a 6 round Bianchi speed strip quite nicely. After a lot of thought, I concluded that my chances of having to do a speedy reload were pretty remote. As a result, I prefer to fully load my speed strips.

Best of luck,

Dave

I use the 6-round Bianchi, with 6 rounds. I like having the extra round.
Bob

I have both, 5 round Tuff and 6 round Bianchi, I prefer Bianchi, they are easier to reload, more supple. If you practice with then you can load 2 at a time. they are easy to carry and you get an extra round. If you don't want to carry six, then you have more plastic to grab when you're in a hurry.

Best, Rick

DITTO, when I carry my 642 solo. When I carry my 686+ and my 642 as a BUG, I carry 2 Bianchi 6 rounders fully loaded. This gives me 12 rounds, which is a complete reload for both guns..

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

Thanks. I'll get some 6 round and see which I like better. This revolver stuff is all new to me; Stock grips don't work well with speedloaders so what's the point of them? Complicated And being a lefty doesn't make it any easier it seems. But the damn thing sure is small and light...

What grips have you tried with speedloaders?

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Centennial Every Day

Just curious, is the 642 in your pocket or an ankle holster? I've thought about carrying my 442 as a backup to my 1911, but if I can't hit anything with 22 rounds of .45 then I'll probably be dead before I can even get a backup out.

I just qualified with a 686... damn nice gun to shoot.

Whatever comes stock so far. I've read there's a lot that are better. I'd love to find some that are actually sold in stores so I can easily return them. My wife's model 60 seems to have the same problem from what I can tell; at least with the HKS's. I'm going to go visit Cabela's tomorrow to see what they might have. Most of the stores here in Reno don't have cr*p, which is strange for a gun-friendly state.

Yep. Unfortunately, my favorite grip, the Uncle Mike's Combat grip is no longer made. Works well with all the speedloaders I have, has provision for three fingers and is rubber for recoil reduction.

Craig Spegel's beautiful wood grips work well with speedloaders but they are a bit expensive.

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Centennial Every Day

Hey Bob...those are beautiful grips on your bodyguard. May I ask who made them? Are they Spegels'? They are just what I've been looking for.

If I am carrying on my belt in an old Bianchi 22 Dump Pouch I use the 6 shot Strips. I use this ammo carrier for both my 638 and 64 when wearing a holster.

For jacket pocket or vest carry, I carry the Tuff Products 7 Round strips with 5 rounds loaded in them. This gives a better hold on the strips for loading.

I also have some 5 shot Tuff Products strips I bought first before getting the 7 rounders that you can hold on to better. I keep 5 shot shells in one of them for topping off my snake loads.

Bob

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ICORE MO2908

The 6 shot ones work a little better (supple). I now use 5 shot only because I have a belt pouch that will only fit the 5 rounds type. It really is not enough of a difference to worry about.

I picked up a set of Pachmayer Compact Professional grips today. Small and not finger grooves. But speedloaders seem to work fine. I also bought a couple of Safariland loaders. I like how the rounds don't move around like the HKS's I have now. And a Bianchi Minimalist belt holster. Seems like it's going to work well.

Try a 8 strip using it for two 4 shot reloads.

Great, then I'll have to figure out how to always put the cylinder back so the first chamber isn't empty. Practice I know. I like the strips even if they are slower. I may end up returning the safariland's tomorrow just because I have enough things to practice with already.

Concur with Rick.

Damn, I thought revolvers were easy. It's learning all over again.

When I went into a local store today to get a semi-decent holster I told the guy that the clip-IWB was just too wide. He looked at me funny... too wide? Yeah, I said and pulled it out of my bag. It's wider than my 1911. Not exactly comfortable or concealable as far as I'm concerned. So that's when I picked up the Bianchi belt holster. I'm thinking about getting a Rosen ARG since the belt loop is off-set from the holster itself. Unless people have other opinions. His express line is great as far as I'm concerned. I have several items for daily use. When I visited his shop I looked over his custom stuff... nice.... but he steered me to the express line because it would serve my needs. Bad business? Good business? I don't know. All I know is that he has a somewhat bad rep on the 1911 boards as having a 'big head', but from my experience he's a great guy. And his dog is nice too, which is usually a nice indicator of someone.

The Ayoob Rear Guard is a great design if you like IWB. I tend to either pocket carry or belt carry my 642's.

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Centennial Every Day

I've never thought seriously about pocket carry. Even given it's size it still seems big. Ankle maybe. Belt is my primary method. For my 1911 I either wear an untucked shirt or dinner jacket if the situation calls for it. But pocket with a pair of dress pants sounds reasonable. ? Jeans, I'm not so sure. Unless I could try it out before plunking down the $.

I bought the 442 because 1. I wanted something that was similar to my wife's model 60 so she could use it, and 2. something that would be good when I didn't need/want a fullsize .45. But I'm having a hard time getting away from the mind set of the big piece of iron within reach. Just takes time I guess. Because I really know it will fill a niche. It's just finding that spot. /shrug.
Today's trip to the range where I was actually able to put everything but one in the kill zone was comforting. Granted, it was 15 feet; but, it's not exactly a long range firearm, and I understand that.

I carry the 6-shot Tuff Products Quick Strip with 4 rounds in a Simply Rugged ammo pouch on my left side. Here's how I load the strip:



I use Ayoob's "scalpel" hold, where I lay my index finger along the back of the strip with the tip of my finger over the first round, my thumb along the side, and the tip of my middle finger over the last empty space. The ammo pouch is a spill-type pouch, so when I pop the flap it falls into the scalpel hold in my hand. The grip and 4-round spacing I use gives me a pretty good grip and minimizes the chance of fumbling the reload.

You should try a variety of techniques and equipment, as much as your resources will allow, and see what works best for you.

I use 7 round Tuff strips to standarize one device for everything from my 686+ to j-frames.

The technique sounds good, but it still leaves one chamber empty. Do you think, under stress, that you would get the chambers lined up correctly? I know it's a complete unknown, but this is the place for such talk I think. I can't help but wonder if I could slap a magazine in under stress, let alone lining up cylinders with one empty.

The important thing is to get ammo in the chambers, even if you only get 1 or 2 rounds loaded. If the attacker is still a threat, pull the trigger. If the gun goes "click," pull the trigger again, and keep pulling the trigger until either the attacker is no longer a threat or you run out of ammo.

Hi Bob, I would also like to know who made those great grips. Thanks, John

Please don't take this personal.... And I'm in no way trying to start a flame-fest, but...to me, this sounds moronic.
When fractions of a second mean the difference between whether I die or survive, I want the gun to go bang! when I pull the trigger.
If I only have time to get 1 or 2 in the cylinder, then that's fine. But if I can get it loaded all the way up, I will.
Choosing to load only 4 is playing Russian Roulette!

Those stocks on my stainless 649 were made by the late John Hurst, retired LAPD copper, master grip maker and probably the best marksman the LAPD ever produced. Unfortunately, John's been dead now for a couple of years and stopped making stocks several years before that. Here's some other sets he made for me.
Bob

Fractions of a second are indeed important in the unlikely event I need to perform a reload. That's why I have 4 rounds in a strip with the spaces I use. I want it as fumble proof as possible, especially since I keep my eyes scanning for threats rather than watch what my hands are doing while reloading. I also want to get the rounds in as quickly as possible. The first pair of rounds has 5 possible chambers to go into. The second pair has 3 possible chambers to go into. These are pretty good odds for geting the gun reloaded. A 5th round in the strip has just 1 chamber to go into and takes just as long to load as each of the previous pairs, if not longer. I can trigger past an empty chamber faster than I can load a single round from a speed strip.

The obvious solution is to go with a speedloader, but they're not as easy to conceal as a strip. Belt pouches are not as concealable and my experience with Split-Six type pouches have not been as positive as my experience with the spill-type ammo pouch/strip combo. In my experience carrying a speedloader in a pocket slows down the reload and reduces the speed advantage over strips carried on the belt.

I will stand by my method until such time I find something that works better for me.

For what it's worth, here's the reload setup I use.

The Dillon dump pouch carries one Bianchi speed strip. The male-snapped portion flops down when unsnapped, leaving the strip in your hand. I like the design because you don't have to undo your belt to place it there - the open flap pulls up behind the belt from below and then folds down for fast attachment.

I carry 6 rounds - better too many than not enough, in my opinion. I load two at a time from the top twice, and then one. The spare round is just gravy.

The pouch is flat, which makes it almost invisible under a covering tail-out shirt, as compared to speed loaders that "print" way too much for my preference.

The 442 is set up with Barami Hip-grips and a Tyler T-grip. It's carried invariably in my right front Levi's pocket.

I think it's a pretty optimal combination; at least it works for me.

John

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Experiment some and you will see how long it takes to get that 5th round in! It does add a significant amount of time to the reload.

My recommendation is to carry a second gun, then speedloaders, but I understand that option is not always easy to do.

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Centennial Every Day