I have a soft spot for 3" .357 Magnums as they seem to be the sweet spot for concealed carry balancing conceal-ability with reasonable ballistic efficiency if you choose the load well.
I found a S&W Model 13-3 in the 3", round butt, un-shrouded heavy barrel FBI configuration in the local gun shop at an excellent price due to some carry wear. That was actually perfect as I tend to shoot what I buy and I tend to shy away from uncommon revolvers that are in excellent condition as I feel guilty shooting them.
While it's been carried a bit it appeared to have very few rounds put through it with very tight lockup, minimal end play, no end shake, and an superb trigger that is crisp, clean and breaks at 3.5 pounds in SA mode and somewhere slightly north of 9 pounds in DA mode.
The FBI started issuing these to agents as the standard sidearm in 1980 and retained it as the standard agent sidearm until 1991, using both the standard .38 +P 158 gr LSWC load as well as .357 Magnum 145 gr Winchester Silvertip.
As I recall, they let agents nearing retirement keep them rather than switch to the short lived S&W 1076, and extended the same deal a couple years later with the P226 and P228. In fact, I don't think they disappeared entirely for a few years after the Glock 22 and 23 were adopted in 1997.
I found that the standard grip was well suited for concealed carry and was fine with .38 Special loads, but wasn't comfortable to shoot with .357 Mag loads. As I recall, the FBI used a grip insert like the Tyler T-grip with it to keep the middle finger from getting rapped by the trigger guard. It's needed with .357 Mag loads, and some of the wear on the revolver suggests this one had one at one time.
I initially tried a Hogue Monogrip on it, as I like them on my J-Frame S&Ws. It was very comfortable with .357 Mag loads, but in addition to being a little too long for good concealment, it also didn't work well on the Model 13 as the left side of the grip interfered with a speed loader. A rather epic fail on a revolver intended for tactical use.
Another local gun shop had a Pachmayr Compac grip in stock for a round butt K frame and it turned out to be ideal for the Model 13. It's small enough to conceal well, and the smaller size helps given that a 3" K-frame is bordering on the slightly too large size of conceal-ability with a larger/longer grip. The Compac grip also works very well with my Model 10 HKS speed loaders, and stress fire pattern reloads are quick and positive.
It makes the whole package notably more compact than the similar sized (just slightly larger) Speed Six. The Pachmayr Gripper grips on my 2 3/4 Speed Six push it over the edge size wise and unfortunately, it's the only grip Pachmayr makes for the Service/Security/Speed Six models, and they no longer catalog a grip at all for the round butt Speed Six.
------
With the Pachmayr Compac grip installed 150 rounds of .38 Special 158 gr LSWCs were very pleasant to shoot and the 50 rounds of my .357 Mag 125 gr self defense load were a little more sporty to shoot, but didn't cause any discomfort at all over the entire 50 rounds.
As noted above the trigger is excellent on this revolver and while the DA pull is somewhere slightly above the 9 pound limit of my trigger pull gauge, it stages extremely well and is very predictable, giving excellent control in releasing the shot when the sight alignment is perfect, creating very good accuracy potential even in DA mode.
I started at 7 yards shooting double action where it kept 12 rounds inside the X ring on a B-27 target offhand, with an isosceles stance. At 12 yards it held the 10 ring with 10 rounds with 2 of the 12 rounds just into the 9 ring (and they were my fault). At 25 yards it held the 9 ring primarily, with again a pair of holes that drifted just into the 8 ring (and again it's the shooter who was responsible for that). Not bad for offhand, DA mode shooting.
I expended 12 of the remaining 14 rounds in the box drawing and shooting failure to stop drills back at the 7 yard line where at speed it still held the 9 ring for all 8 rounds for the first two shots and all 4 rounds for the head shots.
I proceeded with the 150 rounds of .38 Special LSWC loads and found the accuracy was, not surprisingly, even better in both precision shooting and speed drills.
The rear sight is a bit narrow and I suspect if it were opened up just a bit, it would demonstrate slightly better accuracy, and it would offer a better sight picture in lower light conditions.
I finished up with six rounds using 20 grains of Win 296 under a 125 gr XTP - a maximum load and my preferred Model 92 load. I found the recoil was still comfortable even with the heavy charge weight of slow burning powder, although (typical for heavy loads of 296 or similar colloidal ball powders in a short barrel .357 magnum revolver) it pelted the left side of my face with powder grains on every shot.
----
It strikes me as being an awesome handgun for tactical revolver shooting and I was very impressed with the way it handled, its excellent trigger, and its combat accuracy.
In short, it looks like a concealed carry winner and I've ordered a Covert Carry IWB holster for it from the folks at Wild Bill's Concealment an hour or so down the road in Garner NC. They advertise 8-10 weeks for the made to order holsters but in the past they've got them to me in 2-3 weeks, so hopefully it's not the busy season and this one will show up equally fast.
I found a S&W Model 13-3 in the 3", round butt, un-shrouded heavy barrel FBI configuration in the local gun shop at an excellent price due to some carry wear. That was actually perfect as I tend to shoot what I buy and I tend to shy away from uncommon revolvers that are in excellent condition as I feel guilty shooting them.
While it's been carried a bit it appeared to have very few rounds put through it with very tight lockup, minimal end play, no end shake, and an superb trigger that is crisp, clean and breaks at 3.5 pounds in SA mode and somewhere slightly north of 9 pounds in DA mode.
The FBI started issuing these to agents as the standard sidearm in 1980 and retained it as the standard agent sidearm until 1991, using both the standard .38 +P 158 gr LSWC load as well as .357 Magnum 145 gr Winchester Silvertip.
As I recall, they let agents nearing retirement keep them rather than switch to the short lived S&W 1076, and extended the same deal a couple years later with the P226 and P228. In fact, I don't think they disappeared entirely for a few years after the Glock 22 and 23 were adopted in 1997.
I found that the standard grip was well suited for concealed carry and was fine with .38 Special loads, but wasn't comfortable to shoot with .357 Mag loads. As I recall, the FBI used a grip insert like the Tyler T-grip with it to keep the middle finger from getting rapped by the trigger guard. It's needed with .357 Mag loads, and some of the wear on the revolver suggests this one had one at one time.
I initially tried a Hogue Monogrip on it, as I like them on my J-Frame S&Ws. It was very comfortable with .357 Mag loads, but in addition to being a little too long for good concealment, it also didn't work well on the Model 13 as the left side of the grip interfered with a speed loader. A rather epic fail on a revolver intended for tactical use.
Another local gun shop had a Pachmayr Compac grip in stock for a round butt K frame and it turned out to be ideal for the Model 13. It's small enough to conceal well, and the smaller size helps given that a 3" K-frame is bordering on the slightly too large size of conceal-ability with a larger/longer grip. The Compac grip also works very well with my Model 10 HKS speed loaders, and stress fire pattern reloads are quick and positive.
It makes the whole package notably more compact than the similar sized (just slightly larger) Speed Six. The Pachmayr Gripper grips on my 2 3/4 Speed Six push it over the edge size wise and unfortunately, it's the only grip Pachmayr makes for the Service/Security/Speed Six models, and they no longer catalog a grip at all for the round butt Speed Six.
------
With the Pachmayr Compac grip installed 150 rounds of .38 Special 158 gr LSWCs were very pleasant to shoot and the 50 rounds of my .357 Mag 125 gr self defense load were a little more sporty to shoot, but didn't cause any discomfort at all over the entire 50 rounds.
As noted above the trigger is excellent on this revolver and while the DA pull is somewhere slightly above the 9 pound limit of my trigger pull gauge, it stages extremely well and is very predictable, giving excellent control in releasing the shot when the sight alignment is perfect, creating very good accuracy potential even in DA mode.
I started at 7 yards shooting double action where it kept 12 rounds inside the X ring on a B-27 target offhand, with an isosceles stance. At 12 yards it held the 10 ring with 10 rounds with 2 of the 12 rounds just into the 9 ring (and they were my fault). At 25 yards it held the 9 ring primarily, with again a pair of holes that drifted just into the 8 ring (and again it's the shooter who was responsible for that). Not bad for offhand, DA mode shooting.
I expended 12 of the remaining 14 rounds in the box drawing and shooting failure to stop drills back at the 7 yard line where at speed it still held the 9 ring for all 8 rounds for the first two shots and all 4 rounds for the head shots.
I proceeded with the 150 rounds of .38 Special LSWC loads and found the accuracy was, not surprisingly, even better in both precision shooting and speed drills.
The rear sight is a bit narrow and I suspect if it were opened up just a bit, it would demonstrate slightly better accuracy, and it would offer a better sight picture in lower light conditions.
I finished up with six rounds using 20 grains of Win 296 under a 125 gr XTP - a maximum load and my preferred Model 92 load. I found the recoil was still comfortable even with the heavy charge weight of slow burning powder, although (typical for heavy loads of 296 or similar colloidal ball powders in a short barrel .357 magnum revolver) it pelted the left side of my face with powder grains on every shot.
----
It strikes me as being an awesome handgun for tactical revolver shooting and I was very impressed with the way it handled, its excellent trigger, and its combat accuracy.
In short, it looks like a concealed carry winner and I've ordered a Covert Carry IWB holster for it from the folks at Wild Bill's Concealment an hour or so down the road in Garner NC. They advertise 8-10 weeks for the made to order holsters but in the past they've got them to me in 2-3 weeks, so hopefully it's not the busy season and this one will show up equally fast.
