The key to this whole discussion, no, not key, but keys, plural, are pocket carry and shooting regularly. My 642 came, of course, with S&W rubber boot grips - made by Hogue, or Pachmayr, I guess, but I'm uncertain. They were excellent for pocket carry. However, about a year or so ago, give or take, I switched to Eagle grips that are like this:
http://www.eaglegrips.com/guns/imag...=200&height=&image=/images/SS3.websitepic.jpg
but look like this:
http://www.eaglegrips.com/guns/image.php/images/SS2[1].jpg?width=200&height=&image=/images/SS2[1].jpg
Assuming those images appear or are accessible....
Anyway, they, too, are excellent for pocket carry, maybe even better than the rubber stocks. If I'm going to carry IWB or OWB then I'm going to carry a K-frame snubby; to me there isn't any point in giving up the extra round once the gun is out of my pocket.
So if you're skipping pocket carry because you're using larger grips it seems to make better sense to me to carry a larger gun but, okay, let's assume that's your only gun, then, okay, carry it that way if it works for you.
As for the second key, I am sure everyone here has read "you-name-the-gun-writer" who has said, about these small revolvers, that they were made to be shot a little and carried a lot. So, unless a J-frame truly is your only gun, why would you be shooting it a lot? I can think of far more pleasant range fun than to bang away with J-frames. On occasion I'll take one to the range, shoot a few rounds into targets at standard defensive/combat distances to remind myself how the gun shoots and where it hits, if it's off, what the recoil is like, etc., and then it's back in the pocket for quite some time to come. The guns can handle regular shooting - most human's hands cannot handle regular shooting of a J-frame, and it's not necessary. Not to me, anyway. YMMV - and I'm not being argumentative; if you like to punish your hands like that, please, feel free, be my guest, it's a free country.
***GRJ***
http://www.eaglegrips.com/guns/imag...=200&height=&image=/images/SS3.websitepic.jpg
but look like this:
http://www.eaglegrips.com/guns/image.php/images/SS2[1].jpg?width=200&height=&image=/images/SS2[1].jpg
Assuming those images appear or are accessible....
Anyway, they, too, are excellent for pocket carry, maybe even better than the rubber stocks. If I'm going to carry IWB or OWB then I'm going to carry a K-frame snubby; to me there isn't any point in giving up the extra round once the gun is out of my pocket.
So if you're skipping pocket carry because you're using larger grips it seems to make better sense to me to carry a larger gun but, okay, let's assume that's your only gun, then, okay, carry it that way if it works for you.
As for the second key, I am sure everyone here has read "you-name-the-gun-writer" who has said, about these small revolvers, that they were made to be shot a little and carried a lot. So, unless a J-frame truly is your only gun, why would you be shooting it a lot? I can think of far more pleasant range fun than to bang away with J-frames. On occasion I'll take one to the range, shoot a few rounds into targets at standard defensive/combat distances to remind myself how the gun shoots and where it hits, if it's off, what the recoil is like, etc., and then it's back in the pocket for quite some time to come. The guns can handle regular shooting - most human's hands cannot handle regular shooting of a J-frame, and it's not necessary. Not to me, anyway. YMMV - and I'm not being argumentative; if you like to punish your hands like that, please, feel free, be my guest, it's a free country.
***GRJ***
