About a week ago I bought a new 43C too. It was my first new S&W revolver purchase in quite a few years. A local dealer remembered that I had asked about one. She had no idea what it is, but then managed to find one and then sprung it upon me at a gun show. I had a chance to examine it before buying it, and it looked good. Fit and finish were excellent, with a slightly uneven finish in the area of the cylinder flutes preventing it from being perfect. Timing was perfect, cylinder gap not too tight for a .22 and the trigger felt good for a rimfire.
At the range it shoots most everything to point of aim. Some loads shoot much better than others. The best loads are very impressive in terms of accuracy. I was concerned that the large white front dot would prohibit any kind of accurate shooting, but the rear notch is actually circular as well. Sometimes a bit of "Kentucky elevation" is needed to get it to hit at 25 and 50 yards with various ammo, but the better loads will keep all shots on a man at 50 yards. The only extraction problems I have are with anything made by PMC, but this stuff is a problem in every revolver in which I have tried it. Otherwise extraction is not an issue at all. There are no problems with cylinder binding like I experienced with an older Model 63.
This revolver is definitely a keeper and I plan to shoot it A LOT. This is my first lightweight revolver and I am very impressed. I tend to complain about S&W's new revolvers, but they sure got it right with this one.
Dave Sinko
