Governor

[AR_Black]

..................and the selling point over the Taurus Judge is that it fires .45 ACP. Which isn't a huge selling point for me because I doubt it will shoot .45 ACP or LC with any degree of accuracy.

..................

The jump from .45ACP to the rifiling has got to be a good two inches

Someone gave me a Bond Arms Snake Slayer IV as a GIFT
I've shot some .45 Colt and 3" .410. It's a heavy gun with a long barrel, recoil is manageable. I have the "Driving Holster" (cross draw). Three-inch .410 buckshot with 5 balls is good ammo, or 3-balls for the 2.5 inch. I am very pleased with the high-quality of this weapon.

HOWEVER, I still go to the J-Frames for carry. I prefer precision shots over a spread. I'm not much of a shotgun-guy.

 

[billdeserthills]

When I saw the title of this thread I thought what does "Governor" have to do with anything? Then I saw some posts and instantly went to the smith site ot see for myself. Wow... Thank you smith for not being able to come up with somthing original. First you follow Ruger into the plastic revolver market. Now you rip off Taurus. And wait for it... you don't even have enough sense to chamber it deep enough to take 3in. shells. Now it will be like every peice of **** taurus that came out a few years ago. You will make one that takes 3in. shells and nobody will want one of the older ones. They will take up space on gun dealers shevles and collect dust. If the thing even makes it that long. I will have to read crappy articles in gun magazines talking about how great this piece of **** is. How Smith is just on the edge of inovation by copying a design another company came out with four years ago. Hopfully the they have plans in the works to let the Performance Center get ahold of this fine piece cause I want mine with a port on the front and fiber optic sight.
Just seeing the promotion flyer made me sick. "159 years in the revolver business" they forgot to put "and we are reduced to waiting for other companies to come up with something so we can copy it and lean on our trademark name to sell this ****."

I don't think you are giving S&W enough credit, I'm sure the 3" mag version will be out soon

 

[stantheman86]

I went to a large gun show today and didn't see a single Governor.

I wouldn't have bought one today, but I wanted to lay hands on one to see how the feel was.

I hope S&W does come out with a 3" version, so I can buy a 2.5" for dealer cost when my local gun shop needs to unload them

 

[mes227]

Now you rip off Taurus. And wait for it... you don't even have enough sense to chamber it deep enough to take 3in. shells.

I'd be interested in neither a Governor nor a Judge chambered for 3". The guns are more bulky, the center of gravity is too far forward, and the accuracy of the .45s gets even worse because of the extra gap to the forcing cone. And they are even uglier. I think S&W made the right decision, both in not chambering for 3" and in providing a cylinder cut for .45 ACPs.

 

[hastings]

Whether you like the items they are coming out with, it seems that the smaller or "second string" firearms companies are the ones who take risks and come up with innovations. I don't care for the Judge, but I don't think the quality is lacking. I've tried my brother's Kel-Tec 22mag semi-auto pistol - the PT32 I think - and it's a hoot. Great shooting gun, and very clever design. I expect some of the "better" names in the firearms industry will soon be copying this model. The Kel-tec 14round pump shotgun with two tubes and selective feeding from whichever tube you want is pretty slick, too.

My take on the whole market is this: S&W perfected the modern DA revolver more than 75 years ago. Colt ironed out most of the bumps in the SA revolver design, and Ruger resolved the rest. The 1911 and Hi Power are the top of the semi-auto evolutionary chain in my book, with the polymer trend being a material change, not a design change in semi-auto design. There has not been a significant design innovation in the handgun field for a very, very long time. What real innovation do we expect, anyway. The lack of frame-size flexibility means number of rounds in revolvers is not likely to change much. We can't get much hotter than the 500s&w mag, or the 460, without going to a stocked revolver. The ergonomics of the human hand hasn't changed in the past 100 years, so grip design and trigger arrangement are pretty well fixed.

All things considered, it seems like the solid projectile handgun reached it's peak quite a while ago and is not likely to present us with anything mind-blowing or great until lasers or sonic weapons reach the market. It's sort of like rock music. After the late 60's, and early 70's, rock seemed to have exhausted the creativity vein, and most of the artists that really mattered after that were/are throwbacks to some previous group. Same goes for semi-autos and revolvers, at least in my book. A S&W N-frame, a Colt 1911, a Ruger SuperBlackhawk, or a Browning Hi Power. It isn't going to get any better than one of these. You can add strength to the Blackhawk (ala Freedom Arms), tweak the tolerances (ala Kimber, Ed Brown, ...etc), make the darn thing out of ultralightweightium (ala scandium and polymer) but the basic designs are as good as it gets.

Hand+steel+lead. How many variations of this equation can there be?

 

[billdeserthills]

Yeah, we need that Plasma Phase Rifle

 

[thibaultfelix40]

hastings, your reply is one of the best l ever read

 

[mes227]

He said that Taurus' quality was every bit as good as Smith's, probably better. I haven't seriously looked at a Taurus in years. Could this guy be right?

Nope. The rate of out-of-the box defects is exceptionally high. I was recently speaking with the guys at a large, local gun shop and they told me that they send back more new, never sold, Tauruses than all other brands combined. Even with their in-store inspection they still have a huge rate of warrantee returns from recent buyers after their first trip to the range.

These guns are cheaper for a reason.