I bought the wrong gun, now what?

[PeterJ]

43c,,, all day long.

 

[plano]

Keep your crimson trace grips and put them on a 640! Shoot monolithic 38’s. You’ll be satisfied and can keep your CTC grips. Their not cheap!

 

[Shootingfish]

If you can rack a slide, this gun shoots easy and is more accurate shooting than my 442.

I have trouble racking the slide. Also the magazine is not easy for me. I'm not dumb, but point and shoot works best for me.

 

[Shootingfish]

At 21 yards you are not in danger unless being fired at !!

At 20 feet, we have a problem !!

Bag carry is ok...............
if you know and practice how to get to your gun in time to STOP
the bad guy, before he reaches you.

Raising your skirt to get to a revolver is sexy but...........

Good luck.

I made a mistake - it's 21 feet. I was so overwhelmed and frustrated...

 

[Cal44]

Try some lower powered ammo in your 642. The 148 grain target wadcutter ammo will reduce the "kick" a lot. Hard to find sometimes, but you can find it if you look.

Your 642 loaded with target ammo will be more effective for self defense than any 22.

 

[Execpro]

Here is a chart for 22 magnum ammo you might find interesting.
Any gun you can shoot well and will carry, is better than the gun you left at home. Just Sayen !

 

[BigBelle]

You can sell it and buy the right gun.

 

[sourdough44]

This may be covered already, but there are ultra-low recoil & blast 38 loads. This is just one, Magtech 38 Spcl ‘short’, 125 grain bullet, 680 FPS.

That with other advice in the thread your current gun would be very usable. With any semi-auto there can be other issues, starting with slide manipulations & a different manual of arms.

I’m not getting into lethality of any ammo, separate thing. I also realize availability could be problematic.

Another thing one can do is practice with ‘shooting gloves’ of some sort. My favorite is the ‘nomex’ military pilots type gloves. The idea being to gain confidence & control. In an actual defense event it’s like hunting with the 300 Weatherby magnum, you won’t feel the recoil with that shot at an elk.

 

[AlHunt]

I have trouble racking the slide. Also the magazine is not easy for me. I'm not dumb, but point and shoot works best for me.

There are semi-autos with easy to rack slides. Since you have a functional firearm and you're working with it, there's no giant rush. See if you can lay your hands on a S&W EZ, for instance. I once had a Sig P250 that was quite easy to rack and I currently own a Walther PK380 that's quite easy to operate. My wife's Ruger LC9 racks quite easily, too.

Take your time and enjoy learning about the different types of firearms. There's no rush.

 

[BB57]

I have trouble racking the slide. Also the magazine is not easy for me. I'm not dumb, but point and shoot works best for me.

The pistol on the bottom is a Beretta Tomcat. It’s a semi auto but the barrel flips up like a top break shotgun so that you can load a round in the barrel without having to rack the slide. The rest of the rounds are fed from the 7 round magazine as the slide cycles after each shot.

It’s a great operating system for people who have difficulty racking a slide.

It’s only available in .32 ACP but 8 rounds of one of the hollow point loads using the Hornady 60 gr XTP will resolve most self defense situations. More importantly it’s easy to carry and conceal. I’ll occasionally carry it as a back up in an ankle or pocket holster.

A lot of people suggest only using FMJ or “hard cast” lead bullets in the .32 ACP to ensure adequate penetration. However even in the .32 ACP those non expanding bullets badly over penetrate on the order of 25-30”. Note the 27” penetration of the .32 ACP 73 gr hard cast lead bullet below (as well as various FMJ rounds farther into the block behind it). The only time I ever recommend an FMJ is when a pistol requires one for reliable feeding.

The concern is that .32 ACP hollow points won’t reliably expand, especially in a 4 layer denim test. However, if they don’t expand they won’t do any worse than a FMJ.

The concern that they will under penetrate might be the case with some hollow points like 60 gr silver tips where 10” of penetration is common. That’s short of the FBIs 12” minimum, but that’s a minimum established on the assumption that agents often engage targets from the side where the bullet may need to pass through an arm before entering the torso, or may have to pass through a barrier before hitting a suspect. Those assumptions are not all that valid for the face to face engagements that predominate legitimate self defense shoots.

Plus with the 60 gr XTP in one of the available self defense loads you can usually get decent expansion and 12” penetration:

——

The pistol on the top is the Beretta 950 B in .22 Short, the granddaddy of the current Beretta Bob cat in .22 LR. This 950 B was carried by my mother in law for years as her concealed carry weapon. The .22 Short is literally the last cartridge I’d ever recommend for self defense. On the other hand, she shot it well, had confidence in it and carried it all the time as it was easy for her to carry and conceal.

If she had ever had to use it, the odds are very high it would have been sufficient.