EydieG,
I see that several other posters have replied to your question; there is a lot of advice from many people's experience. I have only fired one Ruger LCR belonging to a friend and it was very smooth.
As far as quality, Ruger is the only other American manufacturer that comes close to S&W. I'm sorry to say, Charter Arms are somewhere lower on the build quality, unless you get from the '70s (had one).
Not to belabor the point, but the weight of the revolver affects your perception of the effort required to pull the trigger and of course, absorption of recoil. So a steel revolver will feel as if it has a lighter pull.
Trigger pull is a subjective thing, we all have different hand strength and develop a different trigger finger.
As far as breaking in your revolver, back in the day we were told to go home and dry fire several hundred strokes a night.
One other thing, a poster recommended using a .22 Rimfire revolver for practice, I don't see any advantage in your situation, most .22s have heavy trigger pulls to insure reliability with the sometimes dubious quality of rimfire primers. Obviously, recoil will be less than .38.
I understand your reticence to have your gun worked on, especially if your husband likes it the way it is. An action job done properly can work wonders, but in the end, you have to try a few guns out and see if you like they way they feel. A good shop will let you try several, if they stock them. Maybe you will have to go to a few different shops to find what you are looking for. Just stick to your guns, if you want to stick with a revolver, stick with it - there are many people today who swear by the semi autos and denigrate the revolver. Nothing beats the revolver for simplicity of operation and reliability.
I see that several other posters have replied to your question; there is a lot of advice from many people's experience. I have only fired one Ruger LCR belonging to a friend and it was very smooth.
As far as quality, Ruger is the only other American manufacturer that comes close to S&W. I'm sorry to say, Charter Arms are somewhere lower on the build quality, unless you get from the '70s (had one).
Not to belabor the point, but the weight of the revolver affects your perception of the effort required to pull the trigger and of course, absorption of recoil. So a steel revolver will feel as if it has a lighter pull.
Trigger pull is a subjective thing, we all have different hand strength and develop a different trigger finger.
As far as breaking in your revolver, back in the day we were told to go home and dry fire several hundred strokes a night.
One other thing, a poster recommended using a .22 Rimfire revolver for practice, I don't see any advantage in your situation, most .22s have heavy trigger pulls to insure reliability with the sometimes dubious quality of rimfire primers. Obviously, recoil will be less than .38.
I understand your reticence to have your gun worked on, especially if your husband likes it the way it is. An action job done properly can work wonders, but in the end, you have to try a few guns out and see if you like they way they feel. A good shop will let you try several, if they stock them. Maybe you will have to go to a few different shops to find what you are looking for. Just stick to your guns, if you want to stick with a revolver, stick with it - there are many people today who swear by the semi autos and denigrate the revolver. Nothing beats the revolver for simplicity of operation and reliability.
