Well if S&W won't make them, the chance of a fixed-sight 3" Smith J frame ever becoming popular is nil.
The 3" Ruger SP-101 is not setting any sales records, especially at it's high retail price with downhill quality for what it is.
The Kimber K6S has a 3" version and has a very modest following. For all the internet fawning over the Kimber, it's butt ugly with a cheap looking allen head sideplate screw, and has a clap-trap feel and look to it. Just this week I had occasion to observe a female new handgun customer. She was shopping and shown the Kimber K6S. She handled it and promptly passed, saying it felt like a toy cap gun. I found this newbie's observation quite apt. (PS. Ironically, she ended up buying a S&W EZ Shield .380, which has just as much in common, in terms of construction, with a toy cap gun, as does the Kimber!)
Of course, Colt nuts will buy anything adorned with a dancing pony. Colt could put a vapor finish on revolver shaped dollop of post-digested horse fodder, and these folks would be screaming for Colt to take their money, right out of an episode of the Price is Right. Regardless, the New King Cobra 3" has potential, but it suffers from the high price and flaws of the recent Colt guns.
In spite of merit or otherwise, all these revolvers suffer from the stigma of... being a revolver. The vast majority of new shooters are largely "uneducated" through YouTube, which exists to make money for the content creator, via the gun manufacturer. Net result of those messages is that cheap to make and high profit pistols, mostly cast/MIM/stamped and polymer framed, are the greatest battle implements ever devised!
The new gun owner views the revolver as a novelty throwback to a bygone era, something you see in shop worn TV detective series from the 1960s, or a Western movie. Most of them do not know the difference between a single action and double action revolver, nor do they care one wit. When they buy one it's a range toy for giggles and "gee-wiz!"
Paul Harrell's prescription of "Old does not mean Obsolete, and Obsolete does not mean Ineffective," does not make much of an impression with these folks clamoring for more at gun counters. When selecting a handgun for self-defense - the main market these days - these customers look past the revolver counter like a 23 year old girl at middle-age man's gin mill.
[Interesting observation: With a few notable exceptions, you rarely see the actual on-target results of these YouTube Influencer Experts. The viewer is mostly thrilled with views of the Influencer in cool eyewear and muscle tees/operator wear - firing the gun over and over. If you are lucky you will hear some large pieces of steel occasionally ringing off camera, like every 3d shot. In my prior business this would be called a "clue", to the value of what you are watching.]
So, you are starting with a limited market to begin with. Add to that the view of revolvers as a range novelty, which the manufacturers play into as dollar signs roll across their eyes, eg. the ridiculous S&W Custom Shop (there's an oxymoron fer ya) X-frames, or the Taurus "Raging Whatevers". Then factor in the mindset that "defensive revolvers are for pockets, BUGS and hideouts" - as if the S&W K frame and Colt PPS, produced in the millions used by police, military and citizens for decades, never existed.
What you have left as manufactured for self-defense in revolvers is largely a bunch of aluminium, scamdium or plastic framed revolvers, firing too powerful cartridges (More Is Always Better!), with too-short barrels.
Sad indeed. Where's the DEI Mandate for revolvers?
Charter Arms and Taurus make a few 3" guns, and those do in fact sell pretty well, because they generally work, and aren't priced to the moon.
Truth be known, I've had a few fixed-sight 3" Model 36 .38 Specials over the years, and they never shot much better for me than the 2" guns. Recoil with stiff loads is, if anything, worse. Practical accuracy - not much difference. Pointability is better, but it doesn't fit in your pocket or ankle well. Might as well carry a larger framed better-shooting revolver in a hip holster.
As far as the "full-length ejector rod advantage" goes, if you think a 1/2 second advantage in reloading speed over a 2" 5-shot gun is significant in your sphere of activity... I humbly suggest that 1) carrying a substantially more capable handgun, or a shoulder weapon, 2) hiring bodyguards, or 3) making a change in venue, might be money better spent.
Back in the day... in police work, the 3" J frames - often in .32 S&W Long - were usual issued to "lady police matrons", to fit their smaller hand. I suppose I'm not supposed to say things like that anymore.
Well, I'm not trading my 3" Model 31s. You never know who you might meet...
