# of Rounds to Trust a J-Frame

[seb5]

If you can conceal a "J" you can also carry a speed strip or 2.

[Raven Armament]

Semi-autos: 1,000 rounds
Revolvers: 500 rounds

That's just my thing.

[Dienekes]

If the gun checks out visually and in dry fire, 50-100 rounds should suffice. About the only thing that stops revolvers is a loose extractor rod or crud under the extractor. In many years of J frames I only had one go down and that was from the pounding of +P+ ammo and going out of time; i.e., my own fault.

A dissenting word on CT sights: my wife had one on her M37. The grip shape hurt like hell on recoil, and the net effect was to slow up quick shooting watching the uber-cool red dot. Having done a lot of night fire over the years I don't see much point to them. Give me a decent flashlight every time and that'll do nicely.

[tfltackdriver]

I guess it depends on what you're carrying it for, but I don't see that the laser hurts anything if you train properly. For me, the J's place is when I can't carry anything else. The idea of having a flashlight on my person at that point, other than an LED on my keychain, is not in the cards. YMMV.

I personally could not shoot my 36 worth a damn in low light (well, period).

In order of things I struggled with with the J-frame from least to worst: holster, ammunition, grips. I was never happy with the grips, even after getting a set of blanks and making my own. I do like the CT-305 grips.

[1slow]

Shoot at least 100 round through it non stop !
I recently had S&W fix a new 640 with the high fixed tritium sights.

At about round 65 it heated up and the cylinder locked up on the forcing cone end of the barrel. Rub marks showed on the forward end of the cylinder.

I got it in and shot 100 rounds through it and now it works OK.

Todd Green's article "Trust No One" is spot on !

[The Dumb Gun Collector]

50 rounds of plinking and 50 rounds of carry ammo is plenty.

[rjacobs]

I put 50 of cheap stuff and 20 rounds of Gold Dots through it flawlessly. Shot flawlessly so unless something crops up that causes me to not trust it, this ones a keeper.

[kmrtnsn]

50 rounds of plinking and 50 rounds of carry ammo is plenty.

I took my 340PD to the range and ran the qual twice for a total of 100rd; testing done.

As for a laser, personally, I do not see the benefit for a BUG, a weapon intended primarily for contact shot and social discourse distances. At the last stage of our revolver qual, you should be able to hit a traumaplate-sized target area at 25 yards, twice from the left side standing barricade, twice from the right side standing barricade, and once from the right side kneeling in 20 seconds with the irons.

[mark5pt56]

Make sure you shoot enough of your carry ammunition to be familiar with the recoil impulse as it throw people off a bit, sort of a shock to them.
Yes it is important to know the accuracy limitations of the shooter/gun combination, I would work on the bread and butter distances you will more than likely find yourself in.
Think outside the box in regards to firing positions as well. What I mean is don't get stuck practicing flat footed with two hands on the gun all of the time.

[Ned Christiansen]

J-frames are too small, too weak, an not accurate enough. Not to mention, just plain wimpy-assed when set alongside a 1911. Nothing says "he has a small one" like a 2" J-frame.

That's me, 10 years ago.

Bought one for my elderly Dad after a little incident that made him think he'd like something he could have in his pocket when answering the door. I knew it could not be the latest whiz-bang pocket auto.

Naturally, knowing that he would probably familiarize very little with it (although he is well familiar with revolvers), I checked it out.

Wow. 10X10 steel plates at 50 yards were darn near a breeze. With such a short sight radius I was very surprised how "on" the sights were. And.... so dang easy to carry! Lots to like for some circumstances.

I agree with the "put a box through it" thing, but it won't be so much about checking reliability as it will be about becoming familiar and confident.