With our new concealed carry law passed, it was time to update our handguns. I'm an automatic guy, my wife prefers revolvers. Her favorite revolver was a tad too big for carry, so this afternoon I went out and bought her a new one. And it's one she is familiar with.

In the early 1990s we used to go to South Dakota for all sorts of vacations. During that period I carried an SW 640 and my wife carried an SW 442. Both are five-shot J-frame Smiths and used the same ammo and speed loaders. Mine would fire .357 Magnum rounds, the recoil was "manageable," but that's about it. We both used 125 grain +P .38 SPL rounds.

However, gunwriter Massad Ayoob always remarked about Smith's 642 model. It's the best of both our former revolvers. It does have a stainless cylinder and barrel, but the alloy frame of the 442.

Surprise, surprise. Despite the feeding frenzy at the gun store today, there were a few 642 Smiths still in inventory, and I bought one immediately. I also have my "firearms training" scheduled to comply with the new law.

Now get this. Because this revolver was already in the store before the law passed, it was still at their price of 449 bucks. After the new batch arrives, who knows. If you're looking for a revolver that is easy to carry and simple to use--and one that doesn't print, in say, a jacket that a biker might wear for example--I recommend this SW 642.

https://www.snubnose.info/docs/m642.htm

After waiting the mandatory 24 hours (and in Wisconsin they mark your receipt to the minute) I am happy to report that I am the owner of a new SW 642. Not my first J-Frame, but the boot grips are a lot better than my first two, they provide a cushion but are not 'tacky' to the touch.

I had salted away a whole bunch of Eldorado StarFire .38 SPL 125 grain +P hollowpoints and scads of 5-shot HKS speed loaders. I like the StarFire design. It is asymmetrically constructed of a copro-nickel outer jacket pre-fragmented in six places with an inner lead hollowpoint fragmented in five places. Very messy on impact. I cannot handload a better cartridge for defense, and I have tried.

The best part is that this revolver is a stainless steel and alloy Airweight. There is no reason to be without it. Even in the shower if your have a deep fear of Anthony Perkins. If you can carry a biker's chain wallet, then you can carry an Airweight. Don't leave home without it, I know I won't.

https://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb23 ... 01-126.jpg

I found this page below that might give you guys some hard numbers on the StarFire ammunition. I like that profile and also Gold-Dots and the Golden Sabers. I use factory ammunition for defense for several reasons.

First, numerous articles by Massad Ayoob suggest that the post-shooting hoopla will be intense. Even as a home owner you might be arrested until the cops re-recreate the shooting. You'll need a lawyer. And you should be ready for a civil lawsuit by your attacker. Using factory ammo is one less hurdle your attorney will have to discuss in court.

Secondly, this newer stuff is good. So good, in fact, that it is hard to duplicate. This is a .38 SPL round. And while I do not have access to ballistic gelatin, I have punctured coffee cans filled with snow. Recently one of my clients had to put down a rabid raccoon in his backyard with one of my handloaded .44 Magnum 185 grain hollowpoints. The damage is often hard to distinguish--reality looks a lot different from pictures in a gun magazine.

I once handloaded a .45 ACP Nosler hollowpoint and shot it into one of these snow packed coffee cans. If I handed you a mushroomed Nosler, and one of these pictured StarFires, you could not readily tell the difference from size, shape and retained weight. This StarFire stuff is good, and it's a .38 not a larger caliber.

https://www.pmcammo.com/starfire.html

I have just read a strange thing in the boiler-plate of Wisconsin's CCW provision. And frankly, it doesn't make any sense to me--logically, strategically or financially.

While you can now carry any firearm you choose, which would also mean a Desert Eagle in .50 AE, you cannot carry a switchblade. And I think they added that provision to quell the liberal masses.

I've sold switchblades (now called automatics) to police, firefighters and EMS workers for over a decade. In truth, Washington State, Arizona and Florida permit regular citizens to carry automatics now. There's nothing special about a knife that opens with a spring.

The 1958 act that supposedly banned switchblades defined them as a knife "that opens with a spring from a button on the handle." That's why our current 'assisted opening' knives are legal just about anywhere--although I'd check laws in Michigan if I were you. There have been a few arrests there.

To be honest, a Sicilian switchblade is about the last knife I'd carry into a fight. The pivot is usually just a thin rivet, the lock is another pin press-fit into a hole on the blade, the spring is the weaker 'leaf spring' design, and the blade's bevel is usually ground to such an obtuse angle that sharpening it is a fool's errand. When I polish one of those bevels I do so for appearance only.

Due to this 1958 law I am exempt and I can carry a switchblade legally. I can buy any knife in the world, and I do not carry switchblades. Maybe a Mikov now and then, but not a Sicilian model. If limited to a contact weapon I would choose (in descending order of effectiveness) a barstool, an ASP, a pool cue, a cut-glass ashtray, motorcycle boots and finally a ZT0300. Notice that the best knife made and readily available is in last place.

After all, blood borne pathogens can kill you just as dead as a weapon...