Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Skeptical but open minded

Well....have to kinda agree with Jim...

Being a 4T1Fanatic I bought both when they became available. I had a 5.5" many years ago and always regretted selling it. The 4.25" handles much better than the 5" and has an excellent DA pull.


First six rounds out of the gun at 15 yards DA...




This is the tightest standing DA group at 50 yards I have ever shot...the sixth round missed the 6" plate by a 1/2" at 7:00 o'clock.




When the gun came out I had wished that Ruger had made it a round butt like the .45 Colt/ACP model...after buying the 2.75" version was very glad Ruger had made it a standard square butt.

I have no complaint with the 2.75" except for one thing...the DA breaks noticeably later than the 4.25" and as a result pinches my trigger finger between the trigger and the triggerguard. If it had the same DA trigger pull as the 4.25" I have no doubt groups would be half of what I can do now.

As to the round but...it isn't shootable except with target level loads with the wood grips. It will hoever accept most of the rubber grips that fit the square butt..





Lower group is before moving the sights....





This the same load DA from both guns at 10 yards... I shot some 210 Keith SWC with 8.0 grains of Unique after these and the 2.75" shot a better group...so I think I am going to go back to a 1000 fps load vs. the 1300+ these 180s are doing...





I've had four of the S&W 657 3" guns and they are wonderful shooters.





So the 3" Magnums aren't "useless"...just less than "usefull"....

Bob