Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns S&W 43C...?

A local shop has one in stock. Handy looking little 8 shooter. Anyone have experience with one? S&W is pretty proud of them, the price reflects that. The 43C looks like it is about $300 more than an Airweight J frame .38 Special.

Those are lightweight kit guns, right? It might be challenging to shoot well, but we already know you're a good shot, so it shouldn't be too hard to use properly. I like a little more sight radius, personally, but it should be a fun gun to pack around, while not weighing much at all.

11.5 ounces, 8 shot double action only, looks like a 442 only in .22 Long Rifle. The only thing I don't care for is the Big Dot front sight. I haven't held the little pop gun in hand yet but I'm wondering if that big white blob front sight would make centering a Mini Mag on a cottonmouth head a bit of a challenge.

I have one that I really like. The big dot is easy to pick up and the U notch rear is a good combo. It’s the lightest handgun I have and I carry it when I run.

While it may not be a target gun, I did okay with it in Steel Challenge and ICORE matches. I can hit my 8x10 plate pretty regularly at 50 yards. But it will remind you that sight alignment is still second to trigger pull. One day it’s so easy to shoot, the next it’ll humble you.

I’ve seen one that the “star” on the cylinder got chewed up but Smith fixed it and he hasn’t had any problems since.

The only negative I’ve had is the sun angle can cause the zero to shift. It lights up one side but any white globe sight can do that.

Here’s a link to a pretty good discussion about them.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?27070-Blindsided-by-S-amp-W-43C

And I stuck the XS tritium dot on mine. It looked to be a great option.

But shot under the dot and I just couldn’t like it.

Trying to see where it’s hitting and how far to aim high will open groups up. I think this was at 15 yards.

I stuck the factory sight back on it.

For a bit more precision, you can swap out the big dot front sight for a Baughman ramp front sight. But, it won’t do well in poor light.

Thanks for the information and the link. That shop is about 45 minutes from my house, next time I pass through there I'll take a closer look at it. Seems like a very handy gun to have around.