Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What's wrong with the World's Finest Combat Handgun?

Autoloaders are a Flash-In-The-Pan . . . . . . .

The Perfect backup . . . . .

Nearly every minute of my work as a bodyguard (with the exception of when I was on foreign soil - they wouldn't let me take it on the plane), a S&W model 442 was my constant backup gun; carried in a coat pocket, front pocket of my pants, or on rare occasions, in an ankle holster.

Keven, did you pin the useless grip safety down on yours?

442 doesn't have a grip safety.

I bought one of the recent remakes of the "lemon squeezer," and it does have one. I hate the thing (the safety, that is, not the gun). It could be an awesome gun, except for the confidence killing grip safety. If I could neutralize it, it would be one of my favorite little guns for coat pocket carry. If you have to draw and fire a gun quickly to save your life, there is no way to be certain you are going to have a perfect grip on it when you pull the trigger. I bet most gun smiths, though, wouldn't touch the job of neutralizing that safety with a ten foot pole, for fear of litigation. What do you think?

You could just sell the Model 40 and get a new production no-lock 442 or 642. Then you wouldn't have to worry about the safety or the lock.

Her nickname is "Always"...



Others might get to go, attire permitting, but she always does.

I didn't know they made them without locks. Where do you get one?

I think the last ones I picked up were from Top Gun Supply. They make a run or two of them every once in a while. 642's and 442's were the last two runs that I know of.

So it's no longer available?

They're still out there, you just have to do some looking for them. I really can't tell you which vendors have them in stock as I haven't been looking for them since I got the ones I have. Approx 4000 of the 642's were made not sure how many 442's.

A basic search of that vendor's site shows no-lock 642 "in stock"

http://www.topgunsupply.com/smith-wesson-model-642-centennial-38spl_p-without-internal-lock.html

Thank you for the source, but you know why I'm not rushing out to buy one? I already own two original Bodyguards from way back when. If you have an original bodyguard (or two), it's hard to justify going out and getting a 642 also. I really shouldn't have bought the lemon squeezer, but it just looked so nice.

Hey Hawk,

It's man-law. You never have to justify the purchase, much less the ownership, of a gun. All we have to do is want one. That's reason enough. Man-law.

Two whole bodyguards... That's not particularly impressive . Go buy at least one of those 642's as you definitely need more.

Really? Need one? Can you make the argument for that? Probably a little better than a Bodyguard, since there's no place for dust to get into the hammer works, but enough better to justify buying one? Besides, the Bodyguard can be manually cocked for single action fire if that were ever to be needed. That makes them about even.

You either missed the smileys or you are just looking to argue for some particular reason. Not sure which but do whatever ya like.

He's a very literal person.

Not looking for an "argument" the way you seem to take it. I meant it only in the academic and polemical sense of the word. Sorry for the miscommunication. Argument doesn't always imply rancor. I really was interested in hearing reasons (i.e., arguments) that could possibly exist for actually needing one. Always looking for ways to defeat my personal reasons NOT to buy a new gun.

I didn't say the military ones didn't rattle after years of combat use and yes the design was originally designed for just ball, but the gun was NOT designed with loose tolerances and they've been made to shoot JHP ammo for years. jorge