So, not counting my wife's 642, I have 2 J-frame snubbies: a S&W 640, and a M&P340…both in .357 magnum. Although the 22.4 oz heft (just 1.2 oz less than the 23.63 oz of my G19 with an empty mag) of the all stainless steel 640 makes shooting magnum loads easier than with the 13.8 oz scandium-framed 340, the sights are hard for me to acquire…both because of the rear notch, and stainless front ramp sight. But the 340 is already black, and the front sight is a pinned XS Sights tritium night sight with a big white dot. Target acquisition is pretty easy…even with my M1952 eyeballs. The triggers are about the same with both guns, and although the 340 slaps my hand harder due to being just a few oz over 1/2 the weight of the other, I shoot it more accurately because of those sights.Paladin wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:39 am I used a .38 Special J-frame for my LTC instructor qual and found the toughest part for me was adequate sight alignment at 15 yards. A stainless rear notch with a short sight radius is challenging. Gonna try the video's advice and black out the rear notch.
I am also going through the NRA MQP Defensive pistol qualifications with my Snubbie. That's been good practice as well.
On any day I’m likely to carry a snubbie, I carry the 340 for those reasons—less weight and better sights. It’s a more practical gun. And I carry it with Hornady Critical Defense 125 grain .357 loads. Hornady used to publish the MV for both 8" and 2" barrels on their website…although now it just shows it for the 8". At that time, they claimed 1200 fps/400 ft-lbs MV/ME for a 2" barrel. (I’ve never chronographed it myself, as there’s not enough barrel to attach my Magnetospeed chrono.
) If the truth is anything even close to those numbers, that is more than satisfactory for me. I figure that, if I’m going to carry a 5-shot handgun that’s slooooowwww to reload, I want 5 rounds of Olympian-class thunder and lightning on hand, and I’ll deal with the subsequent hand pain afterwards. (See link for reference) That’s why I don’t bother with standard or +P 38 Special for carry in that gun.The 640 has been relegated to basically a range toy, and I’ll use either it or a 5" .357 I have for a teaching gun (among others), with soft-shooting .38 target loads when I’m introducing a new shooter to handguns. The 340 has become the gun I’ll slip into my back pocket for a walk down to the mailbox or other things like that.