broken arrow: those are supposed to be reliable, easy to carry and just as easy to shoot. The only problems I have heard about or that some 'reknowned' gun experts talk about is the loads you shoot and use in either the Titanium or Scandium revolvers.
When S&W first came out with thier Titanium snubbie in 38 Spl, the first two articles I saw advocated only one type of loading, a jacketed 125 grain load that wasn't even plus p rated, then they all went to plus p ratings and everybody was happier. The problem they thought they might encounter was with reloaded bullets or lead bullets 'walking' out of the cases and jamming the cylinder. They (the experts) said you 'should never fire reloads' in these guns as the recoil in a lightweight revolver will likely cause the bullet to walk out of the case and jam the cylinder.
Well, hogwash. We learned about that years ago when loading 357s, 41s and 44s for silly-wet shooting and found that if you didn't crimp your cases well enough you would get some walkin' loads. Some of the powders we used, like H110 and WW296 came with instructions for a tight crimp to get complete powder burning (and no walkin').
When the Titaniums first came out one of my acquaintances just had to have one. He bought it and two boxes of the recommended loads. He had two misfires, one from each box. I told him I would load some stuff up for him and he worried about what the article had said. I told him to bring two boxes of his 'recommended' loads with his gun and we would try it out. I made certain the crimp on a box of wadcutters and a box of semi-wadcutters was properly tight enough and added a box of my 200 grain semi-wadcutters to the pile and gave it a whirl.
Again, he had misfires with the recommended loads but absolutely no problem with any of the reloads. But ya know, it didn't matter, the guy wasn't convinced. He gave it up in favor of a semi-auto that he can't shoot any better than the revolver. Go figure.
Sorry for prattling but I guess the point is that I'm really not sold on plus p's in those guns and would advocate for a standard 158 grain semi-wadcutter or the 148 grain wadcutter instead. If you reload, just make certain the crimp is tight enough. Also, if you reload, consider some of the heavier bullets, like the Keith Style 160 grain SWC, the Keith Style 173 grain SWC or the 200 grain RNFPs or Keith style SWCs. They are all shot at standard, not plus, pressures (which means less recoil) and perform well from snubbies. Hope this helps. Mikey.
