I was at the gun shop today thinking about something lighter and more compact than my current carry pistols. I admire my wife's Taurus 85SS alot. Since the less expensive pistols can be hit or miss I like to handle them in person. The shop had a fresh out of the box Taurus 850 hammerless. Thinking of the wonderful DA trigger my wife's pistol has I checked it out. It wouldn't function! Wow! Finally found a bad one. It simply didn't work! The guy there was really embarassed and set it away to go back to Taurus Monday. Another similar one was OK, but the DA feel wasn't near as good as my wife's pistol. If you go hammerless, you want a good trigger!
So I looked at a Rossi 357 2" blued snubbie. Least expensive one in the display case. Not bad! Perfectly timed, closely fitted. Very smooth feel. VG DA trigger. Heavy, but VG. Not great like my wife's Taurus, but VG. Outstanding SA feel and a very well checkered hammer that thumbs back perfectly. Same great "Will never slip" feel the hammer on my DW has. It's a 6 shot and of course has the longer 357 cylinder compared to my wife's 85SS. So it is a bit longer wider and heavier. But not by much. Seemed like a nice summer time CC pistol.
Had some fun in the shop with it this evening. Did some polishing and cut three turns off the coil main spring. Still has plenty of snap to it and feels nice and smooth too. I made a simple IWB holster for it as well.
Side by side with my 3" DW 357 it looks and feels about a third less bulky. Should be a good summer pistol!
Frankly, after having it apart and getting to know it, it doesn't give up much to it's more expensive brethren. Very nicely made and fitted. The bluing is beautiful. The names stamped into it are done with less finesse than on a Taurus. The flutes on the cylinder and the front of the barrel area aren't polished like the rest of it was. Doesn't bother me as it's for carry use. It does seem to have it where it counts though.
I'll drop by the range early this coming week and I'll let y'all know how it works. Take home price new with three boxes of 357 Aquilla ammo was just $330. I really wasn't expecting much when I picked it up. But I must say it impressed me as a good "value" revolver.
Naturally I'll shoot mostly 38's in it for practice. It's not an L frame after all.