Is the S&W 442/642 the perfect pocket gun?

[jdc1244]

The 442 is better for pocket carry than the 642 because its black frame does not show in the pocket opening so obviously as does the silver frame of the 642.

Hence the pocket holster – rendering frame color irrelevant.

 

[lee n. field]

The grips on that revolver and most of the older J frames were based on a design buy Altmont which was licensed by Uncle Mike's. They were in turn sold to S&W.
Unfortunately they let the agreement laps and the new boot grips are nowhere as good.

The very day they announced they were parting ways I went on the S&W site and bought spare boot grips and the slightly longer style grips for J frames. I also bought a few grips for the K/L frame. Soon after the inventory was gone. They are very good grips and I can see why you left them on your J frame.

Back when I first got my Taurus 605 in 2008, I went on a search for different stocks. Ended up trying a bunch of different things. including the Uncle Mike's boot and combat grips. Ended up mostly using the UM 3 finger grip.

A few years later, 2015-ish, I got a S&W 642. I thought to myself, I'll just get myself another one of those, for this gun.

Oh, my goodness, had they gotten expensive and hard to find.

 

[sixgunner455]

There is a very long couple or three THR threads about the 642 (and its siblings) with a lot of talk about grips and tactics and practice loads and carry loads and on and on. I know Chaim knows about that b/c I remember him posting in it.

I have three Jframes: 2003 production 642-2 with ILS, 60-9 LS, and 442-1 (no ILS). The 642 was the first and only for years, and was the primary carry gun for most of that time, backing up a full size .38 or 9mm at home.

The 642 originally was purchased to save wear and sweat-induced rust on a Detective Special when I moved to Arizona, and was carried with standard pressure 125gr Gold Dots. When I ran out of those and couldn’t get more, I switched to 110gr Critical Defense, and then FGMM wadcutters. Both airweights get carried these days loaded with FGMM.

The DS had a Hogue Monogrip, and was a nice light belt gun. It got traded for a hunting rifle, and later on replaced with the 60-9 because I wanted all of my defensive revolvers to work the same (all are S&W). The 60-9 gets shot with any ,38 I feel like shooting, and I pretend it isn’t chambered in .357 because I’m just not doing that to myself. It is very accurate and easy to shoot. It wears Pachmayr Compacts, and is a neat little belt or ankle gun. If I want to carry on the belt but don’t want the bulk or weight of a full-size .38 or semiauto, this is perfect for that.

The 642 has gone through a lot of different grips as I experimented over the last 20 years. When I need to practice shooting an Airweight, it is the one I shoot. When I am hiking where my pocket gun could get dirty/dusty/wet, it is the one I carry. It has been carried so much that it basically has no finish left on it.

The grip on it today is a Hogue rosewood boot grip. It came with a very sharp bottom edge that I rounded off and smoothed to about 800 grit to blend with the rest of the grip to avoid having a sharp line on my pocket or irritating my pinky when shooting it. The rosewood is lovely, but you can barely see it because the backstrap has a self-adhesive rubber archery vibration dampener affixed to it to make shooting more comfortable and increase trigger reach just a bit without increasing grip bulk, and the whole grip is wrapped in a couple of wraps of hockey tape, which adds just a little bit of friction to the smooth wood grip without being tacky on fabric, and covers and protects the rubber sticker on the back.

Sounds very redneck, and looks it. It also works very well. Copied this from a retired very redneck cop friend of mine.

The 642 has never failed. It has untold thousands of dry-fire cycles, and nearly as many practice handloads. It is not fun to shoot full-power 158s or +P anything through, but it handles them fine and I just do that if I have to, though I once lost a dime-sized patch of skin running through a backup gun match shooting a box of full-power 158gr ammo. I once had to leave all of my ammo in my car at the airport because I forgot an ammo box. The only non-FMJ ammo I could find at my destination was 125gr +P. It’s rated for them and hits to POA with them, so I just carried those for the rest of the trip. No worries about if it will run anything that will fit in the chambers. The action is slick as snot, and anything a guy can do with an airweight J, I am confident to try with mine. I have carried it in pockets, ankle holsters, belt holsters, packs, smart carry, fanny packs, etc all over the country. It has more miles and rounds on it than most of my other guns combined.

The 442 gets carried most these days b/c it has no ILS. It has about 150 rounds through it, and only gets about 10 or so per year fired through it. I just keep it clean, lubed, and carry it. It wears the factory S&W rubber boot grip which works okay for me, but it will probably get the redneck grip the 642 has on it as that is more comfortable for most things.

 

[Hookeye]

Have a 642 no lock.
Women folk find it too much even w reg .38 spcl and Wilson spring kit. Too much recoil, trigger too hard.

IMHO it's a nowhere gun for me.

Rather have a 3" M60 w adj sights, or a 340PD if going w J frame.

 

[chaim]

The DS had a Hogue Monogrip, and was a nice light belt gun. It got traded for a hunting rifle, and later on replaced with the 60-9 because I wanted all of my defensive revolvers to work the same (all are S&W).

Funny you say that.

I love my new model Colt King Cobra. However, after more than 20 years of Smith and Taurus revolvers, I don't trust that I'll ever reload it efficiently. Due to the longer loading times, I didn't used to carry a reload with a revolver, only when carrying an auto, maybe a "NY Reload" (a 2nd revolver) but not a speed loader so I saw no problem with the very different cylinder latches. However, the last couple years, I carry a speed strip when I carry my Taurus 856UL. The past few months I've been practicing often, intent to get used to a fast reload using both speed strips and speed loaders. That has me questioning if I should sell the King Cobra, especially since I eventually want a 2 1/2" S&W 66 and a 3" Taurus 856 Defender anyway.

 

[shoebox1.1]

There is a very long couple or three THR threads about the 642 (and its siblings) with a lot of talk about grips and tactics and practice loads and carry loads and on and on. I know Chaim knows about that b/c I remember him posting in it.

I have three Jframes: 2003 production 642-2 with ILS, 60-9 LS, and 442-1 (no ILS). The 642 was the first and only for years, and was the primary carry gun for most of that time, backing up a full size .38 or 9mm at home.

The 642 originally was purchased to save wear and sweat-induced rust on a Detective Special when I moved to Arizona, and was carried with standard pressure 125gr Gold Dots. When I ran out of those and couldn’t get more, I switched to 110gr Critical Defense, and then FGMM wadcutters. Both airweights get carried these days loaded with FGMM.

The DS had a Hogue Monogrip, and was a nice light belt gun. It got traded for a hunting rifle, and later on replaced with the 60-9 because I wanted all of my defensive revolvers to work the same (all are S&W). The 60-9 gets shot with any ,38 I feel like shooting, and I pretend it isn’t chambered in .357 because I’m just not doing that to myself. It is very accurate and easy to shoot. It wears Pachmayr Compacts, and is a neat little belt or ankle gun. If I want to carry on the belt but don’t want the bulk or weight of a full-size .38 or semiauto, this is perfect for that.

The 642 has gone through a lot of different grips as I experimented over the last 20 years. When I need to practice shooting an Airweight, it is the one I shoot. When I am hiking where my pocket gun could get dirty/dusty/wet, it is the one I carry. It has been carried so much that it basically has no finish left on it.

The grip on it today is a Hogue rosewood boot grip. It came with a very sharp bottom edge that I rounded off and smoothed to about 800 grit to blend with the rest of the grip to avoid having a sharp line on my pocket or irritating my pinky when shooting it. The rosewood is lovely, but you can barely see it because the backstrap has a self-adhesive rubber archery vibration dampener affixed to it to make shooting more comfortable and increase trigger reach just a bit without increasing grip bulk, and the whole grip is wrapped in a couple of wraps of hockey tape, which adds just a little bit of friction to the smooth wood grip without being tacky on fabric, and covers and protects the rubber sticker on the back.

Sounds very redneck, and looks it. It also works very well. Copied this from a retired very redneck cop friend of mine.

The 642 has never failed. It has untold thousands of dry-fire cycles, and nearly as many practice handloads. It is not fun to shoot full-power 158s or +P anything through, but it handles them fine and I just do that if I have to, though I once lost a dime-sized patch of skin running through a backup gun match shooting a box of full-power 158gr ammo. I once had to leave all of my ammo in my car at the airport because I forgot an ammo box. The only non-FMJ ammo I could find at my destination was 125gr +P. It’s rated for them and hits to POA with them, so I just carried those for the rest of the trip. No worries about if it will run anything that will fit in the chambers. The action is slick as snot, and anything a guy can do with an airweight J, I am confident to try with mine. I have carried it in pockets, ankle holsters, belt holsters, packs, smart carry, fanny packs, etc all over the country. It has more miles and rounds on it than most of my other guns combined.

The 442 gets carried most these days b/c it has no ILS. It has about 150 rounds through it, and only gets about 10 or so per year fired through it. I just keep it clean, lubed, and carry it. It wears the factory S&W rubber boot grip which works okay for me, but it will probably get the redneck grip the 642 has on it as that is more comfortable for most things.

“and the whole grip is wrapped in a couple of wraps of hockey tape”

sounds like Micheal corleone’s hit piece that took out a crooked cop!

 

[fastbolt]

Is the S&W 442/642 the perfect pocket gun?

... I would love to hear what you all like for a blend of shootability and concealability for your 442, 642 and similar lightweight snubs.

I have a few J-frames with sub-2" barrels I've pocket-holster carried for off-duty and retirement weapons.

I've used the Bantam grip stocks, the old wood grip stocks and the (discontinued) UM Boot grip stocks. Some years back I used the factory wood stocks and the original T-grip, which worked quite well.

The original Tyler T-grip got lost in the shuffle somewhere, so on my mix of several short barreled J-frames I'm running a mix of bantam, UM Boot and factory smooth stocks. I have a 3" barreled J-frame with older Pachmayr stocks, but that's another story (nostalgia, mostly).

Yes, the stocks that expose the backstrap are going to make shooting +P (in +P rated models) ... unpleasant. Shooting Magnum in the models chambered in .357 is ... a lot more unpleasant.

Shootability is dependent on the individual. I've demonstrated I can run fast shot strings, accurately, using Magnum loads in my M&P 340's (pair of them), but it's unpleasant, demanding and not something I want to do all afternoon. I can do it faster using some +P loads, and can last a bit longer out on the firing line. Ditton with my pair of 642's.

Standard pressure loads are a lot more pleasant (grading on the curve, here ), and the type of grip stocks don't seem to matter quite so much.

Of my pair of 642's, one is currently wearing UM Boot grips, and the other the Bantam grip that came on my first M&P 340. My old .38SPL 649 currently wears some nicely refinished factory smooth stocks, and the weight of the all-steel snub makes it palatable, for me. Suit yourself.

I pocket-holster all but the 3" J-frame, and the grip stocks don't really matter, to me.

 

[Spug]

Just got my 442 last week, and haven't shot or even cleaned it yet. Might be tomorrow. I've wanted one for a long time, and have a Chief's Special, a 3" SP101 that I slicked up and love too, a Charter Bulldog I also like. I've also got a few pocketable semi-autos that I've carried, but as has been noted by others they are very flat but don't have the organic, somewhat amorphous shape of a snub revolver in a soft holster. An LC9 or even a BG380 will leave a telltale signature on the outside of a front pocket (and eventually wear lines).

I try not to frequent dangerous areas or dangerous people, and while I'm fine with strapping on a bigger gun in a holster for a hike in the woods or whatever I often don't even wear a belt in daily wear and just have come to prefer pocket carry. And I carry often and other than exercising prudent behavior I don't really think about my gun when I'm carrying it most of the time.

I thought a lot about it vs. the Ruger LCR mostly, and to a lesser extent the Colt and Kimber (especially the new aluminum-frame) offerings too. I'm a Ruger fan and have several of their products, but the marginally more compact size of the Smith over the LCR tipped the scales for me along with just beautiful classic lines, especially on the lock-free version I got. Could have paid a lot more for something .357-compatible, which for me is only attractive because I wouldn't have to readjust reloading dies. Likewise a rebated cylinder for moon clips, as I rarely even carry speed strips. Five rounds of for-sure .38 Special should get me out of most issues I can't avoid so I don't feel inadequately armed. I don't carry a fire extinguisher on my back everywhere I go for much the same reasons.

Not knocking any of the above features for those who want/need/can easily afford them. One I would have paid a modest upgrade fee for is a replaceable front sight, perhaps tritium which would have been a really nice option. I'll put some fingernail polish on the front sight when I finally get to shooting it, probably in the next few days. So far, the factory rubber grips feel great, fit my hand and point naturally, but I'll probably get some wood grips and a T-grip adapter at some point.

I like the way it feels. It makes me happy when put it in my pocket or take it out again, or just hold it, set it on the table and look at it. So I'm glad I finally got mine.

Yes, the 442/642 is the perfect pocket gun.