.357 S&W M27 8.5" barrel w/ jacketed hollow points
Can still shoot .38's and wadcutters
If cross compatability of ammo is important, I'd have to agree that a .357 would probably be the best option. Personally I'd probably go for a barrel in the 4-6" range. IMO the 8+ plus barrel is just too long, but opinions are like...
If we're sticking with S&W.357 offerings, and I'm buying myself something with your money, I'd split the difference and go for a Performance Center 627 with a 5 inch barrel. If I'm spending my own money it would probably be a medium frame, either K-frame M66 or L-frame M686. Both have same shot capacity as the M27, a little less weight, and lower price. Not entirely true. If I were sticking with S&W, since I already own .44 mag, it would be an L-frame M69. We gave my dad one for christmas a few years ago and it's a nice piece.
If I were to move away from S&W (and I most definitely would), it would probably be a Taurus with a 4" barrel and no porting. If it weren't for the expansion chamber and porting I'd go Tracker without a question. Those features are the biggest complaint I have about my 6.5" Taurus Tracker in .44 Magnum. Especially with the expansion chamber I don't trust shooting shot cartridges out of it. I've considered trying to machine the wall out essentially making it a deeply recessed crown, but never got serious enough to carry through with it.
Coyotes won't bother people much. They might carry off a toddler wandering alone by itself but really they are the least of my worries. Usually the only time I've seen them is after they've seen me and are running away.
Depends on the situation. I've never seen it happen, but I know that I'd been dropping deer remains on the established gut pile at the hunting club and had them very excited in close proximity. I couldn't see them due to being dark and undergrowth, but there was a whole pack of them not 10 yards away, probably a good bit closer. Maybe they wouldn't come out and bother me while I was in the area, but it's not a chance I'm willing to take unarmed.
They aren't the only critters on the property that would be very interested in those remains.
I do carry speedloaders and i can actually reload my revolver with one in just slightly longer then it takea my buddy to jam a new clip in his 9.
Ok, but that's ignoring capacity difference. You've got 5 shots in your revolver vs 10+ in his 9. I'm guessing at numbers, but you get the idea. You've got to reload twice for every one of his. Your revolver reload already takes slightly longer to reload, then add second complete relaod process int he same number of rounds.
Lets call it delay stacking, I'm sure that there is a proper term, but I don't care to figure it out right now. These numbers are pulled completely out my back side, but lets say that each handgun takes 1 second to fire 1 round. The pistol takes 4 seconds to reload and the revolver takes 5, but we'll call it 5 and 5 to make things easy. I doubt it takes that long for either, but the effect would be the same over time.
For every 5 shots you take, he takes 10. By the time you have 5 shots down range and reload, he's got 10 down and starting to reload.
Revolver | Pistol |
5 | 10 |
15 | 20 |
30 | 40 |
60 | 80 |
... | ... |
(I have no idea how to work tables in this software)
You'd likely never reach these round counts in the situations we're talking about, but it demonstrates that there's more to things than just reload speed even if we ignore the messy squishy (aka human) aspect. Run what you like, they both have their strengths andweaknesses, just pointing out the flaw in the argument about reload speeds.
That actually attracts the meth heads.
All the more reason to carry.