The Smith & Wesson Model 19 Carry Comp comes from the S&W Performance Center, in their new branded gray polymer box. The gun ships with wood stocks (looks like rosewood) installed and – thoughtfully – with S&W branded rubber stocks in the box. The wood looks good in pictures, the softer stocks feel better when shooting the gun.
The Model 19 Carry Comp features a front ramp sight which is fitted with a tritium vial. The sight is pinned in case you want to change it. There’s no front locking pin in the underlug. Front lockup is accomplished by a crane lock. The trigger has a permanently attached trigger stop. On the left side of the frame under the cylinder latch is Smith’s Performance Center logo.
The barrel isn’t just ported – it’s an expansion chamber Smith & Wesson calls a PowerPort vented barrel. It’s cut above and around the circumference of the bore. There’s vestigial rifling around the leading edge of the expansion chamber at the muzzle and I could see powder granules left inside the expansion chamber from factory test-firing.
The finish is a pleasant flat black. The front of the cylinder appears to be rounded, not sharp, to facilitate holstering the piece. It’s a Carry Comp, after all.
A (weather-belated) range trip took me to an indoor range with four different loads to try. (Note to self: Next time, take a screwdriver set to adjust the sights.)
Yes, I had no screwdrivers – and the range had no flat-ground screwdrivers. I was left with using good old Kansas-guesstimate holds just as I would have had to do at any other range when showing up unprepared.
The first five rounds of old stock Speer 158gr. Gold Dot HP .357 Magnum went below my legal paper-size target into the pre-shot cardboard backer at 25 yards.
I can confirm that, 1) the flash from the comp is more than a little exhilarating, 2) that the magnum recoil – which is pronounced – wasn’t at all painful or disorienting, likely due to that comp cut and the rubber stocks provided by the Performance Center, and 3) the single action pull is stiffer than old S&Ws, but it still features a crisp let-off.
After the screw driver debacle, I moved the target to seven yards – I had to see where the rounds were going – and loaded with Federal Premium 158gr. HydraShok HPs. These thumpers likewise hit low and left – I was holding top of the “9” ring and shooting double action. The hits about touched and were five-inches low.
Remington Golden Saber 125gr 357 Magnums were striking 3½” low at seven yards, with the hits nearly inside one hole. Firing old-stock Remington LeadLess 125gr Flatnose Enclosed Base ammo at ten yards, I saw that the 38 ammo was less-liked, clustering into 3” with the best three into 1¾”.
It took another range trip to get this thing zeroed.
The gun retails for just under $1,300 – not cheap, but you get what you pay for. It’s a 34oz. carbon steel gun with, according to the factory website, has a stainless-steel barrel.
If the barrel is indeed stainless, it’s nicely finished in the same flat-black as the rest of the business-like cannon.
In the “close the barn door after the horse got out” department, I haunted the local Academy Outdoor Sports location and snagged theWheeler “Spacesaver” screwdriver set, designed to go into the range bag. Heavier than I need, with more bits than I’d normally use, it’s a 36-piece set with Hex, Torx, flat and Phillips bits. With the confusing array of optics -and non-optics – guns I’m taking to ranges these days, such an expansive kit will likely cover any needs. And, the price was right.
That was handy as we had enough of a break in the weather to take this cannon to the club range. It was the matter of a few moments and around fifteen rounds of CCI-Blazer 357 Magnum aluminum-case 125 grain SP ammo to get the M19 zeroed at fifteen yards.
A short indoor range trip with Legendary Lawman Marshal Chuck Haggard followed. I had the presence of mind to bring the Garmin Xero Pro C1 along. Some old stock Speer 158 gr. Gold Dot HP generated about 978 fps in the short, ported barrel. Some of the Speer Blazer (aluminum case) 125 gr. JSP ammo averaged about 1,090 fps.
Quoting Darryl Bolke, Chuck noted that the ported magnum was like shooting while deploying a flashbang. The flash was incredible, but I didn’t capture it on digital media, alas. He shot the revolver quite well using the old Speer ammo.
Conclusions? I’ve long considered the most shootable handy revolvers to be three-inch-or-so guns. Long enough to provide decent accuracy out as far as you can shoot, being close enough to minimize “leading with the gun” in a search while being short enough to inhibit successful grabs at the unholstered handgun, the form factor is right for me. Ballistically, it’s a 2 ½” M19 (output and sight radius) with handling characteristics of the 3” guns.
In addition, they take a lot of discomfort out of a K-frame magnum. This gun is properly updated for resistance to wear – it’d take more shooting than I’m going to do to figure out how much.
If you like magnum DA/SA revolvers, this one is light, fast and accurate.
I really like all revolvers of all calibers and sizes: I own several. I especially like revolvers with 3-inch barrels for concealed carry if you want to carry a revolver for concealed carry.
Personally, I like a similar although slightly smaller revolver chambered in .38 Special +P since .357 Magnum’s minimal extra velocity out of a 3-inch barrel does not significantly increase its “stopping power” for human attackers. To each his/her own of course.
One more thought on carrying a small revolver for concealed carry and self-defense:
A significant advantage of a revolver (over a semi-auto pistol) for self-defense is that you you can press a revolver into an attacker’s torso when you shoot and still be able to shoot again–unlike a semi-auto pistol which will almost always fail to cycle in the same situation. (The attacker’s body interferes with a semi-auto pistol’s slide moving back and totally forward into battery often limiting you to a single shot in that scenario.) In that situation (where you are pressing your revolver’s barrel into your attacker’s torso), there is an overlooked wounding mechanism: the super-high velocity gases exiting the barrel. Those super-high velocity gases are moving fast enough with enough force to impart a fatal injury in and of themselves even without a bullet.
In light of the fact that combustion gases exiting the barrel can be an important wounding (and hence incapacitation) mechanism, I want a non-ported barrel on my self-defense revolvers to ensure that ALL of the gases go forward into my attacker rather than a significant amount of the gases porting away from the muzzle and therefore away from my attacker.
Choose wisely.
$1250 for a new 3″ K-frame? Jesus H. Christ on a cracker. I love revolvers, but I could buy a pair of (P365s/METEs/Shield Plus/Hellcats/Glocks/even VP9SKs (on sale)) and still have money left over for holsters, a good belt, ammo and probably a couple of spare magazines for that same money.
And frankly, the triggers on new Smith wheelguns suck assorted farm animals. I just picked up a used J-frame for a little over a third of that and it’s got a silky-smooth trigger that’s a joy to shoot. I’ve also got three new production Smiths that have triggers worse than 80s/90s-era S&W Sigmas. The Ruger LCR has a good trigger compared to them and it’s nothing to write home about compared to old S&W wheelguns.
It’s like all their experienced master gun guys who did the fit and finish retired and they failed to teach the new people how to do a decent job.
So no thanks, Smith. Try harder. Do better.
David Deplorable,
About 7 years ago I purchased a new Rock Island Armory snubnose revolver (chambered in .38 Special) on sale for $225. The double-action trigger is very smooth and surprisingly not heavy. The single-action trigger is fantastic without any creep or take-up whatsoever–you just apply pressure until it breaks like a glass rod. And that single-action trigger is nice and light, probably breaking around 3 pounds of force. I cannot begin to imagine how Smith and Wesson is apparently unable to match that trigger.
I too like the older S&W revolvers. I even own some that used to have that ghastly hole in them. TKCustoms makes some spring kits for specific revolvers. It is not difficult to put together one for whatever Smith you might have if there is not a specific kit.
With the horror stories I hear, and the poor workmanship I see on the new revolvers, I’ll stick to buying the older models. Some of them may even have that ghastly hole.