I won one of these a couple of weeks ago on an GB online auction, wasn't able to pick it up until yesterday because I had covid.
After reading about the gun at length I thought it might be the perfect sidearm to carry while walking fields poisoning and trapping rodents, something I spend days doing every spring around here. I hate rattlesnakes and I'm not going to apologize for killing them, the people that hire me to control the rodents are not going to put up with a pest control guy who gives them a pass either.
In the past I've carried a 9mm with shotshells, they don't have much shot in them and the capsules are unavailable for reloading unlike the 38spcl. Add to that they won't cycle a semi-auto in any caliber. I've loaded and shot quite a few of the 38spcl shot capsules over the years with good results so I decided it was time to own a revolver once again after many years. To me it would foolish to buy a Smith, Colt or any 800+ revolver to shoot shotshells.
With a gun in this price category you would expect there to be some pretty significant quality control issues as far as fit and finish, to my surprise there are no tools marks or blemishes in the finish anywhere, amazing for a 200. gun.
The trigger feels really good, it breaks without any creep and the trigger mechanism feels pretty much like a Colt Diamondback. However when I put on a trigger pull gauge I was surprised at how heavy it is, 4lbs 3oz single action, my pull gauge doesn't go high enough to actuate the double action. The only obvious place where Armscor scrimped was by Parkerizing the gun instead of bluing it. The cylinder latch and crane don't move like a high end gun either but they're just fine for a field gun.
While I was waiting to clear the background I shot a few shotshells and cast bullet loads through the gun at the in house range, I didn't grab the target because they were in a hurry to close the place but it shot very well at 10' and 50' with my old leftovers from 15-20yrs ago.
It snowed here most of the day today so I cleaned the gun up and shot some vintage plastic bullets that I used in my Smith's back when I still had them. If I remember correctly those grouped pretty good from a model 686 and 10 back then.
Unfortunately they keyhole out of this gun, I cleaned the barrel and tried several different primers to no avail, they all keyhole without exception.
The gun obviously has rifling but the plastic bullets drop right though the barrel, I don't recall them doing that with the Smiths.
The bullets measure .342 consistently, do any of you revolver guys shoot these as well?

This is not what were looking for in basement target practice.

Shot capsule nirvana!

After reading about the gun at length I thought it might be the perfect sidearm to carry while walking fields poisoning and trapping rodents, something I spend days doing every spring around here. I hate rattlesnakes and I'm not going to apologize for killing them, the people that hire me to control the rodents are not going to put up with a pest control guy who gives them a pass either.
In the past I've carried a 9mm with shotshells, they don't have much shot in them and the capsules are unavailable for reloading unlike the 38spcl. Add to that they won't cycle a semi-auto in any caliber. I've loaded and shot quite a few of the 38spcl shot capsules over the years with good results so I decided it was time to own a revolver once again after many years. To me it would foolish to buy a Smith, Colt or any 800+ revolver to shoot shotshells.
With a gun in this price category you would expect there to be some pretty significant quality control issues as far as fit and finish, to my surprise there are no tools marks or blemishes in the finish anywhere, amazing for a 200. gun.
The trigger feels really good, it breaks without any creep and the trigger mechanism feels pretty much like a Colt Diamondback. However when I put on a trigger pull gauge I was surprised at how heavy it is, 4lbs 3oz single action, my pull gauge doesn't go high enough to actuate the double action. The only obvious place where Armscor scrimped was by Parkerizing the gun instead of bluing it. The cylinder latch and crane don't move like a high end gun either but they're just fine for a field gun.
While I was waiting to clear the background I shot a few shotshells and cast bullet loads through the gun at the in house range, I didn't grab the target because they were in a hurry to close the place but it shot very well at 10' and 50' with my old leftovers from 15-20yrs ago.
It snowed here most of the day today so I cleaned the gun up and shot some vintage plastic bullets that I used in my Smith's back when I still had them. If I remember correctly those grouped pretty good from a model 686 and 10 back then.
Unfortunately they keyhole out of this gun, I cleaned the barrel and tried several different primers to no avail, they all keyhole without exception.
The gun obviously has rifling but the plastic bullets drop right though the barrel, I don't recall them doing that with the Smiths.
The bullets measure .342 consistently, do any of you revolver guys shoot these as well?

This is not what were looking for in basement target practice.

Shot capsule nirvana!
