Bangity, New Gun

A S&W Shield in 9mm:

They can still be had for $300 or so, if you shop around. It came with two mags (7 round and & round); I bought three more 8-round mags. I'll probably get one more 7-round mag so I have a spare for that.

I have 200 rounds through it; 100 rounds of Ten Ring range ammo and 100 rounds of Winchester's steel-cased ammo. Neither brand is exactly premium fodder. One of the Ten Ring rounds had a bent-over case mouth that escaped QC. The Winchester stuff, on occasion, didn't have enough oomph to cycle the slide.

Some Federal HST ran flawlessly.

The sights were off enough to require a trip to a gunsmith to move them over. Both the front and rear sights were off. He centerized both with an impressive piece of kit, a MGW sight tool and verified alignment with a micrometer. A quick trip back to the range confirmed it.

It shoots pretty well. It weighs 18.4 oz empty on my postal scale, putting it a few ounces over a Model 442 Airweight, and being much easier to shoot. Part of that is because the gun itself is using up some of the recoil energy to function; whereas in the Airweight, you get it all. Not to mention you get 8 or 9 cartridges instead of the Airweight's five.

One downside is one really should shoot a fair number of rounds through a new auto to ensure that the gun is past the infant mortality stage. With a revolver, it's more shoot enough to confirm the sight alignment and you're mainly good to go.