First Handgun

[SeekHer]

I'm with C.C. for the single caliber choice of .38Special/.357 Magnum; it is, without a doubt, the best chambering you can get...From low power paper loads to full blown drop a grizzly on it's ass loads (you too!)...You have the widest selection of firearms to choose from the broadest selection of makers...There are though some other makers producing .357 mag guns like Taurus, Strum-Ruger, Korth of Germany or even Charter Arms so you don’t have to have just a S7W Model 27…

That said I've never owned one, shot a lot of them but found the .41 mag more to my liking (back in the late 1970s) and as I have a bunch of them (11) I will start my next shooting collection with the .44 Spec. & .32 H&R mag (&/or Ruger) and will eventually get to the .357…

Now, for a semi auto, I’d prefer the 10mm even though you have a poor selection of firearms to choose from and a worse selection of commercial ammo loadings but they are devastating and I can always buy extra ammo to keep on hand…2nd choice would be the .40 S&W; 3rd .357 SIG and 4th .38 Super (poorest selection of all except in race gun configurations) and all available in a 1911 JMB design pistol from makers like S T I etc.…

For the practical side then it would have to be the .45 ACP by Para Ordnance or Springfield Armory and then the 9mm Luger (9x19) in a Browning Arms P35 a true classic…

What you also don’t have is a nice plinker, .22 LR rimfire whether a semi like a Browning Buckmark or a Ruger Mark 1, a revolver by say maybe Taurus and/or a drop in conversion kit for your semi auto…

As Whirlibird said and I completely agree the best production SAA is the US Firearms but the best, strongest production/semi custom is the Freedom Arms and I absolutely love mine…

[Combat Controller]

Speaking of .38 super, it will fire out of a .357....

In other news, I have the number if the guy who invented the Medusa and am trying to get him to sell me one. He is just up the road!

[eocoolj]

Speaking of .38 super, it will fire out of a .357....

In other news, I have the number if the guy who invented the Medusa and am trying to get him to sell me one. He is just up the road!

Hmmm, maybe if he has two, I can make the Medusa my first handgun....

on second thought, not nearly as pretty as a 27.

[eocoolj]

Another follow up question for the 27... Did S&W ever make an N frame .22? Would be a nice companion piece for the 27, though i guess its kind of ridiculous to use something as large as an N frame for a .22.

[Rich Jordan]

PM Medusa article http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoor ... 77301.html

[Whirlibird]

Another follow up question for the 27... Did S&W ever make an N frame .22? Would be a nice companion piece for the 27, though i guess its kind of ridiculous to use something as large as an N frame for a .22.

No. Not that one couldn't be custom built on an available N-Frame.
But that would be unbelieveably large and heavy for a .22.