At the advice of Tom Hogel, I sent my S&W 442 to Mr. Verne Trester for some custom smith work.

I got a red insert on the front sight ramp. Made a HUGE difference in the visibility of that sight.

I also got the action worked on.

Price for the work was very reasonable.

Took a little over a month for complete turnaround, which was fine.

As soon as it arrived I took it out and just spent time dry firing it. Felt nice. Still a long trigger pull, but it felt smoother and a tad lighter, tho still a “heavy” trigger pull.

Took it to the range. Ran all sorts of ammo through it, different makes and brands, some .38 Special, some .38 Special +P. All sorts of stuff. Everything ran without a hitch. I tried 5 of my Buffalo Bore 20C’s. The first one didn’t fire, but the rest did, and the first one fired when it came around a second time. I’m not sure what the deal was there and will be asking Verne. Could have been a hard primer or just a fluke, or could be something with how he tuned the action (he did ask me prior to starting the work what ammo I’d be shooting out of it). Nice thing about the revolver tho… just keep pulling the trigger. 🙂

This is also the first time I got to shoot it since putting on the new grips. I must say they did a great job. I had more control over the gun due to the longer grip and thus having a pinky on there. The covering of the backstrap was very welcome, especially when shooting those Buffalo Bore. They are certainly bigger than the previous grips and there’s no question that affects concealability. But I don’t think the concealability is all that unmanageable (it doesn’t bulge in my pocket any more than the cylinder width causes things to bulge). As well, when I slip my hand in my pocket and get a grip on the gun, it’s a far more proper grip; with the original grips I noticed that what felt comfortable for a grip in my pocket was NOT a good firing grip. Still, I wouldn’t be opposed to switching back to the little grips if I really needed to maximize concealability. But for general carry and shooting, I will stick with the Pachmayr Compac grips.

Between Verne Trester’s work and the grips, I think I have a good snub. I still think I’d like to get an all-steel snub, like a S&W 640 with no internal lock… but those are getting harder to find so I just have to keep my eyes out. Meantime, my custom 442 will serve me just fine. Now I look forward to Claude Werner‘s snub classes @ KR Training in February 2010. I picked up some RCBS carbide .38 dies at Cabela’s today. I need to get reloading on that.

I want to thank Verne Trester for his work. He was always very polite on the phone and in emails, prompt in returning calls and speaking with me and answering questions until I was satisfied. Good customer service, good work. I’m satisfied and would certainly use him again.