Arguably, by the way, the real buy there in revolvers right now there is the Taurus 605 in .357 (under $300 before tax and shipping.)

Is there a spot on the web site where he lists inventory, offerings or prices? I seem to have missed it.

Not that, in practice, one would have time to think about or do anything, either way, about that. While I've thankfully yet to ever pull a trigger for serious, I've taken my gun out three times ('way high; I'm unlucky -- Mark K. is unluckier than I am, btw) and each time I've been far too busy with immediate concerns.

Interested in sharing those stories?

$428.07, including shipping and tax. ($384 base price.) Less than $50 more than my usual recommendation...
...if it was coming from the same source.

Arguably, by the way, the real buy there in revolvers right now there is the Taurus 605 in .357 (under $300 before tax and shipping.)

And, that said, if I was going to carry something that heavy, I've already got a better choice in that size, more or less -- my Charter Arms Bulldog, in .44 Special.

But I'd rather go with this particular 9mm -- it's lighter, it's at least arguably a better design than a Centennial (the docked hammer gives you something -- the hammer -- to push on while reholstering that will keep the hammer from coming back; it's a bit of extra safety), and while I can handle 9mm in a revolver quite handily (I used to have a S&W 940; I foolishly sold it off when I was regularly carrying a semiauto) .357 in a snubby is, in my experience, a bit much.

Another interesting revolver there is the Taurus Tracker in .44 Magnum. If I was going to carry a medium-sized revolver, I'd think seriously about it. 34 ounces -- about ten ounces more than my Bulldog -- but a full four-inch tube, and the option of carrying either .44 Magnum or .44 Special. (There's also the .41 Magnum, but buying ammo for it is a real pain.)

TheTaurus Ultralite Revolver 38 spl. is only 319.95 + tax. I would take the 38 over the 9mm anyday.

Please. Among things I've been recently reading is an argument about shooting to the pelvis rather than COM, which suggests (from, I think, insufficient data) that it may be a better physical stopper than a shot to COM. (In fact, Ayoob argues in favor of a pelvic shot in many circumstances, and one of his students has taken the leap from that to arguing that it is the best point of aim. I'm not yet convinced, but I'm capable of being persuaded, depending on the data available.) For it to be the right choice, one has to have at least adequate confidence, when compared to shooting to COM, that you'll get a hit in the first place, and greater confidence that either mechanical damage will stop the attack (a hole in the pelvic wall may not; a break through the pelvic bone or sufficient damage to the joint will make it physically impossible for the leg to support weight) or that the pain of a shot to that area will be sufficiently great.

(Which is where Cirillo comes in. He reports that in something around 20 pelvic shots by his stakeout squad, all attackers were stopped. That's obviously too small a number of reporters and incidents to decide the matter, but I find it intriguing, to say the least.)

Alright, just got off the phone with my old EMT instructor. Here's what he said about the gunshot wounds that he's seen to the pelvis. May or may not be of any help to you, but there ya go.

Low power rounds like .22 tend to just richochet around. Probably not much help to you. Round like a .38 tend to stop short of the pelvis or just penetrate a little without busting anything. Rounds like a .45 tend to punch holes. We didn't go into the individual calibers and discuss it a lot, so there's probably a lot of room for invistigation and decision there. Just remember that it has to go through a minimum of 4 " of tissue, often more, then it has to break through a very strong bone.

One of the areas that we discussed was the pelvis' tendency to break in 2 places when it does break because of it's shape. That's what normally causes people to be unable to walk on a busted pelvis. With a gunshot wound to the pelvis, he said that usually it just punches a nasty hole in there, but doesn't actually cause a break that makes the girdle unstable. It's extremely painful because there are a lot of nerves in the area, but he said that if the person is hopped up on something it doesn't really affect their ability to move.

The other thing that we didn't discuss in a lot of detail, but is worthy of consideration, is that damage to the pelvis tends to cause significant blood loss, an average of 1500 cc's dumped. The femoral arteries run through there, after they branch off of the aorta (largest artery in the body about the inside diameter of a quarter) at about the top of the pelvis. You also have the iliac veins and several others. To give you an idea of the amount of blood going through the area you can look at this website at the bottom of the page. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/wnor/posteriorabdomen.htm

I don't know for sure what would happen, but the pelvis and the femur are the 2 most painful bones to break from what I've been told. I have heard of people ignoring femur fractures before because of endorphines and adrenaline and the like. I heard a story of one guy who was running a marathon and broke his femur in a pothole. He didn't know he broke it because of the amount of endorphines and stuff running through him, and his muscles actually clamped around the femur through the next 20 miles of the race. Thought he had a cramp. He got to the finish line, his body relaxed, and he collapsed in pain.

I don't know what might happen with a pelvis. I personally have it as a third option in the arsenal. Just some food for thought.

Edit to add: I suppose you have to evaluate what your intent is. In order to physically stop someone you have to interupt one or more of three things IMO. The ability to breath, move, or stay conscious. More passively, add to that the ability to see as well. COM shots tend to be more focused on interupting the ability to stay conscious, which is overall the best way of stopping an attack, again only IMO. Pelvic shots, to me, tend to be more focused on stopping the ability to move, but it only affects the lower half of the body if it works at all. People can still remain conscious after losing 1500 cc's of blood.

On the other hand, the 9mm is, basically, the same bullet diameter (in fact, I've handloaded the same bullets into both 9mm and .38 Special brass) and a standard pressure 9mm is ballistically a hot .38 +P -- do you prefer standard pressure .38 over .38+P?

(And, come to think of it, while there might be feeding/spring/pressure trouble with a 9mm 158-grain semiwadcutter in a semiauto, there wouldn't be any feeding problem in a revolver. A hotter, 9mm version of the famous FBI .38 load? Interesting -- and I know somebody who would be happy to load some up for me, and who I would trust to get at least factory-level reliability out of his equipment.

(Hmmm....)

1.) I never said it would not reach the pelvic bone or that it would not penetrate the pelvic bone. Perhaps I was unclear, but without re-reading my post, I meant to say that what the EMT that I spoke to said was that in the hospital he saw that .38 bullets tended to reach the pelvis then stop in the hard tissue of the front of the pelvis. (The name for it escapes me right now. I haven't needed it to treat people) Perhaps I should have been more accurate and said that it generally failed to perforate the posterior pelvis or cause significant structural damage to the pelvic girdle. Bone is a heck of a lot harder than soft tissue or ballistic gelatin.

2.) Again, he worked in more than one position. EMT's also work in positions in emergency rooms as EDT's (Emergency Department Technician) and a variety of other positions. They are also required to take a fair amount of continuing education, and full time instructors also tend to learn a lot from the desk as well. He worked in a hospital as well as in the field. Kind of hard not to learn a thing or 2 from doctors when you work for them, eh?

3.) I am aware that your femoral arteries, the 4 branches of the iliac veins, and the variety of other smaller arteries in the pelvis (big leg to be supplied from only one artery) are smaller than the heart and aorta in your chest.

Again, I was trying to supply whatever information I could to someone. Don't like it, that's OK. Maybe someone will.