Customer Reviews for Smith & Wesson Performance Center Pro Model 442 38 Special Revolver

Great little J-Frame, hope S&W will upgrade the sights on all of these soon, like with the newer Lipsey's ultimate carry models coming out. Decent trigger, smooth, but heavy, as expected...

I have bought several guns from Buds and each and every one of the transactions has been easy. The gun arrived within a few days and was a beauty! I will keep buying from Buds as they make it easy to buy and have quick shipping times. Thanks!

great trigger for what it is Light small, and Accurate Price was good Put a 100 rounds through with no issues only issue is Moon clips are hard to load

Fantastic. A fine revolver to last a lifetime.

The 442-1 revolver purchased from Buds arrived in a timely manner, thanks Buds. It has a slightly recessed cylinder and came with three full moon clips to use, if desired. I successfully snapped five dummy rounds into one of the moon clips to just checked the loading/ejecting procedure. Worked fine. Which was as far as I could get testing moon clips. Pressing live rounds in past the fourth cartridge was impossible, without a tool. Gave up on that and proceeded to the range to field test this J frame five shot .38 Spl. Shooting at a distance of 7 yards on large targets went without incident. The trigger pull weight seems to be anywhere from 5-10 LBS. averageing #7 on my, Lyman digital gauge. A bit of a disappointment compared to my two year old standard model 442-1, which feels a bit lighter, smoother at average #5 pull. Whatever, maybe after 2-3 years of live rounds fired and 200-300 dry fires, this Pro Series .38, that cost me about another $93. more than the standard 442 will smooth up. I guess S&W got over on me. Not the first time I was fooled.

Love my purchase of my 442 pro series everything extremely easy with buds website I’m a team buds member, so I use their layaway plan 90 days no charges firearm shipped to my FFL for transfer. I would definitely purchase from buds again, especially using their layaway plan.

I have bought many new guns in my lifetime. I purchased this 442 and like any gun I gave it a quick once over at my FFL and put it in the box and brought it home. I was pretty excited about it so as soon as I got it home I got it out of the box and stated seeing how it felt and checking out the sights. After a few minutes I was noticing my sight picture didn’t look right so I looked at the rear channel thinking maybe it was off. As I’m looking at the sight channel I notice the front isn’t lining up with it. The barrel is about an 1/8” too far to the right. I’ve heard of things like this but I had never seen it myself. Had I seen this I would never had accepted it at the FFL. I will contact Smith & Wesson and see how they want to handle getting it back to them. This is too bad I really was excited about getting this one to add to my collection. So don’t just check for dings and scratches. Check those revolvers for straight barrels. I will hopefully be able to update this review with good news in the future.

This is my third purchase from Bud's and it's a winner. This is my first revolver and the Smith & Wesson J Frame was my first choice. Chose the 442 Performance Center Pro Series. Have shot about 200 rds thu it now and it is amazing. A little bit louder then my Glock and my 1911s but that's part of its charm. Great gun and I highly recommend it. Bud's has come thu for me again.

This is a perfect get off me gun.

I am impressed with the "lower than expected" recoil of this revolver, loving the feel of this revolver the more I handle it. It is a very well built and will probably be my go to for conceal carry. Can not wait to target practice some more, nice groups at 20 feet, only shot 20 rounds so far the day I received it from my local FFL. This is my 2nd purchase from Buds. Buds has been my go to online shop for firearms not on hand at the local shops. Thanks for the smooth transaction.

Awesome gun. though cylinder corrosion can be an issue on this carbon steel cylinder. Would be perfect if the cylinder was stainless steel like the barrel.

Excellent gun! I’m a big fan of J frames and replaced my 642 Pro with this. Aside from the stainless vs carbon steel used on the different cylinders and the black finish on the 442, this and the 642 are identical revolvers. However, with some altamont boot grips this is a much better looking revolver than the 642, but that just my preference. Additionally, while the frame lock that comes on most S&W production revolvers isn’t a deal breaker for me, I do prefer one without, so the lack of a lock is a nice bonus for this gun. This revolver is also cut for moon clips. I don’t carry reloads in a moon clip, but it’s a nice feature to use for unloading and keeping your carry ammo together for cleaning or a trip to the range.

I have shot this gun twice and once you get in the groove you're in the 10 ring(, close up that is.) Moonclips are complicated and the blue steel moonclips that hold Federal, Remington and Starline brass are my favorite. The Length is an issue, the Remington 158 Gr LRN rounds you have to wrestle into the chambers. So I am in search of the perfect ammo. I like this Revolver as hot weather carry. Buy this gun from Bud'd.

Very nice, easy delivery, great price. Gun shoots great, boot grips nicer than expected. Action okay out of box I guess, polished internals and added Wolff reduced power hammer spring - now great. Front blade needs white paint or something. Good accuracy, 9 and 10 rings all day out to 10 yds so far shooting Winchester wad cutters, longer range soon to follow. I like the finish, contrasts nicely with the cylinder. Great weight for carry. It's a Smith J Frame, what can you really say? Recommend.

I like this little handgun. It does exactly what I wanted it to do. It is light, snag free, easy to conceal. Remember, shooting a featherweight, short-barrel revolver requires a significant about of practice to attain proficiency. Buy this firearm if you are willing to invest in ammunition and range time. I also suggest a trigger job by a competent, licensed, gunsmith. Properly stoning the appropriate hammer and trigger services will improve accuracy. The gun is well made and absolutely reliable: pull the trigger, it goes "bang", period. Bonus: with the 442, you don't have to practice the semi-auto jam / stovepipe / failure to eject / failure to feed drills; you don't need to remember to release the safety when you are under the extreme stress of an "encounter", and you can feed it any ammo you want from low-power wadcutters, to Plus-P personal defense rounds. (I would give it a 5 star rating if S&W would polish those hammer/trigger surfaces before it leaves the factory.)

Perfect BUG (back -up-gun)! If your gun must absolutely, positively fire and continue to do so until empty, then this gun is for you. 97.99% reliable, (Failure to Feed, Failure to Fire and Failure to Eject does not apply here). You can even fire this gun while still inside your jacket pocket, no external hammer. Yes, it does shoot double action only. This gun is made for close quarter self defense, shooting within 5 feet. As such, you will not have time to cock the hammer before shooting anyway. Yes, the trigger can initially be a little hard to pull. Solution...... pull the trigger 50 times with each hand every day for 10 days, you should be doing that anyway. After 1000 dry fires, the trigger should feel fine. This is the "Pro" model, it has a stainless steel cylinder and it is cut for moon clips. If moon clips are not for you, dont use them. Moon clips are not required.

Great purchase, this is my go to off duty carry. Fits in pocket without a bulge.

This is my second purchase from Bud’s. The transaction, as always, was flawless. I can definitely state that I will purchase from them again, and again, and again. Regarding the S&W-442, awesome little revolver. Small enough in size to conceal it just about anywhere on your body; I am doing ankle-carry. This revolver is so light that I honestly forget I am carrying it at all. Keep in mind that this is a CQB firearm, it is not made to shoot the bad guy who is a block away. This revolver is for that close quarters shootout in defense of your family, your property, and/or yourself. By the way, this is my second S&W, my other pistol is an M&P 9c that I purchased through Bud’s as well.

The Mdl 442 is an excellent small revolver. This model allows use of five-round moon clips, which provide a faster manner of reloading but require a little testing and perfecting of the clip/bullet combination to ensure proper function. Moon clips frankly work better with the shorter .45 ACP rounds in the full-size Mdl 625 than they do in the smallish Mdl 442 -- based on size, dynamics, and the greater strength of the clips that hold the .45 rounds compared to the thinner clips that hold the .38 Special rounds. The 442 with moon clips is a viable combination, though; it just requires a little more attention. To be honest, every round you carry for self-protection, whether in a set of five attached to a moon clip, or carried separately, should be tested in your cylinder to make sure it fits properly! If you don't want or like moonclips, buy the regular Mdl 442 or the Mdl 642 and enjoy the savings (both are available with the no-lock feature). Overall, though, this is a wonderful revolver, and I will be using it with a moon clip. The Bud's price and service was excellent and increased my enjoyment of this purchase.

Nice little gun. Really can't go wrong with these for the price. No brainer to get the PRO version over the regular version for the cost differential.

Nice little J-frame. It is exactly what I was expecting.

Pros: very comfortable grip, light, easy to conceal, and 100% reliable. Cons: heavy trigger and sharp recoil with +P. This is my first personal revolver. I have shot others, but not regularly. My biggest concern was my poor accuracy. I own and shot P238, P290, G26, and P22 same day. I am no sharp shooter, but I shot much better groups with All the semi's listed above. I attribute to my lack of revolver experience and a heavy trigger. Gun felt awesome in my hand and had good sight line. Heavy trigger somewhat necessary for CC, but my poor accuracy gives me pause.

Typical smith and wesson product, excellent quality and performance. To be picky I need to coment on the moon clips. They are difficult to load and unload, I started to use a screw driver to remove the spent shells fron the clip due to they being a bit flimsy.Also make sure you pratice loading and unloading the gun for the demensions are close and may some times interfere with the process.

Recieved in timely manner and was exactly as described.