buds gun shop reviews (budsgunshop.com)

Are they junk? Or similar to Taurus like I've been told by a couple of people. One of whom has a .357 for sale. Can't help but ask myself "If it's such a great gun, why do you wanna sell it?" A Rossi 461 2" barrel >357 mag. just like the one I see advertised on Bud's for $290 (I think). Not sure if it's worth the 120 mi. trip even to look at a used one even if he is asking only $175. May be a waste of time and gas.

It all depends on what you want it for & how much gas is a gallon.

First off let me say welcome to the forum. I've always liked the look of that little snubby. You might want to check on guntest or gunblast.com. I'm pretty sure Taurus now owns Rossi. I mean it's not a Colt or a S&W but definitely a very serviceable little weapon, and you can't beat the price even new.

Thanks. I just checked out mapquest and it's only 94 mi. Feels like a better buy already. Since I first posted this I've talked with several people on the range that also said Taurus owns Rossi.I'm gonna check out the gun anyway. If for some reson I don't like the gun, I'm sure I can recover my investment anyway. Prices are still creaping up> I've noticed that on Bud's and other sites. I need to learn to load my own instead of stockpiling I think. Especially when it takes me so many rounds to learn to hit what I'm aiming at every time I get a new one. In this area, even the cheapest .380's are $15-20 for a box of 50. That's insane! I just can't afford shooting as a hobby anymore, but I at least wanna be good enough that if a situation does come up I'm not gonna be as big a threat to others as the bad guy. Would kinda defeat the whole purpose of CCW. As I've said in other posts, it took me 2000+ rnds to get small groups at 15-20 ft. with the Pro Compact 24/7. That got a little expensive for a couple of weeks, but it sure was fun. You'd think I wouldn't have to go through the same proccess with the Bersa .380, but I actually put it away yesterday. I do just OK from about 8-10 ft. but any further than that...I'm useless. And I don't think it's the gun. I'm much better with the 8 shot 22 mag. than with any of them. And it's got a 2" barrel. Maybe I need to stick with short revolvers. I done about 10 X's more shooting with them over the years. Have honestly never got comfortable with semi auto pistols...and AR-15's & old AK's just don't quite work for CCW.

You should count your blessings if you can even find .380s. Around here they are rare as hens teeth, and if you do find them they're over $30 a bx. I've heard a couple of reasons for all this, #1 the mfgs. only "run" .380 ammo once a year. #2 thanks to the surge in the handgun market the .380 has seen a huge increase in popularity mostly in first time firearms buyers and especially woman. Hopefully sooner than later the supply will catch up with demand. That is if nothing really stupid comes out of our nation's capital. I've always said the powers that be will go after the ammo first, it's the easiest and fastest way to disarm the public. For those of us that remember the LA riots, after the trial of the police who "beat" Rodney King. You could buy all the weapons you could want in LA county, but they banned the sale of all ammo. Now this latest attempt in CA to restrict ammo sales proves this point again.

I just came from Wal Mart (needed a new battery). Picked up the last 300 rnds of Win. 9m @ $23 per box of 100. I asked the salesman what day of the week they got deliveries. He looked at me like I was from Mars and said "Every day. We start selling at 7am and by 8:30 am almost almost range ammo is gone, .380's being the first to go IF we get them at all."
I have 50 rnd of fn and maybe 30 rnds RN + the 10 in my gun. and 30 or so HPs. He told me also that they get more .40's but they sell faster than the 9's. Actually recommended that I buy a .40ml. The lower fps .22mags I need are getting impossible to find. I'm now down to about 450-500 rnds 9ml rn and 40 HP's. 150 rnds of .357 158gr FN, 100 .38spec. and 40 125gr .357 HP's. Some rnds (like all the Hornady Critical Def) "special" loads...don't remember what most of them are..FTX's or something like that. I hope the few I have are enough to last til I'm long gone. I see no reason, or at least I hope I don't need one....to stock up on those. I'm not expecting to need 10,000's of rounds of ammo, it's simply a matter of economics. It's only gonna get more expensive and I'd rather buy more for less now than less for more later.

Maybe it's time to start thinking about loading and molding at home. I've got more empty brass than I can carry.