Smith & Wesson Model 642 38 Special J-Frame Revolver

Smith & Wesson Model 642 38 Special J-Frame Revolver

With decades of reliable performance to its credit, Smith & Wesson’s 642 J-Frame remains among the best and most popular small-frame revolvers on the market.

This model, the Model 642 Enhanced Action revolver, actually comes from the Performance Center by Smith & Wesson brand.  As you know, because of this distinction, the model offers upgraded features beyond the standard Smith & Wesson and Pro Series models. This revolver shoots .38 special and .38 +P from a 5-round cylinder and through a 1.88-inch barrel. Yes, it’s from the lineage of the popular J-frame family of S&W that has been around for decades. It weighs a bit more than its predecessor, but just a few ounces.

This gun features an internal hammer and an oh-so-smooth finish. It seems that the engineers at Smith & Wesson told them to keep on polishing with this rendition, and not to forget the trigger.

Our Smith & Wesson 642 review will cover what may be the most popular J-Frame on the market.

The Smith & Wesson J-Frame was introduced in 1950.

At the time, it was more potent than other revolvers of its size, shooting the 38 special round.

This was higher pressure than other 38 caliber rounds of that time.

The Smith & Wesson Model 36 was the initial introduction. It was an all-steel, fairly heavy gun for the time.

In 1552, they introduced the Centennial model, which features a fully enclosed hammer. With this fully enclosed hammer, this gun is double action only.

They use an enclosed hammer so that an external hammer would not snag when drawing the gun.

The lightweight aspect of the gun was not introduced until 1957.

Smith & Wesson Model 642 38 Special J-Frame Revolver