I’ve always been a S&W revolver fan. Of course when that’s your issued service revolver, early in your police career, you tend to be fond of what you carry daily. I never had anything against Rugers I just never gave them much thought for protection. After I received the LCR for this review I’m giving it much more thought.

The Ruger LCR (Light Compact Revolver) came out in 2009 and it didn’t take long for it to gain a following. Since that time the little LCR has taken a chunk out of S&W’s dominance of the small revolver market.

Lets go over some of the features of the LCR. The LCR uses a friction reducing cam which significantly reduces trigger pull, a monolithic frame with the upper being an alloy and lower a polymer material, a stainless steel barrel and cylinder and finally the trigger control grip is in the grip peg. That’s certainly a unique location for the fire control group. Another weight saving measure is in the cylinder profile. Ruger took a lot of steel out of the front half of the cylinder decreasing the weight on an already lightweight revolver.

The trigger is smooth with a nice contour. Trigger pull is right at eight pounds. That’s somewhat less than most snub nose revolvers. It actually feels less than that since the pull is smooth all the way through the stroke and breaks clean.

The perceived recoil of the LCR is less than all of the other small frame revolvers I’ve shot. I credit this to the grip angle and the Hogue Tamer grips. Comparing it with it’s S&W counterpart is no contest the LCR has much less felt recoil. The LCR is pretty comfortable with most any load. Of course in it’s 357 chambering that’s a different story.

The front sight of the LCR is larger than most small revolvers. With the LCR you can actually get a true flash sight picture. The Big Dot rear sight is also a factory option on the LCR.

Since 2009 when the LCR began life as a 38+P revolver a 357, 22 and 22 magnum chambering have been added. The two .22 chambering’s have done very well. While I’m not a proponent of a .22 for defense that’s what these two have been primarily purchased for.

Accuracy on the range was better than expected. I credit this to the larger front sight and excellent trigger. From a distance of ten yards standing unsupported a group of three inches is not uncommon. That’s shooting fairly quickly.

Overall I would place the LCR in the top two of snub nose revolvers. Earlier I made the comparison with the S&W Bodyguard. I’m giving some serious thought to trading mine for the LCR.

It’s not the best looking revolver by any means but the function and design makes up for that. Something else a potential buyer needs to consider is our current shortage of ammunition. The 38 caliber is not in the big four calibers that suffer the greatest shortage. If you do some looking around you can almost always find 38 ammo. If you reload you can always find bullets for it.

If you’ve never tried an LCR you should seriously consider renting one at your local range. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

http://www.ruger.com/products/lcr/features.html