Monday, August 27, 2007 Rama: The little AirLight By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
SOME good things come in small packages. A winning lottery ticket, after all, only measures a few inches. But can a good thing come in a package so small as to be unwanted?
I asked the question in sympathy to this guy I’d met at the NBI firing range only last week and who confided to me how he traded his subcompact Glock 26 for a five-shot Smith & Wesson Model 340 revolver. He was whacking himself in the head for it.
For those with a working knowledge on the Glock, but who aren’t familiar with S&W, particularly the Model 340, it is easy to see why the guy in question is cursing the day he agreed to the trade-off.
After all, the gun “lost” in the exchange was a Glock.
Shouldn’t he have held on to the gun and paid heed to Tommy Lee Jones who so convincingly discussed how it could shoot underwater (US Marshals), or to Bruce Willis who said the gun could pass through airport metal detectors (Die Hard 2)?
As firearm manufacturers, both Glock and Smith & Wesson enjoy wide market shares.
Both brands are well known in the Philippines. Glock, though, appears to be a tad bit more popular and I cannot authoritatively answer why.
My guess is this, maybe because Glocks are more visible in the movies. It may also be because most Filipino gun owners prefer semi-automatic pistols over revolvers.
Glock makes pistols exclusively.
On the other hand, while Smith & Wesson offers a superb line of semi-automatics like the S&W1911 and the 9mm-Military and Police model, it is more famous for making very high quality revolvers.
Baby Glock. The Glock 26 is a marvelous piece of work.
It’s a subcompact (half a foot long from butt plate to muzzle and four inches from base plate to sighting plane) semiautomatic pistol chambered for the respectable 9mm round.
Despite its diminutive size, it can carry up to 10 rounds of ammo in either of the two magazines that it gets shipped with. And if that isn’t firepower enough, the gun is compatible with the magazines made for its big brothers—the Glock 19 and the Glock 17.
The gun is reliable. It is, after all, a Glock. And more importantly, it can hold its ground in a fight provided that it goes in the hands of a capable shooter.
Unfortunately, the criteria that the Glock 26 was designed to pass isn’t the be-all and end-all of shooting and there is a lot of room for the Model 340 to shine.
Snub-nosed. The Model 340 is in the top of S&W’s line of J-frame revolvers or snubbies. It’s chambered for the powerful .357 magnum cartridge but may also be loaded with the lighter .38 special.
The wheel-gun can hold five rounds and sports a 1.78-inch barrel. The sights are fixed and the hammer is enclosed in a centennial-style shroud, making it impossible to cock.
The gun comes in a matte finish and the frame is made of scandium alloy and titanium. The cylinder is made of steel. The barrel is likewise made of stainless steel but is also covered by an alloy shroud.
Its material makes the gun unbelievably light, at 11 ounces, giving it the company moniker AirLight.
But what the gun lacks in physical weight, it makes up with the price tag. And the figures are indeed difficult to bear as the gun, according to the S&W brochure, retails for $988.00 or approximately two Glock 26s.
Getting a Model 340 in pristine condition for the price of one Glock 26 is already a “good thing.” But there’s more to the Model 340 that meets the eye.
