Originally Posted by
rintinglen
In thinking back, the only 2" full sized .357 I can recall being made by a U.S. Manufacturer was the Colt Lawman. Built on the MKIII frame, with fixed sights and a rounded grip, it was less than successful. The problem with the MKIII guns was the uniformly heavy trigger pull. They averaged 15 pounds, though I have read of some as light as 12 pounds. None that I ever examined went that light. Additionally, they had a clunky feel. That was not the butter smooth pull of a pre-war Smith, nor even the more jerky trigger on the post war OP's. To me, they felt like a Model 19 that was 10% overweight, like a super model who had let herself go. Eventually, they got around to revising the MKIII and made a MK V, which did have a decent trigger but that was too late. By then, the age of the wondernine had arrived and if it didn't hold 14 or more rounds, the cops weren't carrying it. (Because Heaven forfend that one should find himself "outgunned".) And the police were the main purchasers of duty handguns. If Colt had made the MK V action from the git-go, I wonder if The Security Six line would have ever got off the ground. But they didn't, so we'll never know.
I had a MKIII trooper 6 inch which I carried briefly, but soon sold. It was quite accurate when fired single action, especially with the Speer 146 grain HP's, but the heavy double action made rapid, "combat" shooting very hard. A 4 inch worked better in a patrol car, and was noticeably lighter. IIRC, the 6 inch Trooper weighed just about the same as the model 28, which weighed nearly 2 3/4 pounds. Add that, a couple of speed loaders of ammo, a Motorola radio, a Maglite and a PR-24 to a couple pairs of hand cuffs and you had trouble keeping your pants up. I sold the MK III and went to a S&W 39-2 then back to a Model 66 S&W before finishing my career as a gun packer with a SIG 220.
All of these ramblings bring me around to the point that Bigslug made. Modern policing uses lighter, high-cap, bottom feeders, not heavy, round guns that shoot "only" a half a dozen shots. Most civilians want a gun like those carried by the police. Not many folks left who fancy a full sized, snubby, and most of us already have ours. This leaves a very small market.