My wife carries S and w 642. It's hammer less and like others have said goes bang every time. My wife had the Taurus 738 tcp but she doesn't have a lot of hand strength and had difficult pulling back the slide. I wanted to get her a revolver chambered in 357 and let her practice with with .38 and put 357 in for ccw and if she ever needed it and shot she wouldn't know the difference in the heat of the moment.