Ok Carl you asked for it haha, I might be an oddity Carl but my Bond is my favorite handgun to shoot (and carry) as well as my wife’s. I have the 3” 45/410 it came with (least carried), and was offered at the time I purchased a 2nd barrel 1/2 off so I purchased the 3.5” 357/38 special, then add a 3.5”.45 colt only, and a 2.5” .45acp. The recoil is suggestive, I was worried when I bought it 5 years ago I’ve had a few hand/wrist surgeries arthritis etc. in my hands but I still work with my hands and play music so I keep them moving all the time. All I had read online prior to my purchase was shot it once never again etc. or “a friend of mine had one”. I should stress I’m not recoil sensitive and it is definitely not a gun for everyone. It’s definitely more challenging to shoot and the ergonomics takes some practice to get used to, it’s a firearm you need to spend some time with to become proficient, but it’s made me a way better handgun shooter overall.
I have other revolvers and semiautomatics but after a cylinder or a magazine or two they just become boring now. The Bond lets you slow down not that it’s slow once you master the manual of arms it’s a great one hand operating gun, it lets you enjoy shooting you need to use your noodle to adjust for the two different points of aim use some Kentucky windage, if you don’t like that kind of stuff and you like lasers and optics this is not a gun for you, once you dial in its as accurate as you want it to be. One reason I’ve taken to it as it’s a gun I can keep in my pocket working in the woods or outside and nothing gets fouled up or gritty, with a revolver I always have to spend hours when I’m done working and tired cleaning out sand and grit, same with a semiauto, this open it up, blow it out, if it is gritty it cleans up in a few minutes not an hour, also other firearms in my waist or on hip drives my sciatica crazy. Reliability , I’ve had problems with pocket semiautomatic not fuller sized but my LCP2 had to go back it was great for a while but started to drop mags after every shot, went back got fixed but had a loss of faith in it, another small pocket semi my wife had went back 6 times to the manufacturer the extractor would fly off after a few rounds, drawbar broke, drawbar spring also broke another time. It’s only two shots but it’s dependable and I’m accurate with it, I reload for it, I’ve chronographed various rounds in various calibers for it I’ve definitely put some time into it, I live in the country so I don’t see many people in my day to day life other than my wife and kids, but out of all my handguns I carry my Bond Arms and my NAA the most and have used them the most to dispatch sick or nuisance animals. I will say the 410 is cool-ish if you live like I do it’s great in the garden etc. but out in the woods I carry my .45 colt only with 255 grain hard cast or 357 with 180 grain hard cast, public I carry the .45acp with federal 230 HST’s which do expand from the 2.5” barrel and gets plenty of penetration. If you are worried I’d say get the 357/38 special, 158 grain shoot dead on in mine and recoil is mild more like a .22/.22mag in a revolver.
ps, if you don’t reload commercial .45 colt is pretty lame other than Underwood standard pressure, so .45acp or 357/38 would be a better choice plenty of choices and bullet weights to suit your needs.
