My first impression of my Bond Snake Slayer was that at 22 oz's it was a very heavy handgun. Even so, it has a pretty good balance in my hand. Later on when I had a chance to handle the Snake Slayer IV I thought that it felt a bit more comfortable even with an additional 1.5 oz's in the IV.
Workmanship is great. The lockup is very tight and all surfaces are clean with very few sharp edges. One area is the inside of the removable trigger guard and another is the inside of the frame where the barrels rotate into. All in all for appearance and workmanship, super! One item I will work on is the extractor. It has a bit of a rough surface on it and as it slides in a groove in the frame it drags a bit. Also, the extractor only pulls the shells out about a 1/16th of an inch, but maybe with some work honing the extractor I may gain a little more. The extractor spring cannot be any longer, as at the factory length it is completely compressed when the barrels are closed.
The grips are over sized, and they fit my hand pretty well. The Bond store lists a Hogue wrap grip which I considered but after firing mine I do not feel I will need them. I did try a pair of pigskin work gloves but I was unable to pull the trigger with them on. I did not remove the trigger guard and see if I could pull the trigger with them on.
The felt recoil from shooting is much less than anticipated recoil. I believe I had more recoil from my Sig P239 in .40 cal than when shooting .410 from the Bond. The trigger does not pull straight back, but moves in what is best described as a down and back motion. The hammer has a stiff pull to get to it's cocked position, but shooting two handed it is just the same cocking it as an SA revolver.
So far I have shot Remington #6 Game Loads, and I have some Winchester #6's and Federal 000 Buck yet to fire. I think I will keep the Federal loads as a home defense round and the Rems for snakes. The 6's will probably end up in the NEF Pardner. Then again, with twice the pellets in the 8's, who knows! LOL!!!
All in all, I would recommend the Bond Arms Snake Slayer. I don't intend to carry it as a PD weapon, that I will leave to the KelTec's I have. It will however start seeing duty in the house and yard.
Today, 10/30/09, I took a couple of minutes and did a light honing of the extractor and the channel it rides in. The small amount of work I did made it quite a bit smoother in the operation of the extractor. Added a drop of oil, and wiped it down prior to reassembly. I did gain a little in the amount of distance the shells come out. It will never fling the empties over my shoulder, but I don't need it to, LOL!!
Sunset
