Been shooting handguns for well over 20 years, and I'll tell anyone that wants to listen that their best choice for a first handgun is a .22, both for general utility and as a way of building shooting and handling skills with a gun that has less recoil and also cheaper ammunition. Assuming you're past the beginning stage, I feel a .357 revolver makes an excellent second gun--it's fully capable of being used for big-game (deer/hog and bear in a pinch) hunting and allows the use of .38 Special rounds, both for cheaper, less-recoil practice. Don't mean to lead this thread off on a "mine-is-better-than-yours" tangent, as there's obviously no shortage of other calibers, nor of opinions surrounding their use, and it looks like you're already settling in around the .357, so I'm just adding this to say I agree with your choice.
Once you've got caliber determined, you've got to think about action type. In single-action guns (the classic "cowboy" type where the trigger only fires the gun and the hammer must be cocked before each shot) there are a number of choices, but it's very hard to go wrong with a Ruger Blackhawk. Modern Blackhawks (anything since roughly 1973 have a transfer-bar ignition system and are thus safe to carry with all 6 cylinders loaded. Some single-actions (notably the Colt Single Action Army "Peacemaker" and its clones) do not have a transfer bar and are best carried with an empty chamber under the hammer. The Blackhawk also has adjustable sights, whereas most SAA clones have fixed sights--fine if your gun hits to point-of-aim but potentially difficult to change if it's off by a lot, and not something that's easily adjusted to go from, say, light .38's to heavy .357's. The Ruger Vaquero is also only made with fixed sights. I prefer the 4 5/8" or 5 1/2" barrel lengths, as I find anything longer than 6" makes a gun quite awkward to carry, particularly in a hip holster.
In Double Action guns (where the trigger can be used to cock and fire the gun, or, in most cases, the hammer can also be manually cocked and then the trigger used to fire the gun) there are many choices. Some to consider are the Ruger GP-100--a nice, if a tad bulky, gun available in several different barrel lengths. Another favorite of mine is the Ruger SP-101. It's the little brother to the GP-100, being a 5-shot revolver, but with all stainless steel construction. It's not a terribly light gun, but that works in your favor when firing full-house loads, and the frame and grip are nicely sized for someone with a tad smaller hands. I've got a lady friend with one who enjoys shooting and carrying it as it fits her very well, and yet it's still large enough for my hands, which are on the larger side. Smith & Wesson has several models with long-proven track records, though I can say from experience that their very light, short-barreled models such as their Night Guard 2" Scandium model are QUITE painful to shoot--fine for a carry gun but NOT something you want to shoot 50 shots through at the range, especially with full-power ammo! There are plenty of other makes and models out there, and some are perfectly acceptable, but were I you I'd shy away from the real bargain-basement stuff--I've owned several over the years, and always ended up getting rid of them as they always seemed to prove unreliable, which is NOT something you want when you may well be trusting your life to it.
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Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
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