A cool little revolver was Ruger's fixed sight Speed Six which was built in 9mm with a short barrel for a French police contract, IIRC. I never saw one, but it would be an interesting gun to add to the pile. If I was looking for a new 9mm revolver, I'd probably go with Ruger's Convertable Blackhawk, that way my gun would have the versatility of shooting .357s and .38s, as well as 9mm, without the need of moon clips at twelve bucks a piece. The Alpha Proj revolver looks interesting and its reasonably priced, but with the additional cost of the moon clips (I'd probably start with 10, and loose half of them, then have to buy another 10, and repeat ad infinitum) it would be enough make me to choose a .357 in the first place.
Whichever gun you choose, reloading is the best way to mitigate the cost of ammunition. It allows you to choose the level of performance that suits you, while being an interesting hobby in its own right. The .38 Special can be very economical to load for, when loaded with a few grains of Bullseye under light weight cast bullets, or it can be made into a fire breather. Naturally slower burning powders require heavier charges, perhaps hotter primers, and jacketed bullets if you prefer them, all being more expensive, so there can be some latitude in the final cost. As a rule of thumb, each time a cartridge is reloaded, you save the cost of the brass and packaging. If you consider ammunition cost per thousand rounds, it can provide you with much more shooting per dollar spent. While there is a capital cost to get set up, that cost can be surprisingly modest, and can be recouped quickly. Once you're in the game, you can purchase more tools to address any bottle necks in your loading procedure. I started with .38/.357 Lee Loader, and within a year I had purchased a press, dies, and scale. If shooting handguns had eclipsed my interest in rifle shooting, perhaps I'd have eventually purchased a progressive loader, but over the last 40 years I've been more or less content to put out rounds for both handguns and rifles on a single stage press, although now I'm being tempted by a Redding turret press.
