Do revolvers get extra respect on street?

[russlate]

The NYC revolver thread reminded me of some article dredged up from a story in a gunzine a decade or longer back. IIRC, the incident happened about midway during the shift from revolvers to autos.

The story goes that a patrolman had arrested an armed street punk without incident, and was kind of intrigued why the arrest had gone so smoothly. So he asked the guy after he'd put him in the cuffs and back seat what gave that he'd come very meekly?

( You have to realize backthen you could get marvelous wooden custom grips in those days. )

Do when asked, the punk pointed at the officers revolver and said, "Your'e a stone killer"! Turned out the custom grips and the fact the cop didn't feel a need to carry a wondernine but was confident in his ability to handle a situation with only a 6 shot 38 or 357 made the punk afraid the one shot the cop would fire would be fatal.

That was then, this is now. Would an officer carrying a Python, M27, 6" M19
etc., with a set of Herret's, wooden Hogues, Badger or Secret Service custom grips ( or a set of my oversized factory target grips reworked to fit my hands ) scare the average punk more than a rookie with a Glock?

What do you think?

[Dominic]

You know, when that blue-line dead line is approaching and the urn of liquid talent is running low (coffee pot), some people will just write anything to meet their column quota.

[ChairborneRanger]

Well, if it was a .44 Rem Mag wheel gun, maybe----otherwise, I just don't think so. :rolleyes:

[BryanP]

I doubt if it would scare them more. But certainly not any less, either.

[MrMurphy]

Not any more particularly than any other gun that gets pointed at someone.

Having seen cops draw on quite a few people, pointing even a .22 will get someone's attention unless their either crazy or a hard criminal type.


I knew a US Marshal who still packs a S&W 625 and while I certainly wouldn't want him aiming at me (he knows how to shoot after forty years of packing a wheelgun!)... most of his marshals all pack automatics, and the one time I saw them in action, they all had 12 ga's and M-4s. Whether or not the dudes were packing wheelguns or autos was irrelevant to the guy they were after.

[boofus]

If I was a dirtbag with a Jennings and I saw an officer aiming a S&W 629 or 29 at me I'd give up too.

"Ya got to ask yourself one thing. Do you feel lucky? Well do ya punk?"

[ACP230]

I wouldn't count on it.

[dfariswheel]

The only thing close was a statement by Skeeter Skelton that in the old days hoods were more CAREFUL about making trouble for cops who had high-quality revolvers fitted with non-factory custom grips.

The theory was, cops who had better quality guns (Python) and custom grips were usually "gun people" and really knew how to shoot.

Back in those days, most police qualified once a year, if there even WAS a qualification requirement.
Cops who carried standard guns with standard factory grips probably weren't shooters, and likely wouldn't be too good in a fight.

Cops who had the nice guns and custom grips likely were shooters who practiced a lot more.
This kind of cop was more likely to be a good shot, and be WILLING to shoot.

I've heard just a few valid cases of people being really intimidated by revolvers or any pistol over another.

One case was a New York City Fire Department arson investigator.
After an incident in a stairwell with a group of suspects, where they were NOT impressed with his Colt Detective Special, he asked a gun dealer for the most intimidating revolver available.

He bought a Colt Python with a nickel finish.

He said in his book, that hoods WERE intimidated after seeing mostly 2" small revolvers.

[Clean97GTI]

My grandfather (retired LAPD) told me that the crooks never really cared much about the handguns that were pointed at them. They would either give up or start shooting.
The things that bothered them were 12ga shotguns or the occasional lever action rifle.

That being said, the police who carried the well worn revolvers tended to generate more respect from other cops rather than bad guys. Kinda hard to tell what the gun is when its pointed at you from several yards away. I can distinguish wheel gun from autoloader, but can't usualy tell what it is without closer inspection.

[deercop]

I read the same story in an gunzine article by Duane Thomas, only it was referring to the Officer's .45.

[shep854]

I, too, have read that a certain gun type says "tough cop", but overall, it is more likely an officer's demeanor and posture that will indicate whether or not they mean business. After all, perps survive (more or less) by reading people.

[DMF]

Revolvers getting more respect? I guess I'll add that to my list of silly myths about LE.

[musher]

More respect?

Well, yeah....

http://www.delongview.com/photos/mini.jpg

[sm]

Retired Deputy , and member of SWAT from another state years ago was catching flak about his Model 19 and Herrett Stocks, from some young fellas he did Security work with.

So they came out to the Private range, Retired fella was shooting a drill from 50 yards , not feet, yards! When the younger ones showed up...they looked at his target, checked the distance again...jaws dropped.

"In the old days we had to quailfy with that drill, you fella's beat my score shooting at half the distance - I'll buy the beer".

He didn't have to buy any beer. :p

[Standing Wolf]

Actually, the sound of a revolver hammer being cocked is much more distinct to my ear than the sound of a model 1911 hammer being cocked—not that I'd ever carry a model 1911 with the hammer down, anyway, but I believe people do.

[surfinUSA]

It been years since I work the street but a large frame semi-auto scared the bad guys in bad neighborhoods more than a revolver. Because a lot more of them ended up with a dirt nap because of them.

Contrary to the views of many middle class white police officers (who can't help believing that they will die if shot), many folks living in the lower income areas know that a gunshot may not be fatal or disabling as many have been shot with 38 special or smaller rounds and have survived. Surprisingly many have a whole lot of respect for the 9mm contrary to the negative comments about the round by the internet chaireborne rangers.

I can't count the number of field interview cards I've written that when asked about tatoos or scars, the subject has pointed to a gunshot or knife wound.

[Dominic]

My grandfather was once robbed by two men, one of whom had a .38 revolver. He handed over the money but when the robbers split up he chased after the one with money. Unfortunately he didn't know that the gun had been put into papersack with the money. When he caught up with the robber, the man fired six shots at my grandfather, hitting him in one thigh and grazing his other. He then wrestled the gun away from the man and employed it as a club against him.

After recovering from his wounds, my grandfather bought his first handgun, a smith & wesson 9mm automatic. I remember he said that he wanted something that held more rounds. Apparently at some point he saw the revolver's hammer dropping on spent primers while it was pointed directly at his chest at close range.

[deputy tom]

Ditto what shep854 said.It's not the firearm that garners respect but the man who wields it.Back in the day,certain ethnic groups were supposedly threatened by certain firearms,ie. chrome or nickel plated revolvers with ivory/pearl grips,then the black rubber grips on the S/S revolvers including the ever threatening "black leather gloves"guys, short barreled shot-guns,etc.Administrators have made decissions, based upon this criteria to the end result of putting our LEO's in harm's way by under-equipping the rank and file Police officers.No gloves,turn in the riot guns, no black jacks,yadda,yadda,yadda.No wonder this country is going down the tubes in short order.tom. :uhoh:

[GEM]

Elmer Keith said a 22 was a small gun until it was pointed at you. And he is the 44 mag man!

I don't think anyone really knows. All we have are anecdotes and Dirty Harry movies. So some BG says that's a big guns and poops his pants. Then there is the fat guy who took the 357 rounds and killed the officer with his NAA 22.

[XLMiguel]

I'm with Mr Keith. Looking down the business end of anything tends to hold my undevided attention, in my extremely experience. That being said. big bore handguns look like sewer pipes to me compare to them .355/357 thingies, and looking into the gapping mouths of big hollow points in the cylinder of a wheelie would have more raw emotional impact (to me) than the sterile muzzle of an auto-loader. This is not to say that either is a high pucker-factor thing :what:

As noted, I've had very little experience looking into the business end of firearms in a threatening situation, and I liked NONE of it.

[Jerry the Geek]

I can't imagine how the size of the grips would intimidate anyone in a dark alley who hadn't noticed the holstered handgun before it was drawn. Seems to me there is too much talk about the grips, and not enough about the intimidation power of a gun muzzle in the face.

When you're staring down the muzzle of a gun, the bore is the whole world. Either that, or you're too hopped up on adrenaline or artifical stimulants to be intimidated. I've personally been cowed by a .22 derringer pointed at my left eyeball. This seems a realistic evaluation, to me.

If you are carrying with the intent to intimidate, about anything will serve when the rubber meets the road. It would be more useful to not draw/point a handgun until you're ready to use it, and to have the skills which allow you to use it effectively in what ultimately personal defense situation.

Intimidation sucks.

[lbmii]

When I was younger and stupider I found myself on three seperate occasions looking down the barrel of an officer's 357 revolver as he was screaming "stop or I'll blow your.....head off!".

What I will never forget was all those hollow point bullets looking back at me.
I could actually see the hollow point bullets with their copper jackets in the cylinder and that is something that is really scary. I remember being really nervous about the hair trigger on those S&Ws. Is it cocked or uncocked?

[Cosmoline]

Who knows. I've heard stories about the red dot of a laser sight making the criminals give up. But there's NO DOUBT that the sight of a Python or M-29 will cause more fear in your average criminal than the same old wondernines. It's big, it's beefy, and you can see all the teeth in there smiling at you. You know that if you get hit with one, you're going to lose whatever part of your body it hits.

[Taurus 66]

Russlate:

So he asked the guy after he'd put him in the cuffs and back seat what gave that he'd come very meekly?

Do when asked, the punk pointed at the officers revolver and said, "Your'e a stone killer"!

Something doesn't quite jive..

[Bandit01]

In the debate of revolver over semi, the real litmus test is can the person with the semi shoot properly? It doesn't matter how many bullets that you have in your magazine clip, rather how accurate are you. I have a S&W 686 .357 7 shot revolver. With that gun, my accuracy is very impressive. I also have several semi's (9mm; 40 cal.; 10mm; .45 cal.) but I can't hit as accurately with them as well as I can with my 686. If I ever had to be in a gun battle, I would prefer to have my 686 and a pocket full of ammo.

[scbair]

Well, I think two questions are paramount in a violent assailant's mind when being covered by a weapon;

1) WILL the gunholder fire?

2) CAN the gunholder fire accurately? (Much less important, due to the typical close range of violent encounters).

During my few armed encounters, no rounds were fired, but. . .

Incident A (while a LEO); suspect was enraged and intoxicated, approaching me aggressively with a butcher knife (I was there as a result of a domestic violence call); I drew (S&W M10 .38 Spec.); he approached; I yelled; he neared me; I sighted & began squeezing the trigger; he dropped the knife and fell to the floor, covering his head. He later told me he saw the cylinder begin to rotate and realized he might have gone a little overboard!

Incidet B (as a citizen): I was caught totally off-guard; approached by a 3-man mugging team in broad daylight in an apartment complex parking lot. Thankfully, I saw them coming via my rearview mirror as I parked, and accessed my only available weapon: a single-action .44 magnum, 6" barrel (hey, it was huntin' season, ya know?). Just as I gripped the revolver in the glove box (late 70s, they still made some big glove boxes :rolleyes: ), mugger #1 yanked open my car door as #2 tried to open the (locked) passenger door. I swung the muzzle to the left, toward #1, while thumbing back the hammer . . . no target!! Both #1 and #2 were fast outpacing #3, who had not been in a position to see the huge revolver in my mitt!

Dunno if either set of circumstances would have been handled any less effectively with my 1911, although the thug's comments in (A) indicate the revolver may have "turned the tide."

Irrelevent, though; if deterrence had failed in either case, it woulda got kinda loud in the vicinity. I think my obvious preparations to fire were the key element; not the type of handgun.

If you hesitate under imminent threat, you will lose!

[thorn726]

The only thing close was a statement by Skeeter Skelton that in the old days hoods were more CAREFUL about making trouble for cops who had high-quality revolvers fitted with non-factory custom grips.

The theory was, cops who had better quality guns (Python) and custom grips were usually "gun people" and really knew how to shoot.

Cops who had the nice guns and custom grips likely were shooters who practiced a lot more.
This kind of cop was more likely to be a good shot, and be WILLING to shoot.


id go with that one- also, factor in the serious hoods have a good knoledge of each cop in their area, so the cop who really like his gun, the bad guys already know it and stay back.

the avg person- stopped by aNY gun.
the crazy street wackos who are not afraid of smaller guns are still probably going to act crazy regardless what is pointed at them,
id go with what most people say, its about the person wielding it.

[cookekdjr]

"Would an officer carrying a Python, M27, 6" M19
etc., with a set of Herret's, wooden Hogues, Badger or Secret Service custom grips ( or a set of my oversized factory target grips reworked to fit my hands ) scare the average punk more than a rookie with a Glock?

What do you think?"
You have got to be kidding. If a cop pulls out a gun nowadays, its because he's going to use it. Punks who get to that point don't care what is pointing at them. Are they scared? Only if they are dying or they just saw their buddy killed right in front of them. Then they might be scared.

[Cosmoline]

Wheelguns are the shiznit, homey.

[SLCDave]

So, scbair, were you a citizen when you were in Law Enforcement?

nevermind....

I don't know if a revolver would freak out a criminal more than an auto-loader. Personally, either one would bother me.

[russlate]

I suspect that dfariswheel and deercop have it right, that one story was by Thomas on the 45, and the other was a statement by Ayoob on the fancy grips. I apparently do not recollect correctly.

[Seven High]

Back when I was still an acitve LEO we used to polish the muzzle of our revolvers so that they would be more noticeable to the criminals when we pointed our revolvers at them. Does anyone still do this? It does work. It would work with semiautos as well. :)

[lbmii]

Again back in my youth, there was this woman security guard that was well known through out town, at least among the crowd that concerns themselves with security guards, that she carried a large custom chrome 44 Mag revolver with fancy wood grips on her hip. Everyone knew this about her and you could not help but notice it on her hip. She would work at banks, malls, lumberyards and so forth.

Well one day I was somewere on the wrong side of a fence and I spotted coming out of the guard shack no other than the woman with the custom chrome 44 Mag. :eek: :what:

I can run really fast.

Yes the chrome, the fancy grips, the multiple hollow points plainly visible and facing you, the hair trigger that might be cocked, it all adds up. I really think revolvers are scarier than autos from a criminal's point of view (looking down the barrel). I think that today they would even be scarier because they would have a novelity factor to them. We are now use to black autos so a big chrome revolver might have a greater shock effect.

[Strings]

Seven High: I did that to my .45, and it DOES seem to make the muzzle more noticable...