What is your Favorite Revolver and its use

S&w 686+ 3”

It can do about anything but I mainly use it for woods carry and general plinking. Just a well balanced revolver with an extra round of 357

I'm not for sure which my favorite is. "Favorite for what?" is a valid question.

This is the one I shoot the most. I shoot it on almost every range trip and it's my most accurate revolver. I just shoot holes in paper with it.

Today, it's my 629 Mountain Gun, range use mostly, it's accompanied me in a deer stand a few times.
Amazing trigger, FO sight, combat grips.
I could take or leave the porting, along with the scroll work. Perfect with mid range magnums, just a great revolver.

Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan in 454 Casull (see avatar) which recoils gently with 45 Colt.

Use?

Sock drawer and an occasional USPSA match.

-Stan

I have 3 that will be with me til the end. My 48-4, my 17-3, and my pre 14. All range toys.

Cannot say, they are like kids. I do favor my .44’s, lately on a .32 kick.

Amen! Another S&W .22 fan, here. This vintage 1937 K22 Outdoorsman with Fitz walnut thumb rest grip gets more range time than the others. Smooth action, accurate even when shot by a shaky old man!

Webley Mk VI from 1916. The markings make it appear it was issued and used in WWI but beyond that I don't much of its history. I bet it could tell some stories. It is currently doing woods carry duty for me.

Two Ruger Blackhawk flat tops in 45 Colt/ACP. Two different barrel lengths. The longer barrel has a home on my woods belt, along with a bowie knife, extra rounds, a mag pouch for a woods rifle, and space for a tomahawk. The shorter is a general carry when the woods belt would be too much, such as for fly fishing.

I've grown quite fond of my gp100. Its primary use is home defence and only goes outside for paper target shooting.

A 3" S&W 65. There are nicer revolvers already listed, but if I traded my 65 for one of those, I'd just have to get another 3" 65. I carry it, I shoot it, it's always close.

This is an easy one to answer. The 4” full-lug GP100, seen in my avatar image, is my favorite revolving pistol. I bought it in the very early Nineties, to be a utility/field sixgun. I was truly impressed by the fit and feel of the grip, and the natural-for-me reach to the face of the trigger. My accuracy potential, with the old-school factory grip, was (and is) as good as with a K- or L-Frame with a custom grip. In early 1993, I finally got tired of finding that my duty SIG P220 pistol’s magazine having released itself*, yet again, and used this GP100 as an interim duty handgun. Two weeks into that, I used this GP100 to fire the only line-of-duty shot of my LE career. To make a long story short, I decided to keep using DA revolvers as duty and personal carry handguns for several more years, before returning to using autos for duty and personal carry, in 1997.

My accuracy potential and consistency with a well-fitting medium/large revolver is better than with any other handgun. A GP100, with the original Eighties factory grip, is the perfect example. So, a GP100 might be my favorite revolver, regardless, but having used this GP100, in the above-described decisive moment, perhaps a life-saving moment, certainly adds to its status.

I still use revolvers, having retired from LEO-ing, and no longer fully trusting my gimpy right hand to provide a stable platform for reliable auto-pistol functioning, with all autos. I will generally use 4” and longer-barreled revolvers when away from town, and shorter weapons in town, though there is some cross-over. I have 3” to 6” GP100 revolvers. I also like Ruger Speed Six and SP101, and S&W K- and L-Frames. (We live in a small, independent city that is totally surrounded by the larger, sprawling Houston, Texas.)

*It was the old-school, “European” heel-clip mag version that was releasing, when it snagged on such things as the fabric of the patrol car’s seat cushions. The mag would not eject, because the heel clip maintained tension against the back of the mag. Even so, the top-most round, in the mag, would not have fed, with the mag in the partially-ejected state. After the fourth such incident, the P220 just had to be pulled from service. Notably, I returned to SIG, in 2004, in the form of the P229R, which became my longest-serving individual duty pistol, until 2015.

Well, yesterday it was my Cimarron Pietta Frontier in 45C/45acp. It's a range gun/home security/ self defense revolver.


But today, it's my Cimarron Uberti 1860 Army in 45acp!! It's a "test bed"/ proof gun and the first to fire the new Kirst gated 45acp conversion cyl.


Tomorrow well, I'll be back.

Mike

BKS said:

Awesome replies.

Another way I maybe shoulda worded it was, Which revolver do you have the most fun with?

Click to expand...

Most fun? Probably my S&W Model 17-4, which fires .22 LR, or my several USFA Single Action near-replicas of the Colt SAA, which fire .45 Colt. There is a .22 LR version of the GP100, but I have never seen one, and I rarely buy firearms sight unseen.

The 27-2 at the bottom. As for use, just a range gun.

My current favorite is a Smith and Wesson 627 with the 2.6 inch barrel. I have around 2000 of my own reloads through it in a few months with no hiccups. I am a new reloader and was not seating my primers completely and getting occasional light primer strikes but that has resolved after researching the problem and seating the primers better. Here are some pictures from blasting 158 grain reloads today-before and after all cleaned up with the last picture the Buffalo Bore 158 grain “Heavy outdoorsman” 38 special +p I carry when I am out and about on our land at home. The trigger is breaking in nicely and I’ve had no issues other than the light strikes initially. The use is EDC and home defense.

Impossible to answer. I own several revolvers. Any that I couldn’t enjoy shooting ( I am a shooter not a collector) would be sold. No room in the safe for guns that I don’t enjoy. That said, S&Ws outnumber the Rugers. I don’t currently have a Colt, but online comments about the King Cobra Target are interesting.

Nice to have options.

Lately I have been enamored with my S&W Bounty Hunter .44 mag. Just for shooting holes and totin' around in the National Forest. .

It's a Tie. S&W 624 in 4in & No dash S&W 686 in 4in
Target shooting, self defense or hunting I am good to go.

Man, this is a toughy.

I really like “understudy guns,” my term for matched centerfire and rimfire revolvers. I have a few sets of them.

My favorites of that group are my 6” Model 14-3 and Model 17-3. Both of these guns are fun to shoot and more accurate than I am.



I also like matched pairs, though I only have a couple sets of those. Of the pairs, these ivory and ebony 4” .38’s (Models 67 and 15) are great shooters that can do double duty as HD-bugout guns.



I have a soft spot for Specials. Especially.44 Specials. The Model 624 is a recent DA companion to my GP 100 .44, and the flattop Blackhawk is scary accurate with just about any load I come up with.



And I love semi-obscure, not your common guns and calibers, like my grail Model 57 .41 Mag and grail Bisley .32 H&R Mag. Both of these calibers are in revolvers that I have wanted to own for a long time. (I tried the wood grips, but the .41 bit me a bit too hard with them on.)



I left a bunch of others out… I guess I just can’t Schindler’s List only one as a heads-above-the-rest favorite

Stay safe.

My S&W 617. I've been using it for Steel Challenge matches and really like it. It's soon to be replaced with a 4 inch instead of 6. Here's the new one:

I really like my Flattop 44spl, my tack driving model 15-3, and my 3" custom model 10-8 (not to mention all the others) but the gun I've shot more than any other and I've owned since the mid 80's, is probably the gun that I will never part with... Colt Diamondback .22lr.

Let's see... My Favorite DA Revolver would probably be my S&W Model 686 no dash. This gun right out of the box had the sweetest DA/SA trigger on it than any other gun I have owned. It's primary use is as a range gun though I have been known to carry it on hikes through the woods. I have an old Uncle Mike's shoulder holster for it that makes it quite comfortable to carry.

As for my Favorite SA Revolver, that would be my Ruger Vaquero in .45 Colt. This is the first version of the Vaquero and it's one solid, well built wheel gun! Very comfortable to shoot one handed, it's accuracy is simply amazing with both factory and reloaded ammo. One smooth shootin' sixgun!