Have you switched to become a revolver guy?

I'm 24 and I though revolvers were tedious until I found a cheap Taurus and decided to buy it for kicks. I got into the habit of dry-firing it when bored and now prefer it to my 1911.

After I toasted my back in my mid20s and ended up on disability I decided I was tired of chasing brass. I still have plenty of autoloaders but shoot my revolvers 99% of the time.

They also have a sort of style that is missing in most autoloaders.

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Notable quote. I like it, but I am not addicted to customizing or obsessed with appearance. I do have my strong biases though. I love handsome grips or any revolver better looking than stock, but it's got to be a pleasure to shoot first. The guns I shoot the most have rubber grips.

All of my revolvers are stainless. Some of the blued guns that others show look fantastic, but the SS seems to be for me.

I have a couple Kimbers, two Kahrs, and a Glock also. The Glock22 is my most recent and it performs well, but somehow the revolvers are the fun guns, not to mention scoring better on the targets. The semis are at their best when I point and shoot without sighting. My careful trigger pull is better on the revolvers and single action, most comparable to the semis.

It was all that long ago when I had no interest in revolvers (and had disdain for Glock). Now revolvers outnumber my SAs 2:1, and aside from my Colt Mustang, my semis are Glocks.

I probably carry a revolver 80-90% of the time now. I feel I shoot my Model 10 the best of any handgun I've owned. I probably need to shoot my Python more.

Have you switched to become a revolver guy?

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No!

I'm closer to 60 than 40 and started with revolvers. Switched to semi's and have no intention on going back. In my years of shooting I've had more revolvers malfunction than semi's. A compact semi suitable for carry of the same overall size as a revolver is going to hold at least 2X more rounds, shoot them faster with equal bullet weights, be more accurate, and be more reliable in my experience.

I still own and use several revolvers. In a full size magnum chambering they fill a niche, but for personal protection semi's have proven to be the better choice for close to 100 years now. If you read through all of the previous posts virtually all of the guys who choose revolvers do so for nostalgia purposes. If I'm ever involved in a gunfight no one is going to care if I use a pretty gun or not so I'll choose the best tool for the job.

jmr40 said:

No!

I'm closer to 60 than 40 and started with revolvers. Switched to semi's and have no intention on going back. In my years of shooting I've had more revolvers malfunction than semi's. A compact semi suitable for carry of the same overall size as a revolver is going to hold at least 2X more rounds, shoot them faster with equal bullet weights, be more accurate, and be more reliable in my experience.

I still own and use several revolvers. In a full size magnum chambering they fill a niche, but for personal protection semi's have proven to be the better choice for close to 100 years now. If you read through all of the previous posts virtually all of the guys who choose revolvers do so for nostalgia purposes. If I'm ever involved in a gunfight no one is going to care if I use a pretty gun or not so I'll choose the best tool for the job.

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I can see what you mean about a pretty gun, however I think a lot of valid points for a revolver have been brought up here besides aesthetics and nostalgia.

Also I have to call you out about it being a hundred years worth of better autos; with a few rare exceptions, autos in the first half of the last century were often underpowered, prone to failure, and in many cases awkward to manipulate. There is a reason the revolver was the gun de jour until the 70's and 80's.

Your points are valid to, but like most things it's what your more comfortable with, like Solo, it became a better option for him because that is what he is more familiar with now.

Writing off the wheel gun off like that doesn't seem to be a fair judgment.

Nothing wrong with the wheelguns, I carry one as a BUG. As a main gun? No. If I carried my 686 with 6 rounds of .357, I'd be ok, but for a more compact package with higher capacity, I'll take my Glock 19.

Well, in my case your first hypothesis is correct because I've switched and I'm 65. However, your second hypothesis is not true in my case.

I don't think revolvers are any more reliable and in fact my personal experience has been that my Colt 1911s have been more reliable over the years. I also don't think revolvers are easier to handle. Reloading a magazine, particularly a single stack 1911 magazine is far easier and faster than reloading any revolver, even my personal favorite in 45 ACP with moon clips.

My reason for switching is because of the onset of arthritis which has swollen my knuckles, particularly the base thumb knuckle of my shooting hand. That swollen knuckle is pounded by the rear corner of my beloved 1911 frames and begins to hurt in only a few magazines. I'm still dedicated to the 45 ACP cartridge and prefer revolvers chambered for that cartridge above all others for carry and home defense purposes.

Dave

Have equal # of both like autos for CCW and revolvers fro field carry(woods etc) Am happy with either. Like 45 colt for woods and 45acp for CCW. However load for and shoot other calibers.

I'm 25 and I started off carrying semi-autos (Glock 19 or 26). However, I later found that I could shoot revolvers much faster and more accurately than my semi-autos (and they were easier to conceal). I have since switched over to carrying revolvers full time and I've never looked back. I carry a 4" Ruger GP-100 and a S&W 642 everyday.

what kind of speed loaders are those?

saturdaynightpolitics said:

what kind of speed loaders are those?

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They are Safariland Comp-2 speedloaders.

They are my favorite speedloaders, all you have to do to load the revolver is press on the body of the speedloader and the rounds automatically drop in, there are no nobs to turn or anything like on other speedloaders.

I've always been a revolver man. I started in LE in 1978 and carried a M19\ M686 on duty and a M60 off duty until 1990 when my department switched to autos. I carried an auto on duty til I retired in 2006 but carried a M60 then 642 as a back up and off duty all those years. Now that I am retired all I carry is a revolver.

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When it comes to being out in the great wild, I prefer 6 rounds of .357 over the 10 rounds of .45acp or the 12 rounds of 40 or the 15 rounds of 9mm that are available to me in my other firearms. I still carry my 45 (I prefer it over the others), and it was what I carried after Katrina. But the .357 will handle every kind of threat I encounter in the wild. Six rounds is sufficient. If it isn't, then I'm in real deep and it isn't an animal that I face but multiple armed assailants - that just isn't going to happen. No, it isn't.

When I'm crawling through muck, working my way through swamps or on some lonely mountain, my Ruger Police Service Six or Colt Trooper ride along. Perhaps I'm just confident enough in my own abilities, I don't know, but those two give me all the security I need. I have carried a .45 as well (and here's the rub, I've thought about getting another 1917 in .45acp) but am content with what I currently have. The Ruger in particular is nice in a kayak.

In the end, it's all about preference. As I have aged, as I have become more proficient and confident with my shooting, I have moved away from "tactical" firearms (I have owned several AR's in my life, AK's too). My M14 or Mini 14 or M1 Carbine (depending on need) outlived AR's, Dragunovs, or AK's. While I still have auto pistols, the revolvers have picked up the duty far more. My auto calibers can't hold a candle to the power of my .357. Yeah, a hit from a 9mm is better than a miss from a .357, I guess I just won't miss with the .357.

Hypothesis I: Most of the people who make the switch to revolver are 40 or above.

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I started shooting revolvers in my 30's for the challenge and variety. I occasionally carry them.

Hypothesis II: The reason behind the switch is the ease of use and/or some reasoning to justify revolvers being more reliable.

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Ease of use? Revolvers are not easier to operate for defensive use by any stretch of the imagination. The reload is quite complicated. Accurate double action fire is more difficult and requires significant practice. Accurate rapid fire with the double action is even more difficult. The reduced capacity is a problem and makes proficiency in reloading essential.

Revolvers are not more or less reliable than modern semi-autos. The problem set merely changes. Revolver shooters, just like semi-auto shooters, should know their gun and be able to perform basic maintenance and repairs. Firing pins seem to be the most problematic, especially S&W internal firing pins.

Accurate double action fire is more difficult and requires significant practice. Accurate rapid fire with the double action is even more difficult.

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No more difficult than a hammer-fired DA auto-loader. Ever fire a P38? Not exactly a friendly DA pull. There is nothing at all that makes a revolver inherently more difficult to fire in DA than an auto-loader.

Started on a P99 AS - DA/SA striker, moved to a Steyr M40 (LOVED it), then P230 series, then fired a 2.25" SP101 at the local range...and bought 3" one a few weeks later.

I converted for a multitude of reasons - for starters, I found that SP had more Character in firing than ANY semi I could imagine. The trigger (once tuned) was far smoother than even a Sig P229 I shot. When firing, it's not "pull-trigger, go-bang, little hole in target somewhere", it's "pulling trigger, cylinder rotating, hammer drawing back, (can hold it there also), BANG!, and hole where I was pointing (if I did things right )" The recoil is predictable on them (as opposed to "bouncy" like I find most 9's to be), and a well-designed revo (SP, J-frame, K-frame) allows a VERY low bore-axis if you're choking up on them.

For concealment - a Revolver has a curved grip and VERY narrow frame/grip/barrel, and the ONLY wide part is the cylinder. This means that the curved grip and thin frame sits on my hip at a typical 4 o'clock IWB better than ANY semi can try to, save for small blowbacks and ultra-tiny useless-to-me semi's. Now, to be fair, the PPK hides better than my SP does, for obvious reasons - but that brings me to the another reason I switched to a revo:

Versatility.

With the revo, I can stoke it with full-tilt 190gr hardcast/2400 Wilderness loads, or back it down to powder-puff .38 special wadcutters for carjacking defense (less muzzle blast, the better - your range is mere feet or inches). I can go midrange with 135's over a medium charge of Universal for a good street load (without the ridiculous blast of pocket 9's and the pokey-performance of .380's), or go with some 358429's in .38 cases for some range fun. I've even rebuilt a .38 case with a .355 115gr bullet over the original 9mm charge for sheer kicks.

Also, unlike all the semi's I've owned (which I've found maybe 1/3 of the spent casings from), my SP drops ALL my casings into my hand when I've expended the cylinder. Empties to the pocket, hots into the gun. I've pushed around 750 rounds through my SP so far, and have just begun to throw out a few of the original 150 cartridges I bought factory, due to neck splitting. Reloading is a cinch, I don't deal with the timing of semi-autos or blowbacks - I put the powder in, I put the bullet in and crimp it (strong roll-crimp too, don't have to worry about taper and headspace), and call it a round. Or 5, for that matter.

I also have pick of .38 Short/Long Colt, .38 Special and .357 Mag, vs. trying to find some current in-demand tacticool round everyone is buying in large stock for their basement fortress...

Oh, on magazine-size restrictions, assault/military-weapon stigma? Mah, I'm not worried. I stop at 5 rounds onboard. I've found HKS 36-A speedies at my LGS through every dry spell, and I can stoke my speedies with whatever I want. Load up some .38's in one, pack my wilderness loads in another. Heck, I've even done a rack of .357 where 4 of them were 3.9 of Universal and the last was ~13.8 of 2400...hand it to a friend at the range and tell them to empty the cylinder, without them knowing where that 2400 is...

Sure, I've realized that in combat, semi's are faster to reload and shoot, bar-none. I've also realized that most semi's have ridiculously fast triggers compared to the slow and long DA pull of my SP, and they all carry a LOT more rounds onboard.
But, I'm NOT a veteran, I've never been through a tactical course, and I'm not an LEO. Most of my use of my pistol will be range/target/plinking, and 0.02% of my use will be in a legitimate SD scenario. Even in SD, the slow reloads don't bother me - if I have time to reload, I have time to run. If I don't have time for reloading/running, then something else went very wrong along the way.
Likewise, if I come across something that can soak 5 rounds to CM or chest or head and it keeps coming full force, then I won't be concerned about reloading the next 5 as much as where my knife is for that last ditch temple/jugular-carotid/spinal-cord hit, or how exactly I wound up in this position in the first place...

Ease of use? Revolvers are not easier to operate for defensive use by any stretch of the imagination. The reload is quite complicated. Accurate double action fire is more difficult and requires significant practice. Accurate rapid fire with the double action is even more difficult. The reduced capacity is a problem and makes proficiency in reloading essential.

Revolvers are not more or less reliable than modern semi-auto

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Training, training, training. I shoot competitive bullseye. Shooting double action 5 shots in 10 seconds, reload and then 5 more shots in 10 seconds I routinely shoot 95-96s on an NRA Rapid fire target at 25 yards and have several times shot 100pt perfect targets. Double Action. Its all a matter of practice.

As far as reliability I see a lot of stuff tossed around in here about Semi-autos being more reliable than revolvers. Not buying it. First, there is no number, no real study to back it up, its just conjecture. I can tell you this though, in factory ammo I see people have light loads that squeek through that would have caused a malfunction in semi auto that dont in a revolver. A semi auto is much more ammo sensitive than a revolver. Its impossible to declare them more reliable simply based off that fact.

I've flip flopped since buying my first .22 auto in the 70's. I don't know if I'm just old school but I just like the feel of a revolver..

There's just something about the feel of a Colt revolver in my hand that my Glock doesn't give me.

As far as reliability I see a lot of stuff tossed around in here about Semi-autos being more reliable than revolvers. Not buying it. First, there is no number, no real study to back it up, its just conjecture. I can tell you this though, in factory ammo I see people have light loads that squeek through that would have caused a malfunction in semi auto that dont in a revolver. A semi auto is much more ammo sensitive than a revolver. Its impossible to declare them more reliable simply based off that fact.

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Don't lump 1911's and older designs in with more modern designs. Simple placement of the cartridge to be more in line with the chamber helps quite a bit. Go look at the insane round counts on pistol-training.com for HK P30, Glock 17 and so forth. But, the entire argument is useless without concrete numbers for either platform.

I think it's more accurate to say that the problem set changes and both have problems with reliability. I have broken a bunch of S&W internal firing pins and one hammer mounted hammer nose. My revolvers have developed other problems and I watched people get cases stuck under the start, bullets jump crimp, dirt and crud bind up cylinders and so forth. Shooters of either platform need to be able to perform basic maintenance and repairs on their gun, as well as be trained in malfunction remediation.

tomrkba said:

But, the entire argument is useless without concrete numbers for either platform.

I think it's more accurate to say that the problem set changes and both have problems with reliability. I have broken a bunch of S&W internal firing pins and one hammer mounted hammer nose. My revolvers have developed other problems and I watched people get cases stuck under the start, bullets jump crimp, dirt and crud bind up cylinders and so forth. Shooters of either platform need to be able to perform basic maintenance and repairs on their gun, as well as be trained in malfunction remediation.

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I would agree with all of that. I think the big thing is that no weapon is infallible and no matter what you choose to defend yourself with make sure you are capable of handling malfunctions and you practice.

I have the best of both worlds: A Sig 229/40 S&W in Double action Only (DOA). Like shooting a high cap 40 cal. (12 round mag) for a quick reload.

No more difficult than a hammer-fired DA auto-loader. Ever fire a P38? Not exactly a friendly DA pull. There is nothing at all that makes a revolver inherently more difficult to fire in DA than an auto-loader.

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No more difficult than a hammer-fired DA auto-loader. Ever fire a P38? Not exactly a friendly DA pull. There is nothing at all that makes a revolver inherently more difficult to fire in DA than an auto-loader.

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The P-38 is neither modern nor in production and its trigger is terrible. The SIG P-Series is a much better example. The P-Series is easier to shoot than a double action revolver because the slide cocks the hammer in the single action position. I have the P220, Ruger GP100, and S&W revolvers and the P220 is easier to shoot. It is also susceptible to trigger slapping during rapid fire due to the slop in the single action trigger before it catches.

You are forgetting the reset and the manual movement of the cylinder. The reset is essential for the next shot during rapid fire. Rhythm, and continual trigger contact, is necessary to prevent disturbing the sights for the next shot. The trigger reset spring needs to have enough force to prevent your finger from outrunning it. If your finger outruns it, then you risk slapping the trigger (or some other mistake).

Training is key. A good coach made all the difference with me.

I'm 75 years old and a former LEO. I left the OSP in 1973 and started my own security company, retiring in 2006. When I worked as a trooper, off duty I carried a Model 19 S&W for sometime, then switched to a Model 60 and used that until I switched to an Officer's Model 1911 Colt. After that it was a Kimber ultra Carry until last July when I bought a used 386PD S&W in 357 Mag. That has been my carry gun since July. The pro's are that it is reliable and will go bang anytime the trigger is pulled, the con's are it is not as easy and fast to reload as my Kimber and speed loaders don't work well in all pants pockets. This firearm is very light weight and comfortable to carry, it doesn't have the Crimson Trace Laser grips on it like my Kimber has, but I wish it did have laser grips. Thin compact laser grips are not made that fit this gun. I like 357 Mag almost as well as I like 45 ACP. I would not use 9 MM or 38 special again after listening to a medical examiner.