Revolver for Home Defense?

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Edit: I would also add that the revolver is also the better choice for MOST people for a home defense situation. There is just less chance of failure under realistic conditions. For example, a wife who doesn't practice without enough strength to rack a slide or keep a locked wrist under recoil.

A wife who doesn't practice enough isn't MOST people ;)

There's one thing I'd jokingly thought of about a 22 -- how quickly you could place all the shots COM. I can fire my 22/45 and keep all shots in a pretty tight group as quickly as I can pull the trigger. Doubt it would take me more than 2 seconds to empty an entire mag into an attacker's chest :D
 
I used to have a Sig P226 beside my bed, but alas... I changed that over to a S&W 66 when my girlfriend started sticking around. Having six accurate shots with a simple point and shoot style makes more sense then 19 rounds that require a rack n slide.
 
Why would you need to rack your 226? Chamber a round, use the decocker, and your gun is ready to rock. Pick gun off nightstand, aim at bad guy, pull trigger, and bang.
 
S&W Model 60 on my nightstand.

I carry a full size 1911 in my truck, cocked and locked with a 10 round magazine.
 
My bedside gun is a 642 or a 442, depending on what I carried that day. The J-frames are just as handy as nightstand guns or "answering the door in the middle of the night" guns as they are for daily carry. Backup is a 12-gauge pump with a mag extension.
 
I prefer the Glock 19 as a bedside gun but if the mood strikes me it is sometimes swapped out for a Ruger GP100. I wish mine could tell me its history as it was bought used before gun prices skyrocketed. Smoothest trigger Ive ever felt. Even has a cleaner break than my brand new Vaquero.
 
I use a GP100 as my home defense hand gun because it's the only gun my wife will shoot. I shoot the gun well and it's simple manual of arms makes it better for my wife who is not a shooter. This gun was cemented as our home defense hand gun when after a range trip she started calling it "her" gun. Like many I also have a 12ga with buck shot for HD but the GP100 is the night stand/road trip/camping/anything else gun for us.
 
I am comfortable enough if only revolvers are within reach, though I am more comfortable if a shotgun or appropriate carbine is available. For that matter, I am comfortable enough with only revolvers if out and about town.

My wife has large-enough hands to prefer K- and L- frame revolvers, and her favored revolver is a 7-shot L-frame snubbie. Some have mentioned 8-shot revolvers; well, gentlemen, MY hands are not large enough to manage an N-frame well in DA mode, much less my wife's hands.

There is indeed a solution for the OP: add more SP101 five-guns! If the OP's wife has chosen the SP101, then that is HER preferred platform. The SP101 grip may well be perfect for her hands; why argue with success?

Jim Cirillo, dubbed Cirillo the Great by no less than Col. Jeff Cooper, believed in multiple
revolvers for the street, and the greatest non-military gunfighter of the last half of the 20th Century probably knows a thing or two about the subject. Rather than argue with success, I have also adopted the multiple-revolver strategy for some of my carry, though my current duty pistol, the SIG P229, also gets into the mix.

FWIW, my wife is a forensic investigator for one of the nation's largest counties, by population, and investigates more death scenes than most people in the USA, and she is comfortable with revolvers for SD/HD.
 
My wife has,(within the last year), begun working for the local DA's office, and was surprised by the amount of crime that she had previously been oblivious to. As a result, she has started paying more attention to her security. She has mentioned getting her CCW, and perhaps coming out to the monthly IDPA shoots I attend. Like your wife, she also doesn't like autos; she has no problem firing my 1911, she just doesn't want to manipulate the slide and the safety and reloading, etc. etc. So the nightstand gun on HER side of the bed is my S&W 586 4" with 158 gr Hydra-Shoks. She can shoot it just fine and I think the odds of her needing more than 6 357 mag rds in ANY self-defense scenario are miniscule. I completely understand what you mean about getting her to practice with speedloaders, (I've been married since '89 and want to stay that way!), but I am hoping that she will take an interest in the IDPA competitions I attend and that will inspire her to practice. BTW, I use the 586 in the IDPA shoots and am currently the only wheelgunner at our club, and I am competitive with all but the top shooters, so yeah, tell her to keep rockin' the revolver!
 
I keep a sp 101 .327 in the bedroom. I feel confident that I could deal with most situations just fine. I don't like keeping auto's loaded over long periods of time, mag spring crushed down. If I knew I was going to be in a confrontation tommorow I would go to one of my glocks right away, but I don't know when, so the revolver is king for me. Also my girlfriend is confident in shooting it, autos are a little too hard to manipulate for her.
 
I have a Taurus Model 66 4" .357 Magnum I keep in my nightstand. It is a reliable
tackdriver and I have a speedloader ready to go right beside it if need be. I keep
the Taurus in the nightstand because if I get awakened in the middle of the night,
I want something that I don't have to use much thought process to use. With a
revolver that is already loaded, you just need to be sure of your target, point
and shoot. It takes me a while for my mind to catch up with my body when I wake
up sometimes:)
 
I do have my trusty G26 as my nightstand gun....... but here's my confession... right next to my G26 is my trusty SW 442 snub nose revolver. (Each gun backing up the other.)

A snub nose with reloads near by has unique advantages. No reciprocating slide to worry about. And its small barrel lends itself for close quarter situations...especially against a gun grab.

So.... while I'm a big fan of Glocks.... I also am a big fan of revolvers.
 
S&W 686 4" with Cor-Bon 125gr jacketed hollowpoints in a small gunvault is like an apple a day: keep the slimeballs away!! I have a speed loader with 6 more rounds ready to go. I feel safe.
 
Rugers in SP101,Gp100 4 inch both Stainless are my two very well home and ccw guns that I have been carrying for decades. Never fell undergunned with either or both.
 
In case something goes bump in the night, my first bedside gun is a Colt Lawman Mk III .357 Magnum clipped to the bedside rail in a nylon holster with a holder for a speed loader on top. The reason for my pick is I know that I have fired thousands of rounds out of similar Colt revolvers that I know that my hand will know the right placement even in the fog of sleep. My second bedside gun in a semi-auto, they change up from time to time, but usually it is a doublestack .45 of some type, more rounds if I need them and enough firepower to get to my 3rd line gun, a Remington 870 20 Gauge pump shotgun (hey my eyes are not as young as they once were, and I may not have had time to grab my glasses) , don't discount a load of buckshot from a 20 Gauge, after all from performance point of view it is nearly identical to those popular and expensive 12 Gauge low power LE loads. The overall theme here is why reload, your at home not dealing with a carry situation, just move on to the next loaded gun in the living room, kitchen, etc.
 
Awesome HD weapon

This is an awesome HD weapon and I love mine. There is no question 45ACP will get the job done. It is loaded with Speer Gold Dot Personal Protection. This was tested with wet phone books here Speer 45ACP Test

And my keep the bad guy off you until you can reach your shotgun :) was tested here S&W Model 22

HD%20142.jpg
 
My first HD gun (about 15 years ago) was a S&W 640-1 .357. I still have that gun and carry it often with 38spl +P loads. I carry a speed loader with it too.

Personally, the extra load is only if I'm holed up somewhere and need to defend a position. It's those 1st five shots in a dynamic situation that are going to determine the course of the battle so I wouldn't worry too much about shots 6-10. Just be happy she wants to carry a gun and a gun she is happy with.

Though I still have the J-frame and carry it often, today I carry my M&P 9c with 13 rounds plus a 17 round spare mag but my wife tells me I'm paranoid. :D
 
I have a Ruger Alaskan in 44 Mag, with compact GP101 grip. Fits my small hand, recoil is OK for about 50 rounds of one handed shooting, and if I ever need to use it, there will be no doubt. Still, I'd feel OK with my Model 60...
 
The Beretta Tomcat was the problem. One of the worst mouse guns ever made. I don't see anything wrong with a revolver as a home defense gun, especially if it won't see much use. You don't have to worry about magazine springs staying compressed and losing their spring, or the lube drying up over time. If it is dedicated to home defense you can get a 3-4 inch barrel with some weight to the gun to tame the recoil.
 
My wife has the same bias as the OP's wife. For the lat 23+ years my home defense handgun has been a revolver, usually in 38 special.
 
My bedside looks the same as the OP.

S&W Model 64 by the bed, able to grab quickly.

Remington 870 12 guage with 00 buck 6 feet away if I have a second or two to get there.

JLaw
 
My wife has zero use for a semi automatic handgun. She chose to use a revolver years and years ago. Her daily carry gun is a 1995 Rossi® Mdl 2" SS 38 Special (Lady Rossi®) loaded with Federal® Standard Pressure 125gr Nyclad™ HP. Her home defense gun is a Taurus® Mdl 605SS2 357 Mag loaded with Buffalo Bore® Standard Pressure 38 Special 158gr LSWCHPGC. Additionally she has immediate access to a S&W® Mdl 686 4" SS 357 Mag loaded with Buffalo Bore® 38 Special+P 158gr LSWCHPGC. She is deadly accurate with all of them.
 
I'm a security officer nowadays working graveyards. My S&W 681 with Crimson Trace grips migrated to my wife's side of the bed. She has no use for guns that "shoot back." (The ejected brass is an unneeded distraction.)

ECS
 
S&W Model 10 4" on my side, S&W Model 66 2.5" on the wife's side, Remington 870 12ga nearby. Been set up like that for years and years, we've never felt under armed. When we had a home invasion back in the late 90s, I grabbed the 12ga and she had her 66 in hand. Burglars fled rapidly.
 
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