Revolvers at Scheels today

[westernrover]

I was traveling today and in a city where I was able to stop in a Scheels. I don't get out to the city much and haven't been to a gun store since around March. I found the store was flush with revolvers. Earlier this year, it seemed like revolvers were only beginning to trickle in after having been neglected for years due to the big demand for more popular items.

Colt Pythons had actually been some of the most plentiful for a while, maybe because they were new and they had just gotten their production online and they didn't need their capacity for anything they made that was in greater demand. Even so, it seemed like there was mostly the latest 3 inch colts and the 6 inch were hard to find since most of that production had been sold last year or earlier. Well, today I saw several Pythons of every size, 2.5", 3", 4.25", 6" -- I didn't see a 5", which if I'm not mistaken is a thing. I even saw half a dozen used Pythons hundreds of dollars below the standard $1499 price. I also saw King Cobras, Carry, regular, Target, and several of each. They also had Anacondas in 4 and 6 inch but no 8".

They had Rugers too, and not just Wranglers. Numerous GP100, an SP101, a Super Redhawk, Single Six (or maybe it was a Nine), but no Blackhawks or Vaqueros. What's more, the prices were not stupendous. I recall the GP100's were in the 800's, which isn't bad in the new money, and lower than the Smiths again.

For S&W, they had 686, 617, 629, 29...

I didn't look at the small snubbies, but I could see they had a lot of Kimbers, LCR's, and Taurus. I don't remember supply issues with any of those.

I was glad to see an abundance of choices and not high prices. Ammo prices were sharply up from the end of summer. I guess there was a spike recently that I only just noticed.

 

[.455_Hunter]

Despite the pontificating of self-titled "experts" (including some on this forum), the age of the revolver is FAR from over. Defense, hunting, target, plinking- they all have a place, and are being discovered (or even rediscovered) by those shooters who have matured out of an "all polystriker, all the time" existence.

 

[UncleEd]

I've always believed that revolver sales would increase
when they are offered as a choice to people new to
shooting.

But when a new person walks into so many shops, they
are told, "here, everyone wants this Glock." And if
they ask about revolvers, they are told "oh, no one
wants them any more."

And the clincher for an auto is "it's what the police use."

Following the auto's purchase, then comes the bite
"here, you'll need a few more magazines, just $70."

 

[Charlie98]

I was in Cabelas last week, actually looking for a revolver... out of the 8 or so handgun cases, only 1 had any revolvers in it... the rest were autos. I don't know if that is Cabelas meeting market demand, or their buyer thinking the market for revolvers is that low. Part of it, I think, is the cost... a $1000+ Python can buy you 2 autos, etc.

 

[trackskippy]

Despite the pontificating of self-titled "experts" (including some on this forum), the age of the revolver is FAR from over. Defensive, hunting, target, plinking- they all have a place, and are even being discovered (or even rediscovered) by those shooters who have matured out of an "all polystriker, all the time" existence.

The age is far from over, but, I think those that understand that, are probably from another age, and have more experience and time behind a trigger with one, to understand and appreciate them. And a lot of the current offerings dont do much to encourage or enamor either. I love the older Smiths, but the new ones dont do anything much for me, and they dont seem to be too concerned about trying to remedy that either.

And as much as I like them, plastic in plastic, is all youll see me carry/use for anything serious. I might be old, but I aint stuck in the past. Gotta keep up to keep from falling behind.

 

[Charlie98]

I love the older Smiths, but the new ones dont do anything much for me

There is something to that, too... and I can't really explain it, other than I don't think the build quality and material are there. S&W still makes the Model 57, for instance, and I'd love to have a 6" to go with the herd... but I have no interest in one of the new ones. Same same with something like a Python.

 

[Mark_Mark]

I've always believed that revolver sales would increase
when they are offered as a choice to people new to
shooting.

But when a new person walks into so many shops, they
are told, "here, everyone wants this Glock." And if
they ask about revolvers, they are told "oh, no one
wants them any more."

And the clincher for an auto is "it's what the police use."

Following the auto's purchase, then comes the bite
"here, you'll need a few more magazines, just $70."

What’s not to like about squeezing the trigger, watch the hammer and cylinder move, split second lockup, and hammer drops!

It’s like wearing a Rolex that shoots bullets.

Poly Guns get OLD quickly;, predictable, reliable, hi cap, ….. let me hit the SNOOZZZEEE button again

 

[doubleh]

Revolvers are old tech and limited on how many rounds they can shoot plus they are more bulky than semi guns.. This makes them passe' to the younger members of society. Not the latest and greatest and mag dumps are over in seconds. In two words, "Grandpa guns" and not cool. On about the same par with rotary phones. Plastic, fantastic, and very light weight are today's cool stuff for the youngsters.

Today I see stress in carrying around two more ounces for a day. In my young years I carried around 26 pounds all day long for many a day and ran up and down tall wooden poles while doing so and they were 10 hour days. I certainly wouldn't want to return to that and in fact can no longer do so even if my life depended on it but come on. Only 2 ounces?

 

[westernrover]

I'm not that old, not "over the hill" yet, and all I've ever carried is a revolver, since 2018 when I started. That's not to boast against the guys with a long string of decades behind them in this or that, but I'm not new anymore. I've also trained with a lot of professionals. I've trained with most of the big names in the training world out there at the moment, been to the big name academies, and paid the big bucks. I don't have any illusions about the degree to which that equips me for getting caught at a disadvantage, but if there was any other edge I could gain, I don't know about it. In my experience training thus far, the revolver has never demonstrated a disadvantage to any handgun that anyone else brought. If the revolver was any disadvantage, all the training I've witnessed does not train the pistol shooter to do anything the revolver shooter cannot do. If there was an advantage to the pistol, the available training does not teach or demonstrate how to make any use of it. I've not seen it taught. I've not seen it learned. I've not seen it in the students' results.

 

[tominboise]

I like revolvers and semi autos and own and buy both. They are all fun to shoot, carry and enjoy. When I carry a gun concealed, it's always a semi auto, for the record.

 

[Targa]

I would like to see a reputable “Revolver Store” or maybe I wouldn’t. I could get into trouble with a large selection of new and used revolvers for sale from a reputable store. Scheel‘s is one of the better ones these days but it does get old walking into a store only to find display cases of the latest, greatest tactical stuff with a handful of revolvers thrown in as an after thought. I don’t need an explanation of why it is the way it is, I am aware of supply and demand, I just don’t like it..

 

[Mark_Mark]

Revolvers are old tech and limited on how many rounds they can shoot plus they are more bulky than semi guns.. This makes them passe' to the younger members of society. Not the latest and greatest and mag dumps are over in seconds. In two words, "Grandpa guns" and not cool. On about the same par with rotary phones. Plastic, fantastic, and very light weight are today's cool stuff for the youngsters.

Today I see stress in carrying around two more ounces for a day. In my young years I carried around 26 pounds all day long for many a day and ran up and down tall wooden poles while doing so and they were 10 hour days. I certainly wouldn't want to return to that and in fact can no longer do so even if my life depended on it but come on. Only 2 ounces?

Lots of young people are buying revolvers!

 

[Mark_Mark]

I would like to see a reputable “Revolver Store” or maybe I wouldn’t. I could get into trouble with a large selection of new and used revolvers for sale from a reputable store. Scheel‘s is one of the better ones these days but it does get old walking into a store only to find display cases of the latest, greatest tactical stuff with a handful of revolvers thrown in as an after thought. I don’t need an explanation of why it is the way it is, I am aware of supply and demand, I just don’t like it..

I got 2 shop… one that sells classic revolvers, another that sells New Cool revolvers!

 

[Targa]

I do have a store in the area but they are so ridiculously over priced it’s hard to take them seriously.

 

[Frulk]

Tried to quote from DoubleH above...was unable to get the quote option from his text box to work so had to cut and paste: "Revolvers are old tech and limited on how many rounds they can shoot plus they are more bulky than semi guns.. This makes them passe' to the younger members of society. Not the latest and greatest and mag dumps are over in seconds. In two words, "Grandpa guns" and not cool. On about the same par with rotary phones. Plastic, fantastic, and very light weight are today's cool stuff for the youngsters." I agree with this statement even though I'm a big revolver fan.

Few years back I put a 75-inch flat screen in the house. Where I live, we have a real winter with significant snow (usually) and I'm unable to participate in a few outdoor hobbies (fly fishing, motorcycling, boating etc.) for several months. Wanted something to occasionally do in the house during those long cold winter days. Asked my young adult kids what the current best video game was with cutting edge graphics. They recommended Destiny. Takes place approx 600 years in Earths future, 4-5 alien races have pushed humanity near to extinction and a few humans are now fighting and clawing their way back. Kids recommended it because of its graphics and award-winning gun mechanics...pretty much considered the industry standard in that regard.

So, bought it and started playing...this game has/had hundreds of thousands, if not in the low millions of people from around the globe of all ages playing on a daily basis.

There's a competitive mode...PVP...meaning player vs player...were you play against other people sitting on their couch somewhere in one of the 50 states or Europe or Asia. In this mode the #1 gun of choice (by far) is the revolver. For some reason the 20-30 something year old game developers headquartered outside of Seattle made this the most powerful gun in the game. Mind you...from the vast array of firearms available to you to choose from to include...scout rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, full-auto sidearms, pulse rifles etc. etc..the LOWLY REVOLVER is king of the hill (by a wide margin) in one of the most popular video games ever produced. You cannot be competitive (in the upper echelon of winning) if you're not using a revolver.

So why mention this...sure bet that the overwhelming number of folks playing the game have less than 5% of the firearms knowledge that members here do. A good friend of mine last year stopped by for a few hours with his teen son. They were in the area to ski. We visited and the kid was bored and I asked if he played Destiny and he said yes. Told him he could run some missions for me. Kid was excited to play on a big screen. Loaded up a character and was asking where my revolvers were. For the next couple of hours while he played, we discussed the unrealistic performance capabilities the game developers from Seattle programed into revolvers. During that discussion I asked if he ever shot a revolver before...he said no.

They're coming back this winter and will stay with us for a few days....plan is to get the teen out to my local range for a couple of hours and let him shoot a revolver and scout rifle at 100 yards.

That's a long way to get to this point...while in the real world the revolver may indeed be technologically outdated, and sales figures reflect this...due to this game (and maybe a couple more) there's likely a very large number of people of all ages who are under a different impression of this reality due to the totally unrealistic performance characteristics attributed to them in a very popular video game. It will be interesting to see what my buddy's teen son thinks after our planned range trip.

 

[Mark_Mark]

I do have a store in the area but they are so ridiculously over priced it’s hard to take them seriously.

there one like that in my area… Used old Les Baer for 2% off retail. Colt PP .38 $650

 

[RevolvingGarbage]

A revolver is, as a service weapon, thoroughly outdated in 2023. It could still be used in that capacity, but it would be a handicap.

As a self defense implement? It’s far less appropriate to call it outdated in that context. Five rounds of .38Spl is still a lot more firepower than 90% of humans have at their disposal and that makes a revolver have plenty of intrinsic utility value even in todays world.

 

[doubleh]

Tried to quote from DoubleH above...was unable to get the quote option from his text box to work so had to cut and paste: "Revolvers are old tech and limited on how many rounds they can shoot plus they are more bulky than semi guns.. This makes them passe' to the younger members of society. Not the latest and greatest and mag dumps are over in seconds. In two words, "Grandpa guns" and not cool. On about the same par with rotary phones. Plastic, fantastic, and very light weight are today's cool stuff for the youngsters." I agree with this statement even though I'm a big revolver fan.

Few years back I put a 75-inch flat screen in the house. Where I live, we have a real winter with significant snow (usually) and I'm unable to participate in a few outdoor hobbies (fly fishing, motorcycling, boating etc.) for several months. Wanted something to occasionally do in the house during those long cold winter days. Asked my young adult kids what the current best video game was with cutting edge graphics. They recommended Destiny. Takes place approx 600 years in Earths future, 4-5 alien races have pushed humanity near to extinction and a few humans are now fighting and clawing their way back. Kids recommended it because of its graphics and award-winning gun mechanics...pretty much considered the industry standard in that regard.

So, bought it and started playing...this game has/had hundreds of thousands, if not in the low millions of people from around the globe of all ages playing on a daily basis.

There's a competitive mode...PVP...meaning player vs player...were you play against other people sitting on their couch somewhere in one of the 50 states or Europe or Asia. In this mode the #1 gun of choice (by far) is the revolver. For some reason the 20-30 something year old game developers headquartered outside of Seattle made this the most powerful gun in the game. Mind you...from the vast array of firearms available to you to choose from to include...scout rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, full-auto sidearms, pulse rifles etc. etc..the LOWLY REVOLVER is king of the hill (by a wide margin) in one of the most popular video games ever produced. You cannot be competitive (in the upper echelon of winning) if you're not using a revolver.

So why mention this...sure bet that the overwhelming number of folks playing the game have less than 5% of the firearms knowledge that members here do. A good friend of mine last year stopped by for a few hours with his teen son. They were in the area to ski. We visited and the kid was bored and I asked if he played Destiny and he said yes. Told him he could run some missions for me. Kid was excited to play on a big screen. Loaded up a character and was asking where my revolvers were. For the next couple of hours while he played, we discussed the unrealistic performance capabilities the game developers from Seattle programed into revolvers. During that discussion I asked if he ever shot a revolver before...he said no.

They're coming back this winter and will stay with us for a few days....plan is to get the teen out to my local range for a couple of hours and let him shoot a revolver and scout rifle at 100 yards.

That's a long way to get to this point...while in the real world the revolver may indeed be technologically outdated, and sales figures reflect this...due to this game (and maybe a couple more) there's likely a very large number of people of all ages who are under a different impression of this reality due to the totally unrealistic performance characteristics attributed to them in a very popular video game. It will be interesting to see what my buddy's teen son thinks after our planned range trip.

I tried to only quote the last paragraph of your post but got the whole thing for some reason.

I doubt the game developers have a true understanding of the firearms they depict. I believe this is apparent in all TV, movies, and gaming video although I am not a gamer, just a sometimes spectator as the younger play them. I pay little attention to video games as they hold no interest. I have never seen anything very realistic in any of them that I did spend a few minutes on. Mostly how many of the the enemy you can quickly kill. This obliviousness to reality has been with us for years. My wife currently has an old western playing. Every character looks as if though they had just had a bath and then dressed in clean clothes. Even the curmudgeons are clean. Even when a character is used, abused, and made dirty in one scene they are all cleaned up in the next.

 

[Pat Riot]

@westernrover I have also noticed the selection of new revolvers at my favorite gun store increasing over time in the past year. A year ago at this time their displays were full of Wranglers and S&W J frames. Now there is a wide selection of S&Ws, Ruger’s, Taurus’, etc. They even have 8 or 9 Chiappa Rhinos and a couple Rossi’s.
I am glad to see things normalizing somewhat. The selection is there but the pricing isn’t that wallet friendly. I doubt it ever will be.

 

[Mark_Mark]

A revolver is, as a service weapon, thoroughly outdated in 2023. It could still be used in that capacity, but it would be a handicap.

As a self defense implement? It’s far less appropriate to call it outdated in that context. Five rounds of .38Spl is still a lot more firepower than 90% of humans have at their disposal and that makes a revolver have plenty of intrinsic utility value even in todays world.

I seen a modern but classic use of revolvers in a modern carry style. What hott!, sling bag (fanny pack that has a Gucci or LV logo that wraps around your chest) anyway, in TY, they wear putting revolver in that and shooting from it.

 

[westernrover]

@westernrover I have also noticed the selection of new revolvers at my favorite gun store increasing over time in the past year. A year ago at this time their displays were full of Wranglers and S&W J frames. Now there is a wide selection of S&Ws, Ruger’s, Taurus’, etc. They even have 8 or 9 Chiappa Rhinos and a couple Rossi’s.
I am glad to see things normalizing somewhat. The selection is there but the pricing isn’t that wallet friendly. I doubt it ever will be.

This is what my OP was about -- not so much about whether revolvers are obsolete and worthless or not or revolver vs. auto. I'm seeing signs of the revolver supply chain normalizing. Now we just need lever guns, because I don't want a Henry, Henry or Henry. Let's not debate whether levers are legit just because the SWAT team and Seal Team 6 don't use them. I like wheels and levers and the suppliers have neglected them for years now. Hopefully, we're coming out of that and we'll see some inventory before the next big thing.

 

[Pat Riot]

This is what my OP was about -- not so much about whether revolvers are obsolete and worthless or not or revolver vs. auto.

Let's not debate whether levers are legit just because the SWAT team and Seal Team 6 don't use them.

Exactly!

My FGS (favorite gun store) has a bunch of lever guns. I would say half are Henry’s, but the other half are a mix of new and used Winchesters, Marlins and Rossi’s.
Hopefully I will make it down there tomorrow to use their indoor range. I like shooting them walking around the store looking at guns they have available. The last time I was there, about 3 weeks ago, they had a used Ruger GP100 .357 with a 3” barrel and wood grips. I really liked the looks of that one. The temptation to buy it was strong. I kind of hope it’s gone. I blew my gun budget a while back.

 

[jdc1244]

Love them or hate them, Colt has certainly contributed to revolver supply chain normalization – the Python reintroduction has been a success, along with new offerings such as the three-inch Python, KC Target, and KC in .22 LR.

 

[Glockpride]

A 7 or 8 shot .357 with moon clips ain’t nothing to sneeze at if one wants to carry a revolver in this modern world.

 

[Riomouse911]

Love them or hate them, Colt has certainly contributed to revolver supply chain normalization – the Python reintroduction has been a success, along with new offerings such as the three-inch Python, KC Target, and KC in .22 LR.

I think it was the Walking Dead series that brought the Python to the younger masses. (Never seen it, just read about a character using one.) That may have helped sell new Colts like Dirty Harry helped sell Smiths.

I don’t see as many revolvers as autos at the indoor range, especially with newer shooters, I will guesstimate it’s about a 10-1 ratio.

But, based on the B-27 sized “patterns” I see on far too many target boards every week, I think there would be a lot more “better” shooters if folks learned how to shoot correctly with a DA revolver first.



(A closer peek at the lanes next over. Both are being shot at 5 yds.)


But that’s just speculation from a diehard revolver fan.




Stay safe.