I have as much experience with type of weapon. But I started out (having a technical background) in favour of Automatics, but switched to S&W .357 eventually. I am not interested in sport shooting at all. I know the following facts from practical experiences and comparisons.
a)No matter what, for the first shot a DA revolver is faster than a pistol.
b) A revolver is safer under hazardous conditions. When engaged in certain activites I loaded only 4 rounds in the 6 shooter. I would of course keep the chamber of pistol also empty under such conditions.
c)a model 19 with the right holster makes the cylinder actually fit above the hip bone.
d) in a fray (not every situation justifies shooting), being kicked, shoved etc, a DA revolver will go off only when I pull the trigger.
e) in one case somebody holding me from behind, while his buddy tried to bash my skul with a rock, I HAD TO POINT MY OWN GUN AT MYSELF TO GET PAST ME TO SHOOT THE GUY HOLDING ME. I would never ever do this with a pistol that has fired one shot and is cocked. Would you?
f)I can fire the widest range of ammo, including bullets treated with arrow poison, explosive ammo of own manyfacture and snake shot. (we have very nasties here much worse than rattlers you have) Explosive ammo will probably go off on feeding in an automatic.
g)the practical effectiveness, wounding penetration of the .357 Mag. is only now matched by the 357 SIG
h)Now I am going to put in the foot. The more ammo a pistol holds, the worse people seem to shoot under stress (probably copying Steven Segal or the likes) !00 or more years ago, people actually aimed their weapons, now adays they point north or wherever and pull the triger.
I) In practical pistol competition which is about as practal as a fomula 1 car is for a fishing trip, it is proven that a pistol has superior firepower, only because the rules have been written to prove this. Introducing one rule, which is in no way more unrealistic as changing a magazine after two rounds fired (AND DROPPING MAG ON THE GROUND WHICH BETTER NEVER DO) would prove conclusively that a revolver has a higher firepower then a pistol. And this is the rule!! A shooter with a pistol can have as many magazines as he wishes, but he must finish with all magazines loaded as he started.
Anybody who can handle a pistol and a revolver equally well can make the following simple comparison. Pistol empty revolver empty, Mags empty. load six rounds in pistol and fire,load six rounds and fire with DA revolver. You can try this with 50 rounds or with 200 rounds and the rvolver will fire a number of rounds faster.
Furthermore, when a pistol shooter has to hold a pistol one hand, loads a magazine with two hands, he must be born with three hands or holster the pistol.
Reloading a revolver with one or two rounds one does not put one self out of action for longer than it take to close the cylinder.
j) revolver ammo carried in the right brest pocket of your shirt and moving a bit, the cartridges turn head down and the cartridges are gripped on the base, and after retreaving ammo for a few thousand times, the time will come and you surprise yourself that you get exactly 6 cartridges out of your pocket every time to fill your cylnder.
k) there are training methods specially developed for DA revolver shooting, living in a free world we allow pistols on the firing line, but pistol shooters get confused , frustrated and have little befit of this training.
Now for the downside of the revolver. Not all revolvers are good. I had a 38 Spec Colt Diamond Back, very nice to look at, but within a few 100 rounds of fast DA shooting at about 5 rds per second, I just manged to sell it in time before it got damaged noticeable for a layman. Than I tried a .357 Colt Python and finished it badly in less than 2000 rounds fast DA shooting. Most revolver grips including S&W are thickest where the fingers are the shortest, if it makes sense to you, it never made sense to me.
The new trend to make the barrel heavier to look sexy like a Python barrel slows the gun down twice, first when you draw it gets going slower, then when you have it up you have to slow it down earlier not to over-swing/over-shoot the target.
I carry an automatic always with tracers mixed with FMJ, not so fond of JHP anymore for good reasons.
BTW, if you ever go for a revolver, use the Lyman 133gr SWC for best accuracy, a 125gr JHP for best performance (not mentioneing explosive bullets), but if you look for a likely failure producing only terrible surface wounds on a fat guy use a 88gr JHP bullet with a vel of about 550m/s. No dont do this.
Regards
WAH
