What is it about revolvers we like so much?

[agent89]

I own both autos and revolvers. If I knew I was going to be in a gun fight today I would have one of my Glocks at the ready. They are very good and reliable guns. But for home defence not knowing when or if, the revolver is my choice. No magazine springs to worry about, simple and effective.
And, autos are machines, revolvers have a soul.

 

[winfried]

Yes, all of you are right. My big fear is that somebody stops making them!

However, there are two more points. Seeing that quite a few LE officers are here, I am surprised that nobody has mentioned what happens in a shuffle or a tumult, a chaotic political meeting. I trained body guards, been a bodyguard on special assignments and stood on a podium facing 9000 people of which some were hostile. If you have to shoot, you fire one and you hit the right guy, if you miss you hit the wrong guy! Or a woman, or a child or an old man. No firepower needed, but reliability of my Mod 19 was all I trusted.

In another situation, there was a melee, bricks had been used to build bench seats. The bricks were flying. I just made sure I dont lose my revolver, but was watching if anybody pulled out a gun. If that had happened, everybody would have started shooting. Bricks flying people pushing, shuffling, that is the time you do not want a cocked-and-locked pistol near or on you.

Maybe you people have not realised it, but a DA revolver can be fired (including opening a pan cake holster) in a little less than .5 seconds in the instictive mode.
Comparisons showed that a top shooter with cocked and locked, following his typical routine will take more than 1 second to fire the first shot. That means that a proficient DA revolver shooter can score three shots before the auto is in action.

A DA auto is not as fast because of the shape of the grip. You have to get into the pistol grip from behind (vertical barrel) or from below (horizontal barrel) A DA auto does not point as well for the instinctive shot.

In cambat shooting there was descrimination against revolvers, but one singel rule change will prove that a revolver fires any number of rounds faster than a pistol. Sounds ridiculous, but thry this - make the rule that all magazines, all pistols all revolvers are in the same condition after the shooting as before meaning all magazines used must be loaded/filled again. If you are good with a DA revolver, challenge a pistol shooter. It does not matter if you fire 6 rounds or 100 rounds, you will see first a very confident pistol shooter, then when you fired your last rounds and he is far behind filling magazines his expression changes to disbeliev.

Another tip, I used to carry 30 or so rounds in the right breast pocket of my Khaki shirts. If the shirt pocket (no formula for this) is right for the type of cartridge, you will notice that after moving a bit about, cartridges turn base up and easy to laod. From the right brest pocket is the shortest way to load a cylinder.
Then after many rounds, you will get the hang of it to take exactly six rounds needed to realod. Not something to learn in a week.
A revolver can be the simplest most reliable tool for an untrained person, but top performance is a science and I dare say can not be achieved with a pistol. It took also 100 years to make pistols as accurate as revolvers alawys were.
Keep it up.
I rember another good one. We entered a building, me in front, guy with Hi-Power 13 shot behind me. He drew fast, the magazine came out, clanked to the ground and slid along the floor overtaking me. His 13 shot pistol was converted to single shot mode. Was I glad to have a revolver. :=)
Enough.

Regards

Winfried

 

[Chilibreath]

A lot of posters hit the nail on the head (IIwsgn sounds like my bro from another mo!) but the bottom line for me is simplicity and dependability. Yes, revolvers rarely hold more than 5 or 6 shots, but in the whole scheme of things they work 100 percent of the time right out of the box, no issues with safety on/off or tap and rack, just yank and crank. As an old school big city patrol cop in 60s, 70s and 80s, I never felt handicapped in any way with my S&W K-Frame.

 

[HexHead]

I rember another good one. We entered a building, me in front, guy with Hi-Power 13 shot behind me. He drew fast, the magazine came out, clanked to the ground and slid along the floor overtaking me. His 13 shot pistol was converted to single shot mode. Was I glad to have a revolver. :=)

Actually, unless it was removed, the HiPower has a magazine disconnect. He didn't have a singe shot pistol when he dropped the mag. He basically had a rock.

 

[WoodchuckAssassin]

Why Revolvers?

Its gotta be that sound. Nothing to make your testosterone rise like the sound of a hammer being drawn back. Images of Harry Callahan, Eastwood, The Duke, and hell, even Lt. Frank Drebin, are forever attached to this simple, elegant, and effective weapon.

 

[R.W.Dale]

For me a revolver has worked best for my uses for a few reasons.

1. Hunting with a handgun is by in large a revolver only affair. Yes I know there are a few suitable automatics but they're large niche guns.

2. Day to day cleaning, clearing, loading and just using a revolver is more user friendly. When my CCW gun gets unloaded I merely pop the cylinder and dump the rounds in my hand. VS drop the mag, eject the chambered round, find said round, watch and note bullet setback, then unload the mag and restack the shortened round KNOWING at some point this ammo will have to be replaced due to setback

3. Revolvers just conceal better for me although I must admit I'm hoping the holster I have Coming for my new PPS will buck this trend.

 

[bannockburn]

I think Obi Wan Kenobi said it best as far as how I feel about revolvers: "An elegant weapon for a more civilized age".

 

[Vern Humphrey]

A lot of posters hit the nail on the head (IIwsgn sounds like my bro from another mo!) but the bottom line for me is simplicity and dependability. Yes, revolvers rarely hold more than 5 or 6 shots, but in the whole scheme of things they work 100 percent of the time right out of the box, no issues with safety on/off or tap and rack, just yank and crank. As an old school big city patrol cop in 60s, 70s and 80s, I never felt handicapped in any way with my S&W K-Frame.

Hang around here long enough, and you'll read about a lot of revolver failures -- transfer bars can break, revolvers can go so badly out of time they become as dangerous to the shooter as to the guy he's shooting at. During reloads, a fired case can slip sideways and fall back into the chamber, under the ejector star. Primers can back out and tie the gun up. Gunk or a grain of unburned powder under the ejector can tie the gun up.

And revolver failures, unlike automatic pistol stoppages, are usually not fixable by a quick Immediate Action Drill.

 

[CraigC]

Transfer bars can break but that is an anomaly only prevalent among CAS shooters that do A LOT of dry firing.

Revolvers do go out of time but that never happens suddenly during a gunfight.

Fired cases only slip under the ejector if you do it wrong.

Debris only gets under the ejector after A LOT of shooting.

All relative rarities.

And revolver failures, unlike automatic pistol stoppages, are usually not fixable by a quick Immediate Action Drill.

Revolver misfires and light powder charges require only another trigger pull.

A revolver does not have a readily removable part that renders it into a single shot, if not entirely inoperable, if damaged or lost. Nor does that part have to be removed to reload.

There are no free lunches.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Revolver misfires and light powder charges require only another trigger pull.

Most people think the only way you can have a stoppage with a revolver is with bad ammo. They are wrong. Revolvers can fail about as often as automatics, and usually can't be fixed with an Immediate Action Drill.

I recommend reading Patrick Sweeney's Gunsmithing Pistols and Revolvers, with special attention paid to Chapter 10, "Malfunctions of the Revolver."

And as John Farnham points out, the most common cause of a stoppage in a gun fight is running out of ammunition. The larger capacity of most automatics, and the quicker reload is a real tactical advantage.

 

[CraigC]

I'm not most people.

If automatics and high capacity are your game, you'll quite easily find the autoloaders forum. The fact that cops miss 90% of the time is the best argument for high capacity autos. You can't miss fast enough to win a gunfight.

 

[Derry 1946]

Revolvers can fail about as often as automatics... ...the most common cause of a stoppage in a gun fight is running out of ammunition. The larger capacity of most automatics, and the quicker reload is a real tactical advantage.

I welcome any hard evidence that revolvers fail about as often as automatics. The 1917 reloads with full moon clips very fast even for comparative amateurs.

 

[tomrkba]

I like how revolvers feel in the hand when the trigger is pulled. But, I like the challenge the most. I find them very difficult to shoot fast and accurately.

 

[R.W.Dale]

While its true that IF a revolver fails its typically a mechanical malfunction that is not immediately repairable

But for some reason folks want to compare this to an auto FTF FTE

Lets not forget that a semiautomatic firearm can suffer a mechanical failure JUST LIKE A REVOLVER CAN.

I have had both weapons fail mechanically rendering them inoperable but this doesn't change the fact that failures to FUNCTION are much much less likely as a virtue of how a revolver operates

 

[PUPP86]

For me, its the memories. I learned how to shoot on my Dad's SW M-60. Right before he passed, he gave it to me. It was the only one out of his collection that he didn't sell before hand. I put a box of 50 through it on the one year anniversary of his death and have done so every year since.

When my wife's father passed all the kids were allowed to pick one firearm out of his collection and the rest were sold. She picked his Ruger SP101 that he always carried with him (didn't hurt that she is the oldest child and got first dibs)

While my duty weapon is an auto-loader, both of us grew up on revolvers and enjoy shooting them much more. Maybe it has something to do with both of our father's passing or maybe it is just the reliabilty and simplicity of a revolver. Either way, we just enjoy revolvers more.

 

[Chilibreath]

When it come to handguns there are two distinct camps, revolver vs semiauto, and this forum is proof positive of that opinion. I'll keep it short and sweet; both styles have their fans and their assumed uses, with the two biggest issues being dependability and firepower. The bottom line is you can pick what works for you; if you lean more toward capacity then you go with a semi and if you like the idea of down-and-dirty dependability you go with a revolver, with a healthy dose of debate in the middle. If I knew I was walking into a bank robbery in progress then I suppose I'd be packing my Glock 21 with several full-up mags, but if I was just going out to dinner with my wife I would (and do) carry a S&W 422. The thing is I shoot fairly well and I'm comfortable with both guns, so for me it's more a question of comfort and practicality more so than SWAT-level tactical considerations. That said I do love the Hollywood slo-mo effect of empty cases hanging in the air as a high-capacity semiauto slide bumps back and forth, but I also respect the simplicity and time-tested dependability of a well made revolver when the "delivery" has to absolutely get there on time with no delays, interruptions or surprises. Just my opinion based on years of living and shooting.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

But that leads to a question, when you go out to dinner with your wife, how do you know you won't walk into a robbery in progress, or a mass shooting?

 

[R.W.Dale]

But that leads to a question, when you go out to dinner with your wife, how do you know you won't walk into a robbery in progress, or a mass shooting?

That line of reasoning can be taken right out to the extreme of never leaving the house because of the concern over said possibilities.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

You're getting mixed up -- by your reasoning, the mere fact that you carry a gun could go to the extreme of never leaving the house.

My reasoning is simply not to assume that you can predict the future, and to be prepared for serious emergencies.

 

[R.W.Dale]

You're getting mixed up -- by your reasoning, the mere fact that you carry a gun could go to the extreme of never leaving the house.

My reasoning is simply not to assume that you can predict the future, and to be prepared for serious emergencies.

I'm merely pointing out that being satisfied with a revolver or auto loader is a much much closer assessment of risk than either being unarmed and oblivious or staying home out of paranoia.

On a scale of risk tolerance going from 1 to 10 revolver v semiauto is essentially comparing 5 to 6

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Given that if you have to use the weapon, your life is on the line, why would you choose 5 over 6? Especially when you admit at a higher threat level, you would choose the automatic?

 

[CraigC]

IMHO, folks should be more concerned with the capacity of the weapon between their ears than the one on their hip.

 

[PabloJ]

Probably same reason they like: less accurate several thousand dollar watches with mechanical movements, $200+ pocket knives and Harley Davidson motorcycles.

 

[CraigC]

Probably same reason they like: less accurate several thousand dollar watches with mechanical movements, $200+ pocket knives and Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Some people are snobs about being cheap and imagine reasons to justify it. Why do you even participate in the revolver forum?

 

[winfried]

Posts: 15,018

Quote:
Revolver misfires and light powder charges require only another trigger pull.
Most people think the only way you can have a stoppage with a revolver is with bad ammo. They are wrong. Revolvers can fail about as often as automatics, and usually can't be fixed with an Immediate Action Drill.

I recommend reading Patrick Sweeney's Gunsmithing Pistols and Revolvers, with special attention paid to Chapter 10, "Malfunctions of the Revolver."

And as John Farnham points out, the most common cause of a stoppage in a gun fight is running out of ammunition. The larger capacity of most automatics, and the quicker reload is a real tactical advantage.

Firepower and magazine capacity are a matter of mentality. If one is apt to shoot badly under stress, is influenced by cinema then you will bang away and miss because you do not shoot at a target, but in the direction of the target. If you have good nerves, move a little slower, fire an accurate shot and score a hit no need for firepower. I would like to see a case where somebody in a defensive situation downed 6 guys and was still attacked. I was one night faced by seven. I made my plans in which sequence to proceed. The leader must go first in such situations. It did not come to that, somehow me standing there and grinning unnerved them totally. I could only grin because I had a 6" barreled 357. In other situations, a terrible doubt struck me and I was tempted to check if there was a round in the chamber. And such is not good.
The famous Miami shootout could have been ended with two head shots (one each) with a 6" 357. The distances were short enough for that.
Maybe, one day I put a picture in here of my Mod.19 worn and ugly. Trigger was perfect to begin with but has become as slippery as glass. I live in dusty desert condition, I am not one for much maintenance on any weapon, but my Mod 19 never failed me once. But it is very ugly with some Mods on it.

Regards

Winfried