Does anyone know of a manufacturer that makes a left hand revolver? My definition of this would be when I need to use a speed loader the cylinder drops to the right side, allowing you hold your gun with the left and speed load with the right.
Who makes a left hand revolver?
- Thread starter ms6852
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All of the current hand-ejector revolvers have cylinders that swing out to the left. The only other choice in a revolver that I know of would be a top-break, and that doesn't leave much to chose from. I have carried a S&W .38 Safety Hammerless made during the late 1930's, but it's a hammerless design, 5-shot, .38 S&W revolver that fit my needs, but probably isn't your cup of tea.
Well I have the S&W 686 with 6" barrel and the model 642. I normally carry a 1911 or the 642 but was looking at buying a 686 with 3" barrel 7rd cylinder. It's when the I idea hit me about a cylinder falling to the right. I did put a crimson laser on the 642 and practice shooting right handed with which is my weak hand and this helps a little but was wondering if anyone knew or if there is such a thing as a left hand revolver?
hardluk1
member
Charter Arms makes several for left's. The new guns are a good guns . Trigger is heavy but for a CC weapon ,thats OK for me. Trigger has a noticable stack and will let you know when it is ready to release the trigger. A wolf spring set does help on trigger pull alot and cost is darn near nothing. I bought a righty ultra lite for well inder 400 at a local shop so find a 10% over cost dealer and the price is hard to pass on.
Billy Shears
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You could try one of these:http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/admin/product_details.php?itemID=34564
A little archaic, and you'd have to special order the ammo, but it is a left-handed revolver with a swing out cylinder. It's the only one I've ever heard of. God knows why the French made it that way. Maybe they had one of you wrong-handed people in charge of their ordnance bureau.
Other than this or a top break, you're only option for a specifically left handed revolver is the Colt SAA or one of its clones; they're also actually better set up for left handed reloading.
CoRoMo
Member
Charter Arms Southpaw
RidgwayCO
Member
I read once that, since Samuel Colt was left-handed, all single-action type revolvers with the loading gate on the right side are "left-handed." Don't know if it's true, but it's an interesting proposition.
Billy Shears
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Given that Colt died ten years before the Rollin White patent expired and his company could start producing cartridge revolvers, I'd say it's certainly untrue. I think you can look for the reason in the fact that cap & ball revolvers were worn in left-hand draw holsters (they were military weapons, primarily used by cavalrymen and officers, and the right hand was for the saber), and the first gate-loaded cartridge revolvers (which the military still wore in left-hand draw holsters) were simply conversions of cap & ball revolvers. Then when the SAA came along in 1873, for production expediency, they simply made it the same way they'd been making their cartridge conversions. Most soldiers only carried 12 rounds of pistol ammo, and quick reloading wasn't considered important (the army even specifically mentioned this as a reason they ultimately selected the SAA over the S&W Schofield), so Colt probably saw no reason to change.
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.455_Hunter
Member
Being a lefty, I have found that standard swing out revolvers are better suited to my needs since they allow me to load using my good hand. After firing, I bring my right hand forward and open the cylinder. I use right thumb to reach through frame window to control cylinder rotation and support weight of the gun with my right hand fingers. My good left hand now has a clear path to operate the ejector rod and reload using either speed loaders or loose rounds. I close the cylinder using my right hand. The time required to switch hands is insignificant. Too me, it seems best to use your most dexterous hand to load. However, I still enjoy my break tops- Webley, Enfield, Iver Johnson, etc.
If you are a lefty, it is actually advantageous to manipulate the speedloader with your more dextrous left hand. I am a lefty, though functionally ambidextrous with DA revolvers, and PREFER that the revolver be in my right hand, and the speedloader in the left hand, during the reload.
Go to snubtraining.com, and click on the video showing the right-handed reload. I use this right-handed reload when shooting lefty or rightie.
Go to snubtraining.com, and click on the video showing the right-handed reload. I use this right-handed reload when shooting lefty or rightie.
CraigC
Sixgun Nut
Yep, what he said!
The theory about Sam Colt being left-handed is an interesting one on the surface but it does not stand to scrutiny. We must bear in mind that Colt's offered the 1871-1872 Open Top model .44 rimfire for military testing. It was Colt's first dedicated big bore cartridge revolver, based on their 1860 model and their cartridge conversions (the S-lug barrel of the Open Top found its way onto the 1860 Richards-Mason cartridge conversion) and had its loading gate on the right side. The same side as the capping cutout on the percussion guns. The Army rejected it, stating that they wanted a .45 caliber centerfire and solid frame with topstrap. This was quite the departure from their current models at the time. William Mason designed the Single Action Army specifically for, well, the Army. So wouldn't you think, that if the Army wanted them to change which side they loaded from, they would've ordered it that way?
After spending the last 23yrs of my life completely enamoured with the single action revolver, I find no reason to believe that a right handed shooter would be better suited with the loading gate on the left side. No disrespect intended for the late Bill Grover.
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
Loading a Colt SAA with the right hand while holding it in the left hand makes perfect sense to me. And even more sense if you consider pouring powder, placing and ramming balls, and capping the older Colt cap & ball revolver with your left hand.
Most people are right handed, and most right handed people have much better fine motor skills with thier right hand.
Try getting six little caps out of a cap box on your belt, and fitting them on the little nipples with your left hand sometime.
You will have much better luck doing it with your right hand if you are right handed.
Same applies to ejecting & loading cartridges in a Single Action.
rc
Most people are right handed, and most right handed people have much better fine motor skills with thier right hand.
Try getting six little caps out of a cap box on your belt, and fitting them on the little nipples with your left hand sometime.
You will have much better luck doing it with your right hand if you are right handed.
Same applies to ejecting & loading cartridges in a Single Action.
rc
CraigC
Sixgun Nut
Funny thing is that I am right handed and operate the ejector with the right hand but load with my left hand. I typically unload and reload a single action in about 15 seconds.
With percussion revolvers though the right hand does all the work.
With percussion revolvers though the right hand does all the work.
MedWheeler
Member
From an older post of mine.. I'm a LH'ed shooter who has never handled a LH'ed revolver.. In it, I try to describe a tactical reload that worked for me (in training, at least, as I have never been involved in a shooting.)
>>>More than twenty years ago, I found myself the only LH law enforcement recruit in a class of forty-four. I had just recently been taught by a private tactical instructor a functional and swift reload technique for revolvers using speedloaders. Using this technique, I was able to rival most, if not all, the others' reload times in my class. The technique, all other factors being equal, adds probably between one half of and one full second to a reload. I never learned any others, so I do not know if any have been developed.
I'll try my best to describe the one I used.
As the need or want for reload is determined, the cylinder release is actuated with the thumb of the left hand, which must be swept high across the hammer. This is easier on Colt revolvers, but can be mastered on others. (On Colts, one can also use the inside of the large index finger joint to pull the release.) It's probably hardest on Rugers, since the side of the thumb would be used on the release button. I never tried it on a Ruger. As this is being done, the weapon is lowered to near-belt level and rotated upward. The left hand is quickly drawn away and moves to the belt for the speedloader. It is simultaneously replaced by the right hand, which holds the weapon in the following manner: inside of frame top strap resting on back of thumb base, middle pad of index finger on tip of ejector rod, and remaining three fingers across front and side of cylinder. Thumb base (right) is supporting the gun from beneath the top strap. It is the tip of the right thumb that actually pushes the cylinder out as the hand receives the weapon.
The gun is kept pointed up, but rotated laterally slightly to the left to insure the empty cases fall clearly as the right index finger thrusts the ejector rod.
At this time, the left hand is arriving back at the weapon with the speedloader. The revolver is rolled back muzzle-downward, pointing slightly to the right to keep the cylinder from falling closed, and the speedloader is deployed. As the left hand allows the now-empty loader to fall freely, it grasps the grip and the right hand is withdrawn from inside the frame, closing the cylinder behind it with the four fingers as the gun is rotated back laterally to the right to a more "upright" position (grip perpendicular to the ground), and raised back to appropriate level.
This sounds more complicated than it actually is. I ended up actually being asked to teach it to my academy instructors, and, later, to left-handed LEOs. The nice aspect of it is that it ends with the shooter's strong hand back in control of the gun even before the cylinder is finished being slammed shut. The weak hand is never on the grip.<<<
>>>More than twenty years ago, I found myself the only LH law enforcement recruit in a class of forty-four. I had just recently been taught by a private tactical instructor a functional and swift reload technique for revolvers using speedloaders. Using this technique, I was able to rival most, if not all, the others' reload times in my class. The technique, all other factors being equal, adds probably between one half of and one full second to a reload. I never learned any others, so I do not know if any have been developed.
I'll try my best to describe the one I used.
As the need or want for reload is determined, the cylinder release is actuated with the thumb of the left hand, which must be swept high across the hammer. This is easier on Colt revolvers, but can be mastered on others. (On Colts, one can also use the inside of the large index finger joint to pull the release.) It's probably hardest on Rugers, since the side of the thumb would be used on the release button. I never tried it on a Ruger. As this is being done, the weapon is lowered to near-belt level and rotated upward. The left hand is quickly drawn away and moves to the belt for the speedloader. It is simultaneously replaced by the right hand, which holds the weapon in the following manner: inside of frame top strap resting on back of thumb base, middle pad of index finger on tip of ejector rod, and remaining three fingers across front and side of cylinder. Thumb base (right) is supporting the gun from beneath the top strap. It is the tip of the right thumb that actually pushes the cylinder out as the hand receives the weapon.
The gun is kept pointed up, but rotated laterally slightly to the left to insure the empty cases fall clearly as the right index finger thrusts the ejector rod.
At this time, the left hand is arriving back at the weapon with the speedloader. The revolver is rolled back muzzle-downward, pointing slightly to the right to keep the cylinder from falling closed, and the speedloader is deployed. As the left hand allows the now-empty loader to fall freely, it grasps the grip and the right hand is withdrawn from inside the frame, closing the cylinder behind it with the four fingers as the gun is rotated back laterally to the right to a more "upright" position (grip perpendicular to the ground), and raised back to appropriate level.
This sounds more complicated than it actually is. I ended up actually being asked to teach it to my academy instructors, and, later, to left-handed LEOs. The nice aspect of it is that it ends with the shooter's strong hand back in control of the gun even before the cylinder is finished being slammed shut. The weak hand is never on the grip.<<<
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