Why my "Nightstand Gun" is a revolver...

[md7]

Whatever you feel most comfortable with, and are competent with, is the best choice.

excellent advice! also agree with what you had to say about revolvers being capable of sitting for years with no attention. alot of gunowners are not "shooters", and would not take the time necessary to maintain autos on a level that they should be. not saying revolvers should not be maintained also, just that if someone is likely to "load it and leave it" perhaps a revolver is the better choice.

 

[JN01]

I like autos and revolvers, own, use, and carry both.

I would agree to the general rule that revolvers are less likely to malfunction, however, I guess my personal experience has been the exception to the rule. I have had three revolvers "fail".

#1 Around 1984, I was qualifying with my S&W Model 15 (US Air Force issue). While firing, the ejector rod started to unscrew, tying up the cylinder tight. Had to work for some time to get the rod screwed in far enough to unlatch the cylinder. Yes, I always checked the rod every time the gun was issued to me and never had found it to be loose before.

#2 Late 90s, I purchased a brand new Taurus 85. Dry fired it no more that a couple dozen times before the lock work timing was completely screwed up and the cylinder either wouldn't rotate or wouldn't rotate properly. Sent it back to Taurus and they replaced it.

#3 Couple years ago, I was qualifying (Corrections Dept) with a S&W Model 64. We don't have guns issued to us, so it was one from the pile of range guns from the armory. I believe the ejector rod must have been slightly bent (though not visibly so) as when it was fired, the trigger pull was increasingly heavy on half the cylinder. While I was able to get all six rounds off, the last couple were with a (probably) 25 pound pull and didn't hit the target.

Also, during basic training in 1981, I witnessed a woman firing a S&W M15 who had the hammer spur break off, fly back, and cut her ear lobe. Firing was stopped immediately, so I don't know if the gun was still operational or not. The hammer may not have retained enough weight to set off a primer, but maybe it did.

#1 and #3 could be maintenance issues (and #3 was most likely a case of abuse) but still shows that no mechanical device is infallible.

 

[Publius1688]

My nightstand gun is a double barrel 12 ga, it's a hundred years old, and I represent the fourth generation in my family that it's protected. It simply won't fail. They shells might, but there's nothing to malfunction on the shotgun.
My backup nightstand gun is a S&W Airweight .38.
Thoughts are: if surprised in bed by a close intruder in my bedroom (I can't imagine how that could happen, but it could), I go for the scatter gun. When called to investigate noises outside the house, I carry the .38.

 

[Cocked & Locked]

...double barrel 12 ga, it's a hundred years old, and I represent the fourth generation in my family that it's protected. It simply won't fail. They shells might, but there's nothing to malfunction on the shotgun.

Really? How do you know? No springs that could break or anything?

 

[hamourkiller]

Keep two (2) revolvers or (semi autos) by the bed.

Fire one till it is empty (revolver) or jamed (semi auto)

Pick up second weapon, access situation and repeat if needed.

More seriously, two handguns of the same type by the bed adds enough redundancy to save your bacon if the first weapon fails in some way. Dont waste time trying to figure out the problem. Just dump the malfunctioning weapon and grab the second one.

There was a famous man in california who was fighting gangs coming into his place of business. He got into so many gun fights that he placed revolvers and semiautos all over and was never away from atleast two handguns. When things went south, he would start shooting and never reload, just get another weapon and fight to the next.
His "Mind Set" was his most important weapon.

 

[MacTech]

To clarify my OP, the malfunctions in my Mark II basically got me to think about reliability of semis vs. autos, I know any firearm can fail, and probably at the most inopportune time, Murphy's Law and all that, and yes I know that both revolvers and semis can have major jams that take them out of the fight, a revolver with a squib load between the cylinder and forcing cone will turn it into a short-range club, a FTE, stovepipe, or double-feed in a semi can take the semi down

Up until I got back into revolvers a month or so ago, all my recent handguns had been semis, I've had stovepipes, double-feeds, failure to feed, failure to fire, and FTE jams with them, they were infrequent, but they happened**, and any of them took the gun out of service for at least 10 seconds or more (FTE or double-feed), I looked on them as par-for-the-course, a freak occurance, but something that can and will happen thanks to the design of the recoil-operated semiauto

I've had *NO* jams, stoppages or failures with any of my revolvers, from my old Taurus 689, and Ruger GP-100 (both sold off), to my current revolvers, a H&R 949 .22 and Ruger New Blackhawk .45 Convertible, they all just plain worked, pull the trigger, they go bang every time, *could* they fail, sure, and I expect them to at some point, no man-made device is truly infallible, but the fact remains, they have run flawlessly so far, yes, they could go out of time and spit lead, yes they could encounter a squib load that sticks between the forcing cone and cylinder, yes the internal lockwork could get buggered up, nothing's perfect

Maybe I'm wrong here, but my mindset is that a revolver has less potential to go wrong than a semi, but it'd be illogical to put total trust in either, assume the weapon will fail and plan accordingly, plan for the worst, hope for the best is a great philosophy to have

I randomly alternate between my Kimber Custom II and my Ruger New Blackhawk as nightstand gun, right now, the Ruger has the nod, but that could change any time


**those pistols are no longer in the collection, the only problem I've had with my Kimber Custom II have been extremely infrequent stovepipes, maybe one stovepipe per 1000 rounds fired, the light-strikes with the Mark II are a recent problem, but I think I've solved it, as it has not recurred in the last two range trips since I gave the firing pin channel a good cleaning and polished the firing pin

 

[pmwizard]

My nightstand gun is a 7 shot S&W 686 that I have total confidence in. My bro-in-law has an exstensive collection of semi's, ak's, sks's and shotguns, his weapon of choice is a police 4 in 38 spl. My son uses a Glock 40 cal as his nightstand weapon.

Use what you are the most accurate with, not because it carries more rounds. I have total confidence in my 686 to hit what I am aiming at. Besides I have 5 speedloaders holding 35 rounds of speer self defence ammo in reserve.