The problem with revolver fanatics
I would urge anyone who still believes, in the 21st century, that revolvers are superior to automatics as defensive or fighting handguns to strongly consider the facts about revolvers and the state of automatic pistols today. Also, you’re insane.
If you like revolvers, shoot revolvers. But the argument that they’re better than bottom feeders is silly.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:39 am
I shoot ICORE; I shoot Production (Revolver) in IPSC; I own one of a *certain famous blogger’s name here* revolvers which that famous blogger sold me; I carry a revolver as a backup.
But, what comes out of the holster first is a 13-round 45 ACP polymer-frame semi-automatic, and there’s an 18-round 9MM semi-auto (of a different brand) in the nightstand.
Wheel guns are terrific fun, but In Real Life a Lotsashots wins.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:51 am
Superior? Of course not. But they’re only inferior after it runs dry. Until, then it is every bit as lethal as any autoloader in a similar caliber and loading.
June 19th, 2012 at 1:08 pm
Unless the shooter is dedicated to many, many rounds down range during correct practice, the revolver remains *a* superior self defense weapon for the novice.
The proper question to the shooter is, “With what weapon will you properly and regularly practice?”
If that weapon is a quality revolver there should be NO expert willing to argue.
June 19th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Only hits count. What happens with the first five or six rounds fires will determine the battle. A person who pumps six rounds into an aggressor who rapidly fires 15 or more rounds high and wide, then the revolver wins. However, the type of gun doesn’t make it better, the skill of the shooter makes it better. The only place having a revolver is stupid is in IDPA, because the rules are intentionally made stupid in order to handicap a perfectly practical and reliable choice for self defense.
June 19th, 2012 at 1:56 pm
I think single action revolvers are superior because you can fan them, resulting in higher rates of fire than glocks.
June 19th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Hmmm…..
Double action trigger pulls are superior to the trigger pulls on a semi-auto? I don’t think so.
This isn’t even an argument anymore. The semiauto took over long ago. There are 2 groups of people who depend upon their weapons daily, LEO’s and soldiers. So far as I can tell, there isn’t a single LEO or military organization which issues revolvers any longer.
Putting aside the fact that politics play some role in both places, the simple fact is that both have realized that semi-autos are dominant.
You don’t see the Fraternal Order of Police saying, “Give us back our revolvers, they were so much more accurate and saved our officers lives!”
June 19th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
If you’re dead in three, it hardly matters if you can reload in 19. Hits count more than capacity. The speed of reloads is likewise irrelevant. If you anticipate combat, carry a rifle, not a reload. Nothing is more formidable at bad-breath distance than a large knife. Carry what you can conceal and shoot well, not what you can shoot a bunch of times.
June 19th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG!
June 19th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
No argument will convince me that wheelguns are useless as personal defense weaps. I only own revolvers and I dont have magazine feed problems, hangups, or stovepipes nor do I have magazines fall out, all of which I’ve heard/seen happen with autos. As for reloading, with a speedloader I can reload my S&W model 10 just as quickly as one can reload a auto. Granted, speedloaders are more bulky than magazines but I’ve never had any problems with that.
Higher round capacity is the ONLY real advantage autos have over wheelguns and I consider that to be useful only if I was fixin’ to engage in a major firefight with pray and spray. IMHO, for personal defense a wheel gun is just fine. ‘Sides, if you cant fend off a attacker with 6 rounds 10+ more aint going to help you any either.
June 19th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Meh. Once again, ya gotta dance with who ya brung. Given equal practice for the Ordinary Joe, that being maybe a few boxes o’ammo per year, Joe is much better off, much more likely to successfully defend himself with a wheelgun.
Then, there’s the not-inconsiderable political liabilities/arguments involving the wonder-shooter semiautos: anyone here wanna bet that if any sort of gun control comes out of the impending Second Term of Obama, it WON’T be a magazine-capacity ban of some sort? Both your wonder-rifles and your wonder pistols will be affected by the next AWB, but revolvers will skate, as they have done before.
This argument could easily be ended by polling owners/carriers of semi-autos on how much they practice their malfunction drills, and not just tap-rack-go, either. How about stuck out of battery, how about you just dropped your last 1911 maggy on it’s feed lips? Need I go on? Aside from using your trusty Model 10 to pound sheetrock nails with, I have a hard time convincing myself that a properly-cared-for wheelgun will not be there for you. I have to give some odds when answering that question for semi-autos.
June 19th, 2012 at 4:23 pm
A point of order re: IDPA and revolvers. IDPA is actually one of the most revolver friendly sports around. The rules mandate that COF must be “revolver neutral”, and there are not 1 but 2 different divisions for wheelgun enthusiasts.
USPSA, which I love dearly basically says to revolver shooters “tough noogies, I hope you like 8 shot arrays.”
June 19th, 2012 at 8:50 pm
Meh!
Shoot what you like. Be an absolute expert with whatever you carry. Your life will depend on it.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Pie or Ice Cream, Pie or Ice Cream, decisions, decisions….Hey! Why not Pie ala Mode!
Of course, I’ve never heard of someone with a Revolver realize he walked around all day with an Empty Chamber…. ; )
(Yeah, I know, Cowboy Shooters Safety Rules, but how many people use Peacemakers as their EDC?)
Personally, I sleep well knowing my Smith 19 is loaded in my Night Stand, and my little Keltec is ready when I leave the House, so there you go.
June 20th, 2012 at 9:22 am
This is all very simple. Don’t ask the internet commandos, the armchair generals, the basement defenders. Take a look around the world at professional gunfighters. What do they carry for pistols? Soldiers, cops, private security, the people who carry every day as a job requirement. I don’t see a lot of wheelguns. When the risk is real and immediate, and you do this for a living, you carry a semi-auto. Now, that said, as a civilian, I often carry a .38. But that’s convenience over function.
June 20th, 2012 at 10:27 am
I own both, I train with both.
I would agree with many of the comments above re hits and most real fights being over in less than eight shots. I prefer semi-autos in general because they do provide more capacity– better to have it and not need it and all that– generally have a slimmer profile (spare mags also are easier to carry concealed), and stock triggers on semi-autos are generally preferable to those on revolvers for me.
In addition, THIS comment from above is simply untrue:
“As for reloading, with a speedloader I can reload my S&W model 10 just as quickly as one can reload a auto.”
Look, as I’ve mentioned above I train with both; reloading a Model 10 or any other revolver just takes more physical operations and hence more time than reloading a semi-auto no matter how long you practice the drill, and of course in an extended encounter one will have to do the reload sooner and potentially more often with a revolver than with many semi-autos; to deny this is, well… to be in denial.
I would also say that the less-training-is-needed-to-use-a-revolver argument is hokum: we don’t need untrained idiots handling any type of gun, and if one is going to own a gun for protection and not do the very minimal baseline of training that would render him competent to handle either a semi-auto or a revolver then he (or she) is well and truly an idiot.
Not hatin’ on wheelguns because I love them, especially one that has been tuned up by a good gunsmith, but I have to say that except for some pocket carry applications the semi-auto is better for me for defensive use.