Revolver's are still a valid SD tool.

[bwframe]

Why don't we do an informal test here?

Why don't all the EDC revolver folks, commenting in this thread, chime in with the last pistol class they took?


.

 

[Skip]

They have many attributes. They can be very effective. Easy to top off. Nothing gets ejected which could effect it's reliability. I like revolvers.

As someone that has almost shot more rounds in competition from a revolver as I have a semi-auto, I can tell you they can malfunction during NORMAL operation.

I’ve experienced two things, myself, first hand and it rendered them completely inoperable and they had to be taken somewhere else to make functional again.

One was burnt powder under the ejection star. Evidently, the 38spl loads being used were made with a powder that had hard residue as a side affect. When pointed muzzle up, the ejector rod vigorously activated, the area under the star exposed, some of those hard pieces found their way there. Cylinder closed vigorously and it locked in place. It didn’t turn at all and had to be opened with a wooden mallet.

Another was having the ejector rod come unscrewed in the gun. It turned until empty but the cylinder was unable to open.

Both of these have happened to me on a S&W M586 6”. I was the original owner and had never taken it apart prior to the latter malfunction.

They are a machine and can fail. Plain and simple.

 

[cedartop]

As someone that has almost shot more rounds in competition from a revolver as I have a semi-auto, I can tell you they can malfunction during NORMAL operation.

I’ve experienced two things, myself, first hand and it rendered them completely inoperable and they had to be taken somewhere else to make functional again.

One was burnt powder under the ejection star. Evidently, the 38spl loads being used were made with a powder that had hard residue as a side affect. When pointed muzzle up, the ejector rod vigorously activated, the area under the star exposed, some of those hard pieces found their way there. Cylinder closed vigorously and it locked in place. It didn’t turn at all and had to be opened with a wooden mallet.

Another was having the ejector rod come unscrewed in the gun. It turned until empty but the cylinder was unable to open.

Both of these have happened to me on a S&W M586 6”. I was the original owner and had never taken it apart prior to the latter malfunction.

They are a machine and can fail. Plain and simple.

When I took a snubby revolver class at Sand Burr Gun Ranch, one of the things Denny handed out at the beginning of the class was a toothbrush to clean out under the extractor star throughout the day.

 

[Skip]

When I took a snubby revolver class at Sand Burr Gun Ranch, one of the things Denny handed out at the beginning of the class was a toothbrush to clean out under the extractor star throughout the day.

Denny was a class act, no two ways about that. M629 Classic has his “super polish job” done in it and I even used it in competition from time to time. Revolvers were the norm for the PPC course I shot years ago. Warsaw & Midwest in Elkhart many moons ago!

The problem with the revolver is, when it does fail, unless you are close enough to use it as a hammer, you are not going to make it functional again in the field. At least, not normally.

A magazine can be ejected. A slide cycled. A pistol cleared and re-fed with a new magazine and made functional again right then and there, barring a mechanical breakdown.

A tooth brush would be too late in a shoot out and on a line in competition.


Old Denny, Sand Burr Gun Ranch….great times, great revolver shooter!

 

[bobzilla]

I can't even wrap my head around this. How many shooters are there in a "vast majority"? 80%? 90%? 95%? How did you come to this conclusion?

By making **** up.

 

[Skip]

Why don't we do an informal test here?

Why don't all the EDC revolver folks, commenting in this thread, chime in with the last pistol class they took?


.

The sad thing is, there are very few “tacticool” revolver classes out there given by qualified instructors BECAUSE, (like a bazillion other things) too many older disciplines are being lost, not the inefficiency of a revolver.

 

[Trebor657]

Why don't we do an informal test here?

Why don't all the EDC revolver folks, commenting in this thread, chime in with the last pistol class they took?


.

OK....Advanced CCW class on March 25, 2023 with my Ruger SP101...how about you?

 

[Bugzilla]

I make sure all my hand guns get trigger time. Some more than others but none go hungry.

 

[Noble Sniper]

I was carrying a revolver before the internet and all of these classes……

 

[Bassat]

I am personally not a huge fan of revolvers. However, I keep coming back to considering a Charter Arms off duty for pocket carry. My primary reason for owning a revolver is that my wife has no interest in learning ANYTHING about autoloaders. She is willing to ocassionally pull the trigger on a Rossi 720 .44 Spl

I agree that in most cases, a revolver would suffice. Things are changing though and the likelihood of a one on one confrontation is less than it was 10 years ago. You really want to stake your life on limited capacity? Can we agree to disagree without this crap? Every person I've ever met face to face from INGO has been a stand up person. Some of you are probably in that category but you're bored and just want to seem edgy on the internet. It's old. It's tired. It's not what drew me to this site and certainly not something Tim would have tolerated. Go outside and do something.

Most people will never pull a gun out in a defensive situation so it really doesn't matter what you carry or how much you hate "Tupperware guns." I'd rather have more bullets than less so I carry a striker fired pistol.

I mostly carry a P365, and a spare 12-round magazine. I have pulled a gun on another person (actually 3 of them) once in my life. It was a 1911 w/9 rounds of .45 ACP at the ready. They immediately found me less of a target and we parted ways. I am quite sure they would have arrived at the same conclusion had I drawn a 5-shot .38. I would have felt under-gunned with a 5-shot revolver and 3:1 odds. If they had chosen to escalate the situation, and all I had was 5 rounds of 158g SWC, the outcome may have been completely different. I still want a CA Off Duty BUG.

 

[Leo]

When IDPA was starting, a 5 inch, 625 Smith & Wesson was a specifically named revolver in the rule book as a stock revolver. I actually went to the store and ordered one. It was lots of fun. The six shooters seemed to do pretty well against the 10 shot semi autos. Most were older men who had already shot Bullseye, PPC and Bowling pin matches. Not many of the old guys left.

IDPA changed the rule books and outlawed the 625 S&W that was specifically named in the old rule book.

I am sure that I am not the only man that decided not to have an inch cut off my barrel.

 

[NyleRN]

And here come the “revolvers are stupid “ crowd. Can’t just let people enjoy what they enjoy. Nope. Gotta **** on everyone and everything they don’t agree with b

I never said revolvers are stupid. I have a few. I like them

 

[Bosshoss]

One was burnt powder under the ejection star. Evidently, the 38spl loads being used were made with a powder that had hard residue as a side affect. When pointed muzzle up, the ejector rod vigorously activated, the area under the star exposed, some of those hard pieces found their way there. Cylinder closed vigorously and it locked in place. It didn’t turn at all and had to be opened with a wooden mallet.

Here we go again
Burnt powder under the ejector star is a ammo problem and also a reloading technique problem NOT a revolver problem. Revolvers are like autoloaders if the ammo is dirty(or bullets jumping the crimp) then don't use that ammo and find something different. If you have a autoloader that wont feed certain bullets or ammo you find something else that does work. This works for revolvers also.
I don't point my muzzle up when reloading and use clean powder and have NEVER had this problem.
While I haven't ever tried I have no doubt that I could shoot several thousand rounds without cleaning the revolver.
I shoot competition and do revolver smithing and I can't afford to have a gun malfunction during a match when potential customers are watching so I clean it after every match and check it out to make sure everything is ok.
I have shot several hundred thousand rounds thru revolvers and never had a bullet jump the crimp. I also realize it happens especially with reloads and not enough crimp. Again NOT a revolver problem.

Another was having the ejector rod come unscrewed in the gun. It turned until empty but the cylinder was unable to open.

This a also not a revolver problem it is a maintenance problem or lack there of. That is what happens when you don't check your stuff.
In hundreds of matches I had this happen ONE time after I did a deep clean of the revolver and forgot to tighten it up but that was my gunsmiths fault(ME).

You are right that anything can fail but I have seen thousands of autos fail or malfunction and while revolvers are a lot fewer at the matches I have seen very few failures.

Not picking on you Skip you just had a lot of the points in your post.

Personally I don't care what anyone carries just be good with it and carry it.
BTW I carry a 642 all the time but also carry a 365 and gen1 M&P and have a 365 Tacops that is getting a RDS and going into the rotation so I'm not apposed to autoloaders.

 

[Nazgul]

Why don't we do an informal test here?

Why don't all the EDC revolver folks, commenting in this thread, chime in with the last pistol class they took?


.

USMC, close combat training, several times annually for 7 years, including competition. As well as 50+ years reloading and shooting.

Is that enough?

Don

 

[Route 45]

 

[LtScott14]

Over the years, (approx 40+) have owned many revolvers of most models were S&W. Honestly speaking, not many issues occured. KFrames with fixed sights seem to stay on standby at my home.

Wifey also can shoot them well, and easy to reload or maintain. She carries my older 442, albeit with pink hogue grips, and in a pink IWB holster. I used to carry it in an off side pocket from my
Service Revolver(M10-5, or M66 both 4in bbl).

I liked learning about the Sigs, Glocks, Rugers, S&W 3rd Gen SA, and others.
Wifey and I attended a firearm class for general knowledge, and she was only revolver in class. I brought my G19-3. Many more semi autos and class had to center on racking slides in a safe direction. Some students had issues on that. Wifey shot my Glock, but truly handled the 442 very well.
So, there it is. Gotta carry what fits you, and you can operate safely. Some ladies fired their semi autos fine. Thats good, and hope they practice their manual of arms, and can pull the slides back, or push the frame forward? Anyway it works for them.
Good luck.

 

[cedartop]

Here we go again
Burnt powder under the ejector star is a ammo problem and also a reloading technique problem NOT a revolver problem. Revolvers are like autoloaders if the ammo is dirty(or bullets jumping the crimp) then don't use that ammo and find something different. If you have a autoloader that wont feed certain bullets or ammo you find something else that does work. This works for revolvers also.
I don't point my muzzle up when reloading and use clean powder and have NEVER had this problem.
While I haven't ever tried I have no doubt that I could shoot several thousand rounds without cleaning the revolver.
I shoot competition and do revolver smithing and I can't afford to have a gun malfunction during a match when potential customers are watching so I clean it after every match and check it out to make sure everything is ok.
I have shot several hundred thousand rounds thru revolvers and never had a bullet jump the crimp. I also realize it happens especially with reloads and not enough crimp. Again NOT a revolver problem.

This a also not a revolver problem it is a maintenance problem or lack there of. That is what happens when you don't check your stuff.
In hundreds of matches I had this happen ONE time after I did a deep clean of the revolver and forgot to tighten it up but that was my gunsmiths fault(ME).

You are right that anything can fail but I have seen thousands of autos fail or malfunction and while revolvers are a lot fewer at the matches I have seen very few failures.

Not picking on you Skip you just had a lot of the points in your post.

Personally I don't care what anyone carries just be good with it and carry it.
BTW I carry a 642 all the time but also carry a 365 and gen1 M&P and have a 365 Tacops that is getting a RDS and going into the rotation so I'm not apposed to autoloaders.

Thanks for that info. That is interesting about it being ammunition related. And by interesting. I don't mean that I doubt you. I just never heard that before from the revolver people that I know. I am by no means a revolver expert. I dabbled in trying to get good at it for a while but for me the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. That doesn't mean it isn't for somebody else.

 

[Skip]

Not picking on you Skip you just had a lot of the points in your post.

I didn’t take it as picking BUT those problems, regardless of the root of the problem are specific to revolvers. Like a LOT of handgun shooters today, semi-auto and wheelguns, folks just don’t train like they should. There MAY be a few other wheelgun guys that are as diligent as you but the vast majority of them aren’t and that goes across the board.

What I was attempting to address was not the failures of a revolver as being abhorrent to have them as a CCW gun but rather to address the fallacy they don’t fail. Regardless of the reason, ammo, maintenance, full moon clip warpage, it doesn’t matter, they have failures unique to themselves, period.

My teething ring was a S&W M36, when I got old enough to hold it out of the mud, my GySgt dad handed me a S&W M1917 45ACP that he bought from the NRA back in the 50’s. (He gave $50 for it, got a flap holster and a box of ball ammo with it through the mail.)

I was not dissing a revolver at all but to think theyNEVER have an issue that can take them out of the fight is……silly at best, stupid in the middle and down right dangerous at worst.

 

[Skip]

and have a 365 Tacops

I have one of those now in my rotation and am absolutely loving it. I don’t carry it anymore but for years I carried a S&W M637.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Thanks for that info. That is interesting about it being ammunition related. And by interesting. I don't mean that I doubt you. I just never heard that before from the revolver people that I know. I am by no means a revolver expert. I dabbled in trying to get good at it for a while but for me the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. That doesn't mean it isn't for somebody else.

There are several powders that are known to contribute to this.