Revolvers for Defense. I like em but many dont. Why??

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Why do people compare CCW holders and self defenders to the police and military? If you are a cop or a solder in battle you often times have to stay and fight. You may have to lay suppresive fire for your patners to get into position. You probably need more rounds between reloads. Thus semi auto pistols and rifles are their usual choice. These men and women often have to advance on danger, not the norm in a self defence situation.

I know....anything can happen to anyone at anytime. Duh!

For a SELF defence weapon the revolver makes much more sense.

BTW, I carry a glock:)
 
This story is from the mid 80's. The audio tape was played for us in the academy in 1990.

An off duty California cop got into a disagreement with some bikers and a shootout ensued. He was armed with a five shot Smith and no spare ammo.
He managed to put down three of them before they beat a retreat.
His surgical placement of shots, shows that any weapon if used properly is all you need. Three down with five shots.
Now that's good shootin' :D
It was an audio tape, because he was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher while shooting the bad guys. He was cool as ice.

So a revolver is a very viable self defense weapon, but I would carry some spare ammo, just in case. ;)
 
"On another note, I realize that not all criminals are machine gun toting Rambo's, but just how many times do you have to be outgunned before it counts? And I realize that training is more important than the choice of weapon, but is training ALL and the gun means NOTHING?"

When you break it down, life is nothing more than a series of statistical probabilities and balancing those probabilities.

The situation we saw in the 1980s was a good example of a system SERIOUSLY out of balance.

People lost their heads over a few over publicized incidents that, upon closer examination, weren't even remotely related to the reality in which they were living.

You knew people were caught up in the hysteria of the moment when places like Lower Thumbsuck Township, population 240, with three police officers, asks for $2,500 to buy the officers new Wondergunz because they are outgunned, when the reality of the situation is that Lower Thumbsuck Township hasn't had a serious crime in 20 years, and the last serious misdemeanor was Clancy Thumbsuck getting drunk and urinating in the fountain in the center of the town of Thumbsuck.

The hideous reality is that about 99.5 percent of all Joe Donuts never even draw their weapons in the line of duty and never see a serious crime.

Yet the hysteria of police being OUTGUNNED BY CRIMINALS WITH ASSAULT WEAPONS ruled.

If we truly lived our lives by the maxim of "just how many times do we have to be..." we'd all drive tanks, live in all-concrete homes, and walk around fully insulated from the potential of lightning strikes. Car crashes, home fires, and even lightning strikes are more of a serious threat to the general populace than being OUTGUNNED BY CRIMINALS WITH ASSAULT WEAPONS.

Among police officers, car crashes and falls are far more dangerous than being OUTGUNNED BY CRIMINALS WITH ASSAULT WEAPONS.

Yet our street cops don't drive tanks, nor do they walk around in rubber anti-fall shock absorbing suits.
 
revolvers = simplicity
Click to expand...

Dude summed it up for me, we can never train as much for concealed carry as we'd like (unless it's your job) but I have another thought to share. Granted, this kind of gets into the whole "what if" scenario that was mentioned regarding semiautos, but I like to think that if I train a lot and my wife trains very little that she can still point and click with a revolver.
 
Mike, that was a great post....

I lived through the times you so aptly describe and even went through the "high-cap" auto phase myself. Wrist problems returned me to revolvers slightly before the 'phase' peaked; as mentioned by another poster, you can't limp wrist a revolver.

Here in Australia, the number of Police ND's has risen sharply as the states re-equip with Glocks...I owned three Glocks and never had a safety problem, but the police were 'safer' (or, perhaps, less of a threat to themselves and their fellow officers) when using revolvers. Of course it's a training issue, but there are always limits to how much training the police receive.

I think what it comes down to is that less training and or motivation combined with need to carry a defensive handgun safely=revolver!:D
 
When you break it down, life is nothing more than a series of statistical probabilities and balancing those probabilities.
Click to expand...


You sure got that right. So the reason you'd choose to be less prepared was.... what?
 
Let's flip the anti-revolver argument around a bit. Using the argument that you need firepower and lots of it, anyone not carrying a Glock 21 converted to .460 Rowland with prebans and +2 extensions is a fool.

You carry a 9mm? Must be a wimp. .357Sig? Getting better but we can still see your pink slip. 10mm? Almost, but not quite since the .460 is still more powerful. Try again.

You can't get your hands around a Glock 21? Well, you're not trying hard enough.

It doesn't fit your wardrobe? Gain weight and buy new clothes.

It isn't as accurate as your obsolete .357 mag revolver or equally obsolete 7 shot 1911? Big deal. What's more important when facing the hordes of evil goblins, accuracy or firepower?!

:rolleyes:
 
Quartus,

...but just how many times do you have to be outgunned before it counts?
Click to expand...

I have seen the phrase "outgunned" used one hundred and seventy three times in this thread, and someone has yet to explain how having a fifteen-shooter will cause bullets from a five-shooter to bounce off your chest.

"Ha-ha! Evildoer, I have you outgunned, for I have 8 magazines on tap for my wondernine!"
*bang!* sound of .25 going off. Once.
*clatter!* sound of tactical gear hitting ground.
 
Heh. It's like when Western analysts claimed we were "outgunned" by the Soviets, because we could nuke every city in their country only twenty times, while they could nuke every city in ours thirty times.
 
Revolvers

Revolvers are simpler and more dependable for personal self defense use. Years ago (and I readily admit things have changed a little) NYPD taught that the average police firearm encounter was 2.7 rounds at 7 yards or less. When social circumstances require it, I have always felt comfortable with a S&W model 36. Quantrill
 
I like the revolver for it’s simplicity, it always shoots no matter what. And, if you want extra capacity go with speedloaders.

Good post Mike Irwin.
:cool:
 
I carry a high capacity 9mm when I do carry. However, once upon a time I worked armed security a place that was NOT a shopping mall and hookers and pimps were common sights. I never felt under gunned with a model ten and two speed loaders. I was very comfortable with the manual of arms, shot the gun well, and could reload with a speed loader about half a second slower than reloading an automatic.

For Quartus, the reason that a revolver is a great choice for self defense, and not just for those with closed minds, is that different people have different needs. The average CCW doesn't need to have an 18 round clip because in a CCW situation you are EXTREMEMLY unlikely to need to fire that many rounds. A police officer may be in a stiutation where he needs to fire multiple rounds at multiple attackers who may be in vehicles, behind glass, or otherwise hardened cover. Some people say that unlikely means that it could still happen. That is true but I don't wear body armor every day because it is so unlikely that I will need it that it is not worth the hassle.

Bottom line, I would never fault anyone for carrying a 640 in their pocket. Rounds on target count more than rounds on belt.
 
"You sure got that right. So the reason you'd choose to be less prepared was.... what?"

Funny, but ultimately completely foolish, question, Quartus.

Just to what extreme do you take "PREPAREDNESS"?

Logical extremes, based on what you realistically face, or illogical extremes based on extremely remote possibility of, as we so often see here, the S*** HITTING THE FAN!

Let's see...

I get up in the morning, and walk down the stairs to let the dogs. out. OH MY GOD! I COULD FALL DOWN THE STAIRS! I'd better pad the stairs, floor, and walls!

OH MY GOD! I have dogs! They could turn on me at any second! I need to wear a stainless steel chain mail suit at all times!

OH MY GOD! Someone could force his/her way into my house while I'm letting the dogs out! I'd better sweep the backyard with my shotgun from the upstairs window before I let them out!

OH MY GOD! I could fall out of the upstairs window while I'm sweeping the back yard! I'd better pad the patio!

OH MY GOD! I have to go out onto the patio to pad it, but how do I sweep the back yard if I can't lean out the upper window, but how can I be sure that I'm safe from someone forcing his/her way into the house?

OH MY GOD! I'm walking around the house with a loaded shotgun! What the hell am I thinking?

See how quickly the compulsion for "preparedness" can actually turn into paranoia?

All of the above scenarios can be easily solved.

My dogs won't maul me if I don't mistreat them. No brainer.

I won't fall down the steps if I hold onto the bannister. No brainer.

I won't fall out the window onto the patio if I don't lean out the window in the first place. No brainer.

I won't get mugged by someone forcing his way into my house if I look out the patio doors to make sure that no one's out there in the first place. No brainer.

Let's take this a step farther, however, and say I safely sweep the back yard, pad the patio, and don't get mugged at my backdoor or get mauled by my dogs...

I have to drive to work in the morning...

I travel over a bridge over a river. Am I being foolishly unprepared if I don't wear a Mae West life jacket?

I also drive a vehicle that produces carbon monoxied? Am I being foolishly unprepared for not wearing a breathing device supplied by an oxygen tank?

I normally have one or two boxes of ammo around for my primary CCW guns. Am I being foolishing unprepared because I don't have 5,000, or 50,000 rounds on hand at all times?

Tell me, if police truly WERE outgunned by hoards of bloodthirsty killer drug dealers who were cutting a bloody swath through the thin blue line on a daily basis, why stop at semi-auto handguns, and not arm every police officer in the United States with a Browning Automatic Rifle or an MP-5?

Are our police forces being foolishly unprepared by not providing officers with overwhelming firepower?

Especially given the fact that more police officers are killed every year in auto accidents than in shootouts, and the shootouts that do result in officers being killed are rarely the result of the bad guy having "overwhelming firepower"?

All of this really reminds me of the kind of hysteria that involved the growing AIDS outbreak some years ago.

People were panicking, believing they could get AIDS from soda bottles, toilet seats, etc., even AFTER it had been well proven that you couldn't get AIDS through casual contact.

How do you avoid getting AIDS? Don't have sex with people who are high risk, and don't share drugs/IV needles with the same people.

Kind if a no brainer, right?

Or were being foolishly unprepared because we didn't all rush to the kitchen and cut our penises off and wrapping ourselves in many layers of saran wrap?

Here's the solution, then, at the end of this long and sarcastic message.

Use your goddamned head. DON'T panic at every thing you hear. See how a particular scenario applies to YOUR life, and do the math from there.

If you don't, if you sucumb to every media fueled panic that comes down the pike, you're only going to end up paranoid, wrapped in tin foil, and hiding under your bed 24x7, going GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE at the top of your lungs.
 
Mike, you really need to stop repressing and holding everything in. Let it out occasionally. ;)
 
Look at this...

Tommy the Hyper Prepared Turkey got his goose cooked by some chump with a shotgun...

He didn't even go down to someone with a HYPERDEADLY BULLET SPITTING MACHINE ASSAULT GUN WEAPON O'DEATH!

Remember, as Tommy the Hyper Prepared Turkey used to say...

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE! :)

pic05_jpg.jpg
 
Tamara: <snicker> "Sound of .25 going off".

I've been toting .32 mag & .38 special revolvers lately. Just a "thing", I reckon. However, when I went downtown a few weeks ago to visit a gunsmith in a "not too good" area~~I strapped on my G27, Jetfire in my side pocket, Seecamp in my back pocket, and the revolver went into an ankle holster. (When I go downtown I always feel like I'm going into combat.) A little overkill you say? Maybe, but a few days before, a man had casually walked into the shop, jumped the counter, pointed his handgun at the gunsmith and ripped off money and weapons. I'm still trying to figure out HOW he jumped the counter. It's a HIGH counter. It's not just a counter either. It has about two feet of vertical steel bars on TOP of the counter! As long as there are bad guys out there who can DO that, I'm going to be armed to the teeth. (Yeah, yeah...I know.)

KR
 
Kentucky Rifle,

I'm SURPRISED at you!

You're obviously woefully underprepared if you've only got three guns on you!

You need at LEAST 27 firears on your person at all times, with at LEAST 100 rounds of ammo for EACH gun!

Haven't you learned ANYTHING? NOTHING at all?
 
Kentucky Rifle,

I share Mike's concern for your well being. First, you are not carrying any weapon with a capacity of over 11 rounds. Second, you are obviously close minded because you carry a revolver, and as backup you rely on if SHTF no less!!! Might I recommend an OA98 if you are venturing out of the house.;)
 
Actually, you need to find the prototype 7.62X39mm version that Oly produced. After all, in Blackhawk Down, it became clear that .223 was ineffective against mobs and you need maximum knockdown power when going out.
 
Hee Hee~~I KNEW I'd catch it from you guys when I made that post!
I don't know how it happened, really.
I just started strapping them on, hiding them in pockets, and it was like water off a cliff! I've sometimes wondered how many I COULD carry "concealed". Maybe I'll give that a try tomorrow. Good saturday project.
Anybody ever tried it? :p

KR
 
Well, KR, don't worry...

If you're woefully underprepared, I'm the walking dead.

I carry an S&W 042.

5 shot.

.38 Spl.

No reloads.

I've done that more often than not going on 15 years now.

By all rights and estimations of the GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE SHTF folks, I'm already dead.

I'm just not smart enough to fall down.

I guess I'm not smart enough to feel paranoid, either.

Sigh.

As John Wayne said...

Life's tough. It's tougher when you're stupid... :D
 
There are a couple other things that I find important that haven't been brought up yet.

One very strong feature that all revolvers share is their utter simplicity. It's very possible that should I ever get involved in one of those shoot out situations most folk prepare for, that I will end up either having to shoot weak handed or turn my handgun over to someone who is not gun knowledgeable. In either of those cases, revolvers shine.

First, revolvers are basically unhanded. The only control is the cylinder release. Many people I shoot with have also noticed that they shoot better and more intuitively weak handed with a revolver than with their semi-automatic.

Second, the MOA for revolvers is so simple that you can literally hand a revolver to someone who has never held, shot or loaded one and they can immediately and intuitively figure out how it works.
 
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