What do you like about revolvers?

[Photoman]

"I still want to have somebody show me how you check a revolver for function without a hammer to release the cylinder so it can spin. If you can't do that, don't cry about revolvers being unreliable when it jams on you!"

I use Smith and Wesson factory DAO Model 64's and doing a spin check is not difficult. Always be safe when spin checking a revolver, whether it has a hammer spur or not!

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't like shooting revolvers. The ergonomics and force vectors don't work as well for me as the semi-autos do. And I hate the way the "bump" you feel in DA mode upsets my sight picture for a moment.

I love the way the curves of the Taurus 85 I'm going to get with our next good commission check vanish into my curves when held against my side. The angular lines of equivalent-sized semi-autos stand out more.

I like the simplicity of operation (though there is probably a 50-50 chance I'd attempt to flip off the non-existent safety in a stress situation). I like the ability to choose between SA and DA if I have time.

I think that a .22 caliber, SA revolver is the perfect gun for introducing timid, new shooters and children to handguns because of the added layer of intentionality required by having to cock the gun.

My DD prefers revolvers because they don't send the slide whooshing back at her face and because they don't sprinkle her arms with specks of hot powder.

 

[MMCSRET]

Keeping it simple: they are revolvers; not single shots and not magazine fed. Thats my criteria and revolvers fill the bill.

 

[armoredman]

Photoman, ask and ye shall recieve, and thank you for the compliment!










Hope that's not too much.

 

[Claude Clay]

sliders for shooting and moving works for me naturally. revolvers i often stage the gun for difficult shots such as hostage or lollypops. i practice staging as it goes to fine muscle control and knowing your guns capabilities. that it carried over to IDPA/IPSC is a pleasant bonus. the faction of a second staging perhaps adds to my trigger time is certainly off set by the lack of penalities for misses

 

[Hawk]

On a tangential note, why does S&W warn against the practice of staging the trigger in thier manual?

Seems like it'd be hard to avoid in slow fire.

 

[Schmidlin]

I like the revolver because i think it goes against stereotypes. Im only 25 and it seems alot of younger shooters are more interested in amount of ammo the gun can carry and what add ons they can get.

Plus revolvers seem to fit better in my hand and just feel alot better against my side in holster. Id rather have 7 good shots then 15 all over shots.

And plus ive watched to many cowboy movies growing up.

 

[mayoke]

Wow, after reading through all this, I feel bad about posting my thread "Fell in love with a 10-8."

All in all, I'll probably love 1911's more than anything but I do suddenly have a great appreciation for revolvers. Shooting the 10-8 that I just bought was like shooting any of the 1911's that I owned across the years. (I don't own any right now. Very long and sad story) It just felt "right."

 

[pps]

Hawk, "On a tangential note, why does S&W warn against the practice of staging the trigger in thier manual?

Seems like it'd be hard to avoid in slow fire."

What?! I must have missed that in my manual, I'll have to go back and look. My best shooting is in DA staging the trigger, as I don't have to futz around with my grip between shots.

Armoredman, great pictures. The only thing to make them more perfect would be to put some nice walnut coke or magna stalks on those.

I feel like a nice Punch maduro cigar and some fine whiskey need to be incorporated in those pictures as well. It's just some of the finer things in life to enjoy, JUST BECAUSE.

 

[theNoid]

They look great (usually), they are fun to shoot (usually), and have been 100% reliable in my experiences. Yup, good 'nuff fer me.

Noidster

 

[Hawk]

What?! I must have missed that in my manual, I'll have to go back and look. My best shooting is in DA staging the trigger, as I don't have to futz around with my grip between shots.

Page 20, all in red uppercase with an "exclamation" graphic. It's a mystery to me how they come up with it being a violation of the 4 rules. It's the first one following the "don't blow your thumb off with the b/c gap" warning.

WARNING: “STAGING” THE TRIGGER VIOLATES A
BASIC RULE OF FIREARM SAFETY WHICH WARNS
YOU TO KEEP YOUR FINGER OUT OF THE TRIGGER
GUARD UNTIL YOU HAVE MADE THE COMMITMENT TO
FIRE. “STAGING” CREATES A SERIOUS RISK OF PERSONAL
INJURY OR DEATH SINCE IT MAY LEAD TO AN UNINTENTIONAL
DISCHARGE.

Interesting, if nothing else.

 

[yeti]

Another thing I love about revolvers, and this also goes for guns like 1911's and Browning Hi Powers, is you can admit to loving the gun with out all the Tupperware people telling you they are JUST tools.

 

[pps]

Hawk, "Page 20, all in red uppercase with an "exclamation" graphic. It's a mystery to me how they come up with it being a violation of the 4 rules. It's the first one following the "don't blow your thumb off with the b/c gap" warning."

lol I wouldn't be staging the trigger if I wasn't ready to shoot the target.

 

[loneviking]

Staging is not a good idea as you don't have any idea where (or when?) the trigger is going to break. That's another reason to use SA--just be very careful where you're pointing the muzzle and don't be moving around too much!

 

[Hawk]

Staging is not a good idea as you don't have any idea where (or when?) the trigger is going to break.

I thought a "surprise break" was a goal.

One supposes that some oddball warnings would make it into the manual due to fear of attack lawyers but it's hard to guess at what happened that they felt compelled to put that one in? Perhaps someone once "staged" a trigger, forgot what he was doing and left for lunch holding the revolver in that condition?

But, IMHO, there's a very real problem with putting goofy warnings in an owner's manual: put enough in and one doesn't know which can be ignored. If a noob turns up on the intertubz to learn we're ignoring a warning about staging a trigger, how does he know the barrel/cylinder gap warning isn't equally bogus? Trial and error with a 460XVR doesn't give satisfactory results.

I hate unmeritorious lawsuits as much as the next guy, but manual warnings might be hard to hang one's hat on if the "real" ones are diluted by imcomprehensible ones.

 

[Colt46]

Many reasons

They are simpler to use. Pick up almost any revolver and you can shoot it.

Pick up an automatic and where is the safety? The mag release? Can it fire with the mag out? Is your ammo compatable with your gun? If you don't hold it with a proper grip will it still function?

My primary reason for prefering the revolver is the bullet. Revolvers give you far more lattitude in selecting your bullet. Any bullet shape you want or desire will function in the revolver. A firearms is nothing more than a delivery system for the bullet.

 

[loneviking]

Hawk wrote:

I thought a "surprise break" was a goal.

It is IF you:
Know your target and have the target in your sights AND

Know what is behind your target.

If you don't, then you shouldn't have your finger on the trigger 'staging' the gun as you don't know when it's going to go off!

 

[Hawk]

It is IF you:
Know your target and have the target in your sights AND

Know what is behind your target.

lol I wouldn't be staging the trigger if I wasn't ready to shoot the target.

It has come to our attention that some users of Smith & Wesson handguns may stage the trigger in anticipation of firing a shot. Staging is the act of pulling the trigger rearward toward — stopping just short of — the point where the hammer falls and the handgun fires. Such manipulation of the trigger can reduce the userʼs control of the handgun and can result in an unintentional discharge.

Well, that certainly clears it up.

 

[Rexster]

It can be difficult to quantify why I just like revolvers better than autos, and I will say right up front that I like and use pistols of both the revolving and autoloading persuasions for both fun and serious purposes. The working of the hammer and cylinder in different planes is appealing, as is the clockwork-like operation going on inside the frame, though of course only the hammer and cylinder are visible while shooting.

I roll my eyes at the SA-versus-DA debate. Some of my sixguns are DAO, but most are DA. Like the mentioned experts, I believe that DA is generally the best for most antipersonnel situations, but I will not rule out the possible use of SA in a long-range situation IF, and I mean, IF, I can use a steady rest. Otherwise, I am better off using DA! I simply cannot shoot, freehand, SA as well as DA! The DA pull has a steadying influence on my trigger pulls, assuming the weapon is a good fit in my hands. An S&W N-frame has too long of a trigger reach for me, so I would have to shoot one of them SA, if I found myself, for some reason, having to use one for defense. (Unless it was my M58, the trigger of which has been seriously narrowed and the face dressed back to make the reach shorter.)

Of course, if I happened to have one of my recreational-use single action sixguns in my hands, or nearest at hand, when a deadly force incident erupted, I would not drop the SA to reach for a DA or autoloader, unless/until there was a lull in the action.

FWIW, I have a range in my choice of duty pistols, though all must shoot .40 S&W ammo, and be on a list of DA autos posted in my agency's rules. I went with a DAK SIG P229 as soon as I could get my hands on one, because it operates so much like a K-frame sixgun. Practice with a medium-frame DA sixgun helps my SIG shooting, and vice versa. Life is good.

 

[pps]

The SA/DA debate for me is settled based on what has worked for me. With slow fire, I am able to be more consistent in DA, staging the trigger. I feel like once I have the grip I like, I introduce more variability by moving my hand to cock the hammer for SA. With DA the hammer drop is a surprise. All I have to do is keep sight alignment and NOT push the darn shot.

 

[foghornl]

I only have 1 DA revolver, a cheap .38Spl snubby of a much-maligned originally German brand. RG-38, IIRC

I have 3 Ruger SA revolvers...I like them ol' Cowboy Guns a bunch. as I like to call them "Fun Guns"...nothing like blazin' away with a good SA revolver..I even have a Traditions brand "Navy Colt" .44 cap-n-ball wheelie, too.

 

[Geronimo45]

I like their recoil, believe it or not. The 130gr FMJ .38s are a joy to shoot out of a 4" K-frame - very low recoil. The 158gr .357 Magnum out of the same gun? A definite punch into the hand, but somehow more tolerable than the recoil of .45 ACP. Part of it is that the wheelgun just wants to pulverize my hand, not eat it (as every semi-auto handgun I've ever used has attempted).
And the recoil... stroke? Something like that - it seems to get me back on target quicker and easier than any semi-auto I've tried. Semis flop around a lot more, for me.

 

[jjohnson]

What's Not to Like?

Oh, I own and happily shoot bottomfeeders, too, among my favorites are a couple of Ruger .22 autos.

But - the revolvers reliably digest just about any sort of abomination a (safe) handloader can cook up, something that can't be said for autos. Six (more or less) shots is still a decent amount of firepower. I'm not military anymore so I don't worry about firefights on a large scale. I can certainly shoot tighter .45 groups with my 625 than with my M1911A1. And only once did I shoot all six rounds out of my M1917 Colt in haste - on a moving groundhog - and both the groundhog and I were excited. He came in second place, by the way.

I find smaller revolvers quite handy enough and larger ones just plain fun. The fact that they almost never jam is something I appreciate. Even with an auto that's accurate, I find jams very annoying :banghead: so I shoot wheelguns a bit more often than my autos - and enjoy it.

As far as home defense and such are concerned - revolvers are a bit more "Idiot Proof" than autos for people under stress. Not having to fool with a safety or looking for a mag in the dark is worth something all by itself.

 

[dodge310]

I like revolvers better cause they are More Accurate, never had any problems with them. Just load and shoot and clean after a good days shooting.

I've got a Taurus 9 shot 22 that I've put probably 20,000 or better round through over the last 8 years and I bought it used. Never had one single problem. I haven't shot much in the last few years, but at one time I could put 9 rounds in a pattern of 3-4" at 30 yrds.. (Thats with a 2" barrel)

Now I just got a S&W model 66-2 last week. It shoots really good and holds a good pattern. Ofcoarse I still need to practice more with it. Put about 100 rounds through it. Very accurate. First time shooting this thing and I hit the bulls eye once at 40yds and the rest went in the black.

But, with an automatic.......... Well, I'd be lucky to hit the target anywhere with one shot out of 10. I just can't hit worth a crap with them...

 

[Cuda]

They're just cool!!!


C