What first revolver

Status
Not open for further replies.

txblackout

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
339
I'm going to be shooting in a forested area where I want to make very little noise. Id like to get a revolver to shoot powderless 22lr.

I do have a 22/45 with a sparrow but the powder less didn't work great in it. Subsonic s are very quiet but I'd like to carry the brass out so a revolver is better

Im thinking bear cat single 6 or single ten. They all feel good. I'd get the single 10 but like the idea of being able to shoot wmr. I originally thought I would want 10 rounds but realize for a revolver it doesntreally matter. I do like single action

Any considerations of reliability or anything I should be thinking of between these 3?
 
Last edited:
If your only shooting colibris out of it, you need to understand that your max range is like 15 yards... secondly, an H&R rough rider would fit the bill. I used to shoot colibris indoors with it... pretty quiet,would still kinda hurt the ears without protection. could hit within an inch most shots from about 15 feet. way cheaper too. And you get a mag wheel :)

As an aside, Their still kinda loud out of a six inch barell... If your not trying to draw attention it wont be as ideal as you would thing. They're way more quiet out of rifles.
 
You might be able to shoot CCI standard velocity, it is sub sonic. SV functions well in my Ruger 10/22. Any ammo you shoot in a pistol unless it is powderless is going to be loud because the powder is still burning in the air.

I have a Heritage Rough Rider. It is a dust catcher and not very accurate. One of my nieghbors has a Ruger Mark III. We both can shoot small groups with the Ruger. We both shoot patterns with the Heritage. I tried the 22mag cylinder and got the same results. I would spend a few more dollars for a better pistol.

I would look for a nice used revolver. 22LR revolvers can be found for a fair price. A Taurus 94 with a 6" barrel can be found used at a good price. I am not a Taurus fan in any way shape or form but they do make accurate pistols. Even in junk pot metal guns the 22 lasts a long time. I have a JA22 I paid $75 for it nib. Jimenez has a horrible reputation. I have probably shot 10,000 rounds of 22LR with the JA22, just one broken firing pin. Taurus makes a much better product.
 
Last edited:
Just so you know, a pellet pistol would be cheaper, both to purchase and to feed, than buying a revolver specifically to shoot colibris. Also, due to the cylinder-to-barrel gap, colibris out of a revolver are surprisingly loud; a pellet pistol will likely also be quieter [DAMHIK.]

Might I suggest a Crosman 2240 with heavy pellets? You can always do a HPA conversion to it later if you find the CO2 capsules too low-powered or costly.
 
ok didnt realize they would be loud. The subsonics in the 22/45 are very quiet.

maybe Ill just stick to that. maybe I need a brass catcher or something
 
xxjumbojimboxx said:
pretty quiet,would still kinda hurt the ears without protection.

Surculus said:
colibris out of a revolver are surprisingly loud

Yes! This fact took me by surprise after firing a couple rounds out of a derringer. They are super quite from a rifle (check your bore after each shot from a longer barrel) but man what a different animal from a shorter barrel. Because of this, I gave away most of the Aguila colibris that I had on hand.
 
I wouldn't rule out a revolver, but I would adjust my weapon of choice. Single actions typically have a slightly larger cylinder gap than double actions, and a gap in the 2 thousandths range will be very quiet still....not as quiet as an auto, but still very quiet. I would get a feeler guage and check a bunch over, and buy one with a really tight gap that doesn't bind up with a full rotation.
 
Just so you know, a pellet pistol would be cheaper, both to purchase and to feed, than buying a revolver specifically to shoot colibris. Also, due to the cylinder-to-barrel gap, colibris out of a revolver are surprisingly loud; a pellet pistol will likely also be quieter [DAMHIK.]

Might I suggest a Crosman 2240 with heavy pellets? You can always do a HPA conversion to it later if you find the CO2 capsules too low-powered or costly.

I'm going to have to disagree with you here. I happen to own both a Ruger Single Six and a Crosman 2240, and I tested this exact scenario in my living room a while back. Not saying my experience is universal, but the 2240 was noticeably louder than the revolver. Both were loud overall, but the air pistol was definitely louder. It actually hurt my ears (keep in mind this was indoors, which magnified the effect), while the Colibri didn't.
I really wondered why, then realized: the Crosman 2240 is more powerful than a Colibri round. Advertised velocity of the Colibri with a 20-grain bullet is 375 fps. The velocity of the 2240 with a pellet about the same weight is about 600+ fps on a fresh cylinder. Higher velocity = more power = more gas at higher pressure = louder.
I think a pellet pistol might still work, but he'd need one a lot less powerful than a 2240 to get something quieter than a Colibri.
 
I vote for the revolving firearm over the pellet gun. Why?

Let's see, the only pellet guns that are going to be sized like a firearm are going to be CO2 jobs. I actually have one firearm sized CO2 pistol built for pellets. Since it is a repeater, internally it is a revolver with TWO cylinder gaps, front and rear. It barely matches velocity with a Colibri out of a revolver. Those cylinder gaps lose precious air pressure.

So, for more power in an air pistol I guess that leaves a pump up job or a spring piston job. Those aren't exactly sized like a Ruger Single Six which there are plenty of holsters for. I guess one could pick a single shot CO2 pistol and keep the barrel short, but I'm thinking the OP wants a repeater.

I used to wander the woods with a little Beretta Bobcat because it was cheaply found at a pawn shop. If I would have had more money back then, I would have surely preferred a .22 revolver. I do a lot of shooting out of my two .22 revolvers I own now and shoot Colibris (both kinds), CCI Quiets, and all the other regular stuff. I will admit, for the noise of a Colibri I'd rather shoot the Quiets since the Quiet has a 40 grain bullet. That's double the weight of the Colibris and almost 3 times as heavy as a standard .22 pellet.
 
Last edited:
If you're entertaining the air gun suggestion, how about the Crosman 1322 (or 1377 in .177 caliber)?

Multi-pump pneumatic means you have more control over velocity..

Also, I don't remember the CO2 Crosman 357 revolverI had many years ago being all that loud..
 
We fire thousands of shots from CO2 Crosman .357 revolvers each summer at camp. The sound of the .177 pellet hitting a soda can is louder than the report of the gun. Yeah, the Crosman .357 is a quiet gun.

That said, a 6" revolver loaded with either CCI Target Shorts or CCI Quiet LR ammo is not really all that loud. It is about as loud as an ax hitting a dead tree, and a lot more accurate than the pellet gun.

Any 6" single action revolver should work for you with either CCI round. Remington CBee ammo also shoots well. Of the three I'd recommend the CCI Quiet. Buy some, if you can find it. It's good ammo.
 
I've had a couple of those Crossman 22 pellet revolvers. They were fun to shoot. I kept them in the rod locker of my bass boat to plink at stuff with. Quiet as can be. If nothing else it doesn't sound like a gun being fired. Totally different sound. They were accurate enough for plinking leaves, sticks, and other targets of opportunity floating in the river. Don't kid yourself into thinking they're toys. I've killed snakes and such with them. Never tried anything bigger.

And no empty brass to bring home. If you want to catch the bullets and bring them out, a BB trap will work. The empty CO2 cylinders are easy to bring out.
 
Maybe one of the larger NAA mini revolvers. You can get them with the LR cylinder, the MAG cylinder, or both.

Black Widow is 2"
Sheriff is 2.5"
Earl is available in 3", 4", and 6"
Mini Master is 4"
 
I tryed the CCI .22 Quites in several handguns. None of the revolvers worked well. The simi-auto pistols were mixed. The longer the barrel the quieter it seemed. They worked fine in the rifles, but the actions on most simi-autos didn't won't to work, they did work the action of an older 10/22 & one that had different springs in it. We could not find any Colbri ammo.
 
I like the pellet gun idea. A Crosman 1322 with the standard 14.3 grain pellets traveling at 450 fps (youtube real chrony results) will give 6.5 fpe which is enough (barely) to take a squirrel. The pistol is 13" long and if you get the stock add another 12". The nice thing is the stock can be removed or put on in about a minute which makes the set up very back pack friendly. I had the .177 caliber version with stock and it was a tack driver.

The other nice thing is if someone sees you, there is a big difference in perception of a "pellet gun" vs a "real gun", even if the real gun is lowered powered. (20gr pellet at 375 fps = 6.25 fpe).

The other nice thing is with the pellet gun & stock, you are spending about $80 retail and $15 for 500 pellets.
 
I do have a 22/45 with a sparrow but the powder less didn't work great in it. Subsonic s are very quiet but I'd like to carry the brass out so a revolver is better

I'm assuming that the sparrow is a silencer since I've found such a thing from a quick search.

I doubt you'll find that the Colibri ammo is as quiet from a revolver as the Sparrow equipped 22/45. But there are a few videos on You Tube that I found of folks shooting Colibri and Super Colibri from revolvers and various rifles. Too many to list here and it's easy enough to search on You Tube with "colibri shooting" as your search terms.

To my ears the reports from these revolvers is at least as loud as a lower to mid power pellet pistol. So I doubt there's much to be gained from a pellet pistol over a Colibri roun in a revolver.

Granted there are cylinder gaps that leak out some of the noise. But much of the noise is going to be related to the residual pressure in the bore being freed up to the atmosphere when the bullet leaves the muzzle. A longer barrel will do much for allowing the pressure to reduce and thus to tone down the noise. So I'd suggest that something with a 7.5" barrel vs the snub nose of the Ruger LCR in this one video would be quieter with the Colibri ammo than even this particular video. Note that he easily talks over the noise of the report during the chain of shots. I know that AGC in the cameras can foul this up but it's promising that there's no noticeable variation in the volume of his voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pmH4ax2e_8

All in all if this isn't quiet enough for you then I fear that using any handgun without a silencer just isn't going to work for you. Even an air pistol that matches the same velocity is going to produce nearly the same noise.

At that point I'm going to suggest that an option to consider is a single shot rifle. A youth size barrel and stock is short for an adult but if the rear sight is replaced with a receiver mounted peep sight then the length is no longer a big issue. The longer and sealed barrel should be very quiet with Colibri and might even be quiet enough with .22Short.

Bolt style single shot rifles won't eject the brass if you open the bolt fairly slowly so it simply kicks the casing out from under the extractor and leaves it sitting in the open receiver to be tipped out into your hand. Or if you find a TC Hotshot or one of the recently made retro Stevens Favourite single shots these too just extract without ejecting the brass so you can pick it out and drop it into a dump pouch.
 
Any of the better double action 22 revolvers should do nicely for you. I'm thinking something with a 4" or longer barrel. Ruger and S&W are the two dominant playes now, but Charter Arms makes an economical DA 22 revolver (Pathfinder).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top