When would a revolver ever be better than an automatic handgun?

Funny, you don’t look like Claude Rains. :o

Hmm, I might have had a point about the double-stack mags, but damned if I know what it was. Probably complaining about something…

For me, the only time I’d ever use a gun is at the range or in defense of my life at home in the dark. Actually, I have a shotgun, so it’s not an issue, but I’d want my home defense weapon to be as reliable and mechanically simple as possible. It’s my luck the thing would jam the one time I really, really needed it, and once you bring a gun into the equation the thing had better work.

For most “civilian” uses, the wheelgun is a far better choice. For police or miltiary, who may actually get into a gunfight with several opponents it’s different.

I can’t see needing more than 6 rounds in a home/personal defence situation. And, simplicy of use and lower chance of jamming in a gun that may sit around for a couple year not used are both very good things in those situations.

IIRC, the military use of pistols is used only by officers, or MP or decorative functions. There aren’t many issued for ‘combat.’ Could be wrong, tho.

Also, a few points that may or may not have been covered.

Some auto/semi’s are prone to jamming unless you use ball ammo.

Also, autos also rely on gas to provide the kick to eject a cartridge; if the gas port, or whatever it is called, is clogged, it will be a misfeed/jam. The port, OWIC, is mighty dern small, and looks like it’s just begging to be clogged by anything that happens by.
Plus, if your weapon jams, is it because of a faulty charge in the previous bullet, something hanging on the feed ramp, the port, the spring in the magazine, the spring that controls the slide, etc…?? Heartbreaking (expensive) questions to resolvewith a semi.

Also, you need less clearance to fire a revolver. If you bump an auto slide while in mid-activity, it may jam right there. It would require a re racking, and hopefully, a bullet will not have been jammed in the process. Less makeup work/time is required if you are too tight quarters when firing a revolver. Maybe none at all.

A one armed man can do the revolver thing.

Of course, it’s axiomatic that the more moveable parts, the more at risk to break down a device will be.

With a revolver, you would never have to release the safety, neither wonder whether you left it cocked and locked, or unchambered. Thousandths of a second considerations, which may matter.

Some of my betters, shooting skills wise, point out that the slide action, etc… interferes with accuracy.

There are good points in an auto: my friend had to chamber one in a hostile situation, and the sheer sound of that defused the situation post haste. Also, they look SO COOL!!!

btw, shouldn’t Martini Enfield be showing up in this thread sometime soon??

best wishes,
hh

But most autos, especially SA, have a much better trigger pull than reveolvers, and there is no such ting as a SA revolver that can be operated “mindlessly” without 10’s of thousands of practice rounds. That means that the first DA pull is going somewhere, but I bet that most revolver shooter have no clue where.

Even a DA only auto tends to have a much better trigger pull than the out of the box wheel-gun. A SA auto is smooth and reliable. Anybody that has not run dozens of mags of their home defense round throug their auto is asking for trouble. Practice and familiarity are key in a high stress situation. I have about 50,000 through my Colt and I trust it like I trust my Mother. YMMV

Of course he doesn’t. If he looked like Claude Rains, he’d look like Claude Rains, not the Invisible Man. The only way to be mistaken for the Invisible Man is to not look at all like Claude Rains. Or anyone else, for that matter.

handsomeharry, I’m not picking on you, you just had everything in one postl, and I’m going to cherrypick points.

Special Forces guys may have another opinion.

But most are not. Seriously, anyone who keeps a defense gun without testing their ammo is doing themselves a disservice.

Most autoloaders in my experience are short recoil designs, unlike the AR-15 which is gas operated, (the Makarov is a straight blowback)

Yup

Yet most competition shooters I’ve seen use modified 1911’s.

Remember, the barrel doesn’t disengage until after the bullet has exited

Sounds like the “I’ll just rack my pump shotgun” theory, wouldn’t count on it myownself. The light “snick” of a safety being disengaged is the only sound anyone should hear, or maybe the twin “tic” of the double action in action.

You know, I was thinking the same thing. He’s likely to make some comment about how autos don’t like mixing ammo, but I dunno what’s taking him so long.

I’ll admit that an off-the-shelf Colt 1911 is possibly going to choke on a wide range of hollowpoints and might stovepipe occasionally, but that is easily fixed and most of the higher-end (Kimber, Springfield, etc) are going to have the fixes in place. This problem is limited to auto’s designed before… oh, let’s say 1980 or so. HK, Ruger, Sig, all make pistols that are accurate and reliable.

To answer the OP -
People who don’t practice (first time gun buyers) should probably stick with DA revolvers, people who do practice already know what’s best for them.

I agree with that concept completely. After I put two rounds in the bad guy’s chest, I’ve still got 4 rounds remaining. I don’t need 14 rounds remaining.

When I was looking to purchase a handun for myself, I was starting to consider revolvers because the way they fit my hand in comparison to semi autos.
I was having problems finding a suitable semi auto that was comfortable to hold but had the fire power I wanted, most were double stack magazines making the grip larger- and bad for my small hands. I found a Kahr k40 was a perfect fit for me. It fires beautifully with low recoil. Just as a note; I still havent ruled out revolvers as additional purchases in the future.

The downside to the Kahr K40 is that I cannot fire reloaded ammo as it may cause misloading/misfiring, and I found that it the rounds are not seated to the back of the magazine, they will mis load, but I just tap the mag after loading it to correct this problem.

:slight_smile:

It’s eerie. Almost as if he were invisible!

hh

When the rain is beating a tapdance on the window, you skip the formalities of ice and a glass and take a swig right from the bottle, and then a dame with ruby red lips and gams up to there knocks on the door of an office in the seedy part of town. . .

Do you really want to open your desk drawer and pull out your automatic?

I’ll second Martini Enfield and third Skald: reliability.

Whence I was living in Minot, ND and Great Falls, MT–both locations known for their colder weather, snow, and ice–I bought a revolver for backwoods camping and hiking. I’d heard a few stories from a ranger or two about snow and ice somehow getting into the action of an automatic and causing some trouble. A revolver? Mechanically simpler, so less works to gum up.

Tripler
I’d really rather not draw and find my sidearm has gum in it (or ice for that matter).

Ok, I give up. There is just no way I can compete with the gum and the rain and the tapdancing windows.

“I have 5 slugs in me, one’s lead the rest are whisky - The whisky packs a wallop and I pack a revolver. My names Bobo and I’m a dick. A private dick.”

Yup, you win.

Adding to something others have said, I will quote my old rangemaster, who thought the 20-clip automatics are just silly. Six is certainly enough to deal with most situations you’re likely to encounter as a civilian; if you need more, you’d better either surrender or run.

:confused:

Bob, you’ve got me totally baffled by this post.

:confused:

Tripler
?

Wassamatter, Trip? You’ve never watched The Big Sleep before? Read some Mickey Spillane, drink some rotgut rye and join us on the seedier side of Life. :smiley:

With all due respect, Silenus, Raymond Chandler wrote The Big Sleep.

Well, yeah.

Shut up! I’ve had a bottle of Australian Shiraz and a glass of bourbon. I’m lucky I got a male author listed there. :smiley:

And… A little quick on the trigger I may have been. silenus doesn’t necessarily imply Spillane wrote The Big Sleep, he’s just listing off some Noir.

I’m a big Raymond Chandler fan, Spillane, not so much.