Bear spray might work, but it takes two hands, sort of. There is a safety pin to be removed. It’s also waaay overkill, and $40 to $50 a pop. I’m sure something smaller, lighter, and less expensive would be the ticket. “Back Off” and “Halt!” are commercial products designed for agressive dogs.
Two more reasons to throw onto the pile:
- The likelihood of a semi-auto jamming increases if the shooter does not use a firm grip (ie. limp wrists), a problem for those who are weaker. This problem does not exist on a revolver.
- A revolver (especially hammerless) is less likely to jam when used in an environment with a lot of clothes/interferences, eg. CQC, through layers of clothing, not completely withdrawn from holster/pocket, etc.
Both lend to the revolver’s “point and shoot” reputation.
My theory is that thanks to the draft and the low rate of handgun ownership among the general public, the first weapon the vast majority of Israelis learn how to use is the assault rifle. As a rule, soldiers are trained not to walk around with a round chambered in their rifles unless they expected to see combat. Israelis simply tend apply the safety rules they learned for one weapon to another, regardless of whether it makes sense.
I’ve never fired a pistol myself, but I can tell you that I’d probably feel pretty uncomfortable walking around with a bullet in my chamber, too, even with the weapon holstered at my side. It goes against all my instincts.
That is why I prefer the semi pistols that are DA/SA and have an external safety. With the safety on and the hammer down, I am very comfortable carrying with a round in the chamber. The DA trigger pull is quite long. Each person has his/her own preferences, and I know many love their Glocks, but they aren’t my preferred flavor. I would eventually like to own a Glock, but that wouldn’t be my preferred concealed carry.
A few years back I took a class at Front Sight in Pahrump NV with some friends. With NV being an open carry state, the one night we went out to dinner as a group, some of us went open carry with pistols holstered, a round in the chamber, and the hammer cocked. I was on ultra alert, carrying that way. My safety was on and my holster is the military issue type that has a covering flap that locks, but to know that it doesn’t take much to go off safety and just twitch the trigger to discharge a round, it’s a sobering thought. Mine is an HK USP Compact, in .45ACP.
But, back to revolvers, I am very comfortable sleeping with mine, a small DAO .38SP with concealed hammer, in its pocket holster. I am totally comfortable carrying that concealed, too.
Under 3 seconds including reload.
North/West = WA. or OR., correct?
Do you have weapons & shoot?
Ever been in the military?
Don’t know if bear spray would work or even how to work it?
Ever actually been attacked by a seriously pissed dog of 40 pounds or more?
Don’t know how to stop 98% of the dogs from chasing your motorcycle or bicycle?
Do not have all the dogs on your regular riding routes already trained to not chase you, heck, they don’t even bother to get up when they see or hear me coming.
For the other 2%, you have never been out where those people with both of their eyes are on the same side of the nose have you?
Never had a bad dog get out someplace & you are the first person he sees? No plan, no practice, no ideas.
Well, one or the other of my ‘gats’ have saved my/those I care about, day several times ( military does not count as it artificially runs the numbers up against those that have never been in combat or been in the bad places )
And I can say with 100% accuracy and truth that not having a weapon handy did not keep my Daughter from being murdered nor did it keep one of my sisters from being raped. I am glad you have never needed one and never do, but, I will not be surprised if you do not live through the first time you or a family member does need one.
Good luck. 
I’ve ridden a bit, and on some long trips. Stopping to pee at night, no moon, in the middle of nowhere - I don’t want to be F’d with there by any critters, whether they have 2 legs, or 4, or none. I keep a pistol close.
I was wondering if you’d come in. The reference is specifically towards pistols, although something might’ve been muddied along the way. I think in the US and other countries, military guards don’t always have one loaded if not in a combat zone?
I don’t have a lot of examples to compare to, but in many guns the safety doesn’t operate unless the hammer is cocked. This is true for many SA and at least some DA/SA (more than one CZ model).
We know, or it would be less impressive when a person who plays Street Fighter type games can do just as well by transferring button mashing skills.
Right, that’s my point - Israelis’ first firearms training is with rifles, so they automatically apply rifle safety rules to pistols even when not strictly necessary. Hence, “Israeli Carry”.
Me neither, but if I was, I’d carry a revolver.
And say “Hah’dy thar, ma’m.” Ooh, and then maybe I’d use my Colt to tip my ten-gallon hat back at a rakish angle.
Some shooters prefer revolvers over semi-autos for aesthetic and ergonomic reasons too.
I’ve heard it said revolvers revolvers are the handgun of choice for either amateurs or pros, but generally not the folks in the middle.
Amateurs like them because they’re easy to use, safe, and reliable, while professional shooters like them because of things like the hair triggers available in single-action mode.
Also, I’ve heard some of the serious target shooters I know say the fact the barrel on the revolver is part of the gun’s frame (unlike a semi-auto where the barrel is typically a separate part which moves internally by necessity as part of the cycling operation) makes them more accurate. Those folks are also infinitely better shots than I’ll ever be; I doubt it makes much different to the average shooter - especially when you consider how accurate an M1911A1, Browning Hi-Power, Sig P226, CZ-75 or Glock 17 is anyway (very, in case you were wondering).
Interestingly, there used to be a turn-of-the-century cartridge known as 5mm Velo Dog, designed for exactly this purpose - allowing cyclists to shoot threatening dogs which might accost them during their travels.
The round was fairly aenemic though; with even less power than a .22LR round. It did, however, have a non-lethal projectile option, should the user wish to simply dissuade the errant pooch rather than despatch them.
How light can triggers get with SA or DA (with the hammer pulled back) pistols?
What kind of MOA are we talking about at various distances for those pistols?
I’ve fired all of those handguns at various points over the years and IME every single one of them could shoot the centre of the 10-ring out (ie, put the entire magazine into the bullseye) on a standard pistol target at 10m.
IIRC it was pretty much the same story at 15m (a few outliers into the 9 ring from a couple of them), and at 25m (which is relatively long range by most handgun competition standards IME), they would all still put the entire magazine on the paper within the target area - not necessarily within the 9 or 10 rings, but all the rounds were within an area the size of a tyre hubcap, even from the M1911A1 (which was the least accurate of those guns I listed, but is still far from inaccurate by any stretch of the imagination).
Yeah. It would be difficult to design a magazine and pistol grip frame around the longer cartridges. The desert eagle’s grip is already humungous.
The balance of springs, reciprocating mass, cartridge power, etc… can be hard to work out for cycling. The desert eagle uses a somewhat touchy gas system, and you can only shoot jacketed ammo through it if you don’t want to clog up the gas port in the barrel.
I wonder what kind of monstrosity would be needed to contain 454 casull + rounds in a conventional browning barrel tilt system? Assuming the pistol is actually built to be at least half as durable as a gun in 9mm.
It’s true that gunfire noises have been added in post-production for a long time, but not because the guns aren’t firing blanks - it’s just that it is really hard to get good live audio of gunfire, while later dubbing in other sounds and voices, and have it all blend. Especially since urban gunfire will have echoes and other distortions that can make it sound strange.
Take the case of Michael Mann’s “Heat”. The famous firefight in the streets was shot with blanks, and later they tried to remove the original audio and dub in fake hollywood ‘gunfire’. But they never got a result that sounded as realistic as the original street recordings, and Mann is a stickler for accuracy. So, they left the original audio in place. And I have to say, it’s WAY cooler than the typical post-production ‘gunfire’ hollywood adds.
If you want to hear it, here’s a Youtube clip of that scene: Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ shootout scene. Skip to 4:16 if you just want to see/hear the shooting.
If you want to see accurate weapons handling, watch a Michael Mann film. He has his actors train in actual combat tactics, often by the best trainers in the world, and practice with weapons until they are old hands at it. There’s a part at 6:20 of that clip where Val Kilmer speed changes a magazine that has apparently been used in training films for law enforcement and military to show the correct technique for doing this.
That’s more realistic than a typical film, but the relative volume of the echoes is exaggerated in comparison to the initial report because the report is too loud for the microphones to record. (And it would blow out the audience’s ears if it was reproduced.)
That is a good point. Most people have no idea how loud larger firearms are, especially revolvers like a .357 magnum or a .44 magnum. It is likely the loudest sound that someone has ever heard and even a single shot without hearing protection will cause ringing in the ears for days and possibly some degree of permanent hearing loss. You wouldn’t want to recreate that with speakers even if you could. It would make The Who duck.
I like revolvers simply because they are awesome, reliable and pretty. However, I stopped shooting real .357 magnum shells through my .357 Colt King Cobra because it is simply too loud, the recoil is not pleasant and I do not need to fend off grizzley bears that often. The much lower powered .38 cartridges that it also accepts are much more pleasant for target shooting.
I have shot those without hearing protection but you still don’t want to do it often because it will damage your hearing. My father, a firearms dealer, and a firearms collector and expert always carried a .44 magnum for personal protection when I was growing up. I never ever understood the point of that. I shot it exactly once and never again because having a hand-cannon go off two feet in front of your face is not my idea of a good time. More power is good in most contexts but not in this one. You don’t need a .44 magnum or above in areas where T-Rex’s are rare.
Shooting is fun but you have to tailor the power needed to the intended purpose. People that are only familiar with firearms from movies would be shocked at how loud they are and why it is basically impossible to shoot the ways that actors do.
Yes, but that’s not intentional. It’s the live recording, it’s just that microphones/speakers don’t have the dynamic range to record everything from the loudest gunshot to a pin drop. So the audio is compressed, making the quiet sounds comparatively louder and the loudest sounds comparatively quieter. That’s simply a limitation of technology, though, and not an intentional effect.
I agree completely with your first and last paragraphs. Not so much the middle two, but I definitely don’t want to cast aspersions on your opinions. There are a or lot of subjective opinions surrounding choice of caliber, as anyone who has ever visited gun and hunting forums can attest. And everyone has their own personal tolerance and/or enjoyment of recoil and noise.
I find that I can tolerate the recoil of .38 special and .357 magnum easily, as well as .44 special. I can shoot a .357 magnum very comfortably. I find the .44 magnum, on the other hand, to be more of a chore to shoot more than a few cylinders of if I’m not wearing gloves. I use a .44 magnum revolver to hunt deer, so I naturally practice with it before the season. I will generally practice with both .44 special and .44 magnum rounds, as the magnum rounds can get to be a bit much after 12 or so shots. As mentioned, wearing gloves makes it more comfortable to shoot. But I use the .44 magnum for deer because I think it is a better round for deer than the .357 magnum (which is widely, though not universally, considered to be the minimum handgun round one should use for deer). The larger diameter and greater energy of the 44 should provide a faster and cleaner kill. The much less popular .41 magnum is a compromise between the .357 and .44 magnum choices.
I realize your T-Rex comment is made in jest, but people who stand a chance of running into grizzly bears generally think the .44 magnum is the minimum one should carry. I haven’t shot any handguns more powerful than a .44 magnum, such as the various .480 and .500 calibers. I doubt they would be pleasant to shoot, but like I said, everyone makes their choices for different reasons.
One reason I mention only revolver rounds related to hunting deer is that my state ¶ doesn’t allow semi-auto handguns for hunting. But even if allowed, there are very few semi-auto choices I would choose for deer, as even the .45 ACP is not anywhere near as powerful as the .44 magnum.
Now, for personal protection (anywhere but grizzly country), the .44 magnum is very large, heavy and stout, and one I wouldn’t choose. I like shooting both semi-auto and revolver handguns. Both are cool and fun. I’ve never shot a semi-auto with a trigger as nice as my S&W revolvers, though.
^ 20 rounds or so of .454 casull isnt too bad in one trip. Shot through a ruger alaskan with the factory hogue grips (which has gel cushions in the backstrap area).
Switched back and forth between this and a sig226 in 9mm.
Definitely not recommended for the inexperienced unless they want a severe flinch…
Put out tiny target pasties. The focus on hitting something small and trigger control might take your mind off the recoil a little. 
Ear plugs + muffs really recommended indoors. Maybe be polite and warn the people in the next lanes too…