How many Americans own revolvers

Most gun guys I know have revolvers and semis. I suppose there are a few people just getting their concealed carry license that have one or the other, and I know there are people with revolvers in their night stands that have only been fired 5-6 times if that.
 
I can only venture a guess, but I believe more folks own revolvers. This because many non-gun folks have revolvers stashed away for that time it might be needed.

Bob Wright
 
The correct answer is 63.2% revolvers and 36.8% semi-auto pistols. This is for civilian ownership and does not include military and law enforcement.
 
Both

I think most of us on the board would own both, that would include me.
Not to mention single shot.

For carry? My CC pieces are all semi's, not necessarily on purpose, just the way it worked out.
 
I own both revolvers and semiautomatic pistols.

I don’t have any Single action revolvers other than the NAA Sidewinders.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Glenn.

That makes it about 80% semi’s and 20% revolvers as of 2015, with a clear direction.
Lamar and arqebus, you might want to check the ATF data.
 
I seriously question the validity of those figures. I know of many farm wives who have had a revolver stashed away somewhere in the house that was never included in any survey. I have visited in many rural homes where there was a Bible placed on the nightstand, and on top of that Book was a Colt revolver.

Ask them? They won't say.


Bob Wright
 
That makes it about 80% semi’s and 20% revolvers as of 2015, with a clear direction.
Click to expand...

I would caution you about those figures. As Glenn said, its not broken down as to who bought what. AND, its just a number of guns made, that year.

ok, the table had guns made from 86 to 2015, and yes, during those years more semis were made than revolvers.

This does NOT, however directly translate into guns owned by civilian citizens. First, you have to remove (somehow) the guns bought by police & military agencies, add in the guns imported, add in the guns sold by police etc., and finally come up with some kind of number for all those guns still in service since they were first made.

Looking at 2015, we see over 3 to 1 autos over revolvers. What do you think the numbers were for 1915??? I have no idea, but I strongly think its NOT 3 to 1 semi over revolver, and might be quite the reverse.

The point I'm trying to make is that there were a LOT of revolvers made since Colt's 1836 debut of the "revolving pistol", and a huge number of them are still "owned" by people. They may or may not be regularly used, but they are owned. They didn't all go to the scrap forges. Where do you think most of the revolvers the cops sold when they switched over to semi autos went? Most went into the private sector, and I'd venture to say, most of them are still there.

Also, just going by numbers made really doesn't give any information on how many people own them. Some folks only own one. Some of us own dozens or more. I don't see any way to accurately even estimate the number to answer the OP's question.

Best I can do is a SWAG, that's not all that scientific. How many people own revolvers?? A lot. Beyond that, I think any attempt to produce an actual number is just a guess. And, I think your guess is as good as mine. :D
 
I do own both and consider myself a revolver guy, but of the handguns that I own only 40.9% are wheel guns.
Kind of surprised me to realize it.
 
I own a few dozen of both...and carry both from time to time / although semi's are my primary.

I have no idea of %'s....but I have friends that are not gun guys....that own revolvers and no semi's.
 
This is just my inexpert opinion: I think that many, if not most of, the shooters my age (45+) that grew up shooting probably have at least one revolver if not several. Simply because we grew up learning how to shoot with the things. This is probably not the case with many newer/younger shooters.

Case in point, at my last defensive handgun class about a month ago, there were at least 5 guys and one young lady there that were between their mid-20s to mid-30s and during one of the breaks we got to talking about our guns. None of them had even fired a revolver. Ever. it just wasn't a part of their experience growing up.

It seems the same story with newer shooters, such as a couple friends of mine that only recently became gun-owners and shooters in the last five or six years. Neither had even thought about shooting a revolver until I brought a couple of mine and let them try them out. Happily, both enjoyed it so much that they both bought revolvers within a couple weeks of that initial experience. Now one of them has more revolvers than I do.
 
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