Rediscovering Revolvers (cont)....a bit long

M

Mntneer357

New member
Ladies and Gents,
I'm happy to hear other people out there think the revolver is still a good defensive weapon. I'd started thinking that I'd been woefully misinformed. I'll try not to bore you here...
My very first handgun was a Para-Ordanance P-13 .45 ACP. I was convinced that THIS gun was the best thing on the market. Then I took it to the range and tried to shoot it. First off, I had to get a new extractor because the one it came with was insufficient. And (much to my dismay) I was completely inaccurate with my wonderful new handgun. I could not hit ANYTHING at any distance with it. Whether the grip was too wide for my hand, or the bore axis was too high...whatever. I sold the gun.
Then I found the gun that won my heart and is my (almost) constant companion. I bought a Ruger KGP-141 .357 Magnum. Although I had never shot this particular gun before, something drew me to it. (And at a gun show with $550 cash in my pocket, there were a lot of pistols that could have come home with me that day.) Something told me to buy the Ruger and I am so VERY glad I did. It fits my hand like it was MADE to be there, it is very simple to operate and strip, it is built stronger than a bank vault, and with this gun my groups are frighteningly accurate, even at a good distance. (Mind you those are my primary criterion for all my guns)
All my close friends own autos of some designation and are very proud of them, as they should be. I was beginning to feel "out-dated", "obselete", or "not in the know" by arming myself with my beloved .357 Magnum. In my mind though, I really don't NEED an auto for much (except in case of WW III). I am not a LEO...I am not a Special Forces operator...I am not CCW licensed...and I don't pick fights with biker gangs. My .357 Mag just seems to fit me.
All who love your revolvers, sound off and let's make a little noise to let people know we are here. What's your reason for loving your six-gun? What is your pistol of choice?
Thanx for listening,
Mntneer357

P.S. Yes, I am looking to add just ONE auto to my collection. The candidates are:
1. Ruger P97 (despite my BAD experience with a .45)
2. Glock 19
3. Ruger P95

Any suggestions there? There is only gonna be ONE.....

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"Spray and pray isn't the object here. One shot, one kill...no excuses."
 
Actually, they were there all the time. And, yes, if you spend some time thinking about what it is you really need and what you propose to do with the gun, a good DA .357 makes more sense than almost anything else. In addition to the obvious advantages of cost , reliability, and versatility, the operation of the gun is the same loaded or empty--so you can dry fire, do 1/5 or 3/3 skip loading, and so improve your own skills and save ammo to boot. I carried one of these for many years as an LEO/firearms trainer and trained many people with them. I have the usual 'collection' of good guns including 1911s, a BHP and a SIG. I still carry a 4" .357 daily and see no valid reason to change. A well handled .357 is all the handgun you need in real life.

The exception to this might be heavy duty military usage, in which case the 1911 shines. I prefer a gun that can be detail stripped if it gets full of sand, mud, etc., and absolutely no tools are required in the case of the 1911. (Same thing, actually, with the Ruger DA revolvers, but they are still more complex than the 1911.)

So have fun with that GP. I prefer the old Security Sixes, but also have a very slick GP-100.

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I want a GP100! All the revolvers I own now are single actions. I love them and would not sell any of them.

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so he cocked both his pistols, spit in the dirt, and walked out into the street.
 
I never jumped on the semiauto bandwagon. I have shot a dozen semiautos thru my job, I have still only personally owned one centerfire semiauto. That was a CZ-75 during the late '80s. It was a good, reliable gun that I couldn't shoot as well as a j-frame model 49 and a brass tosser that wasted my prescious brass. All of my current semiautos are Ruger .22s.

The only two things that an auto does better than a revolver is hold more bullets (although politics and technology are changing that), and be more easily cleaned when it gets dirty (however, my Ruger Speed Six is pretty easy too.

But, the main reason that I prefer revolvers is that they are prettier than those ugly autos. That's a fact!
 
Hey Whiskey,
Go get that GP100! There one of the best .357s ever made. I love mine. It's accurate, reliable, durable, etc. Don't let peaple fool you about the trigger, because you can use the money that you saved (not getting a 686) to have the trigger smothed just as good as any *&*. That way you have the best of both...Ruger toughness and *&* trigger. If you respect gun rags, the comparison of these two revolvers come up often, and the GP usually comes out on top, overall. Of course 686s are great too. Good luck, TCW
 
Mntneer357,

When you switched from the Para Ordnance to the Ruger and your accuracy improved, were you shooting the revolver single action or double action?
 
Mntneer357; I've always had a .357 maggie of some kind in my collection. Currently, I have just one- A S&W mod 28 with a 4" barrel. It's my garage and campin' gun. Load it light for fun or heavy for campin'. It's an incredibly versatile calibre. Best Regards, J. Parker
 
I'm eyeing that Taurus 617, 7 shots of 357Mag!!! That's 7 as in 6+1 from a wheel gun...!!

My feeling is, if you got 7 shots of 357Mag and you ain't gettin' it done, then it ain't getting done by a handgun... If you need more than that, time to pick up that rifle or LAW rocket...

Albert
 
In the defense role, a revolver is pretty hard to beat. No "conditions", no gadgets, no safety, no failures to feed, no minimum ammo, no magazine problems. Reloading is slow, even with speed loaders, but, as has been mentioned, if 6 or 7 rounds don't do the job, you are doing something wrong.

Autos, of course are more complex, there are a lot more of them, and they provide a lot more room for bulls--t on forums like this. Did it ever occur to anyone that the reason there is so little posting here about revolvers is that the don't break, don't misfeed, don't sent their guide rods down range, don't break extractors, don't have to have a thousand dollars worth of gunsmithing and six months "break in" to work?

I have owned a fair number of auto pistols and types of auto pistols. I probably know as much about them as anyone on here. But when I carried a gun as an LEO, it was a revolver, and carrying a revolver was my choice, not a requirement.

IMHO, if you want a gun for serious purposes, get a revolver. If you want a gun to talk about, and worry about, and fuss over, and play fake "combat" games with, get an auto pistol.

Jim
 
I have noticed that I tend to follow the "Make very bullet count" rule better when using a revolver than a semi.
DA are quite fine once I got over the hammer movement in the corner of my eye.
 
twoblink,

Don't forget the 8-shot .357 magnum Taurus 608 and S&W 627 series.

Of course there IS the issue of having as many rounds as a single stack 1911: you know about the tendency to spray and pray with that abundance of ammo.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Did it ever occur to anyone that the reason there is so little posting here about revolvers is that the don't break, don't misfeed, don't sent their guide rods down range, don't break extractors, don't have to have a thousand dollars worth of gunsmithing and six months "break in" to work?
[/quote]

No, I thought it was because there's far more variety and innovation in the world of semiauto pistols than there is with revolvers. Silly me. :D
 
Matt VDW,
With my new, beloved Ruger .357 Magnum I fire the gun both in single and double action. Yes, I am MORE accurate when I thumb back the hammer and go single action with it. But the double action accuracy with my .357 Magnum is (to me) absolutely amazing. I don't know what it is about this gun, but I am very accurate with it. Even to the point of being able to do what I call "called shots" on target. (Next round is gonna be right between the eyes of the target. BANG! Perfect.) Ammo is not a factor as I have shot just about everything thru my revolver from Cor-Bon 125 grainers, to Georgia Arms "Deer-stoppers", to Remmington 158-grain JHPs. You name it and my Ruger will put it on target. :)
With my Para-Ordanance .45, I was forutnate if I even HIT the target at all. As I said, I know it was not the gun. Perhaps the grip was too wide for my hand or the bore axis was too high for me. But either way, all I was doing with that pistol was making noise and throwing lead down-range. (Something tells me that IF I can handle the recoil from a .357 Magnum, then the recoil from a .45 should NOT have been the cause of my "accuracy issues". I hope...)
That being said, I AM looking at the possibility of "trying my luck again" with the .45 ACP and maybe buying a new Ruger P97. (Also looking at the Glock 19 and the Ruger P95) I just PRAY that I would be as accurate with the P97 as I am with my KGP-141.
Take care,
Mntneer357

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"Spray and pray isn't the object here. One shot, one kill...no excuses."
 
Ruger Model 107 here. The .357 Magnum Police Service Six, 4", blue - the fixed sight version of the Security Six. It works, it's always worked, although I did replace the wood grips with Pachmayr's years ago. Ho-hum. Guess I'd better go take my Kimber Gold Match apart and check it before I go to the range tomorrow.
I'd buy a Python, but my dad let's me use his.
Mntneer357 - I had a little learning curve on the .45 when I bought the Kimber last year. Give a single stack a chance, the reduced recoil of the .45 ACP is a pleasant change. John

John
 
Mntneer357,

I'm glad to read that your accuracy has improved in both double and single action. Some folks start out shooting their DA revolvers single action and then never make much of an effort to master the DA pull. And that's a shame, because it can be done and it's the way the revolver is most likely to be used "for real".

I like wheelguns myself, although I'm partial to .45 autos, too.
 
Hi, Matt VDW,

Agreed, but all that variety and innovation come at a price. With people continually trying new ideas and new concepts, there are bound to be gun designs and manufacturing methods that don't work out. That is normal and the only way to make progress.

But it is not a good idea to find out what didn't work out in the middle of a gun fight.

Jim
 
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