Which is faster, Revolver or Semi?

W

wolf 1415

New member
Assuming shooters of equal skill, and guns of equal quality (tuned triggers, etc) and capacity, (6 or 8 shots each)would the wheelgun or the auto be faster?

It seems to me that the wheelgun's speed is decided by the trigger finger, as the auto must cycle before it can be shot again? I'm thinking the revolver (I saw the Miculek footage) might be faster. Am I wrong?

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"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with Army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." Wilson vs. State, Ark. 1878
 
Revolver. Ed McGivern pretty well established that 50 plus years ago. I had a very good day once and did some calculations from what the timer told me. For six shots I came up with a 'cyclic rate of 600 rounds per minute' with the old wheelgun. And there are lots of people out there with faster synapses than mine.

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Wheelgun faster. Rough on bigger revolvers as it is puttin a lot of strain on the hand, hand pivot, cylinder latch etc. My model 36s seem impervious to rapid fire, but 19s, 686 and 696 tend to get a tad out of time after much playin "full auto"

Interesting to me, I can get better 5 shot groups with a 36 at 7yds than I could with either 9mm or .45 grease guns. Probably cause of a lot more practice with the wheelguns.

Sam...if it go bang it cool, lessen it my tire.
 
I'd have to say, from my personal experience, that an average shooter can burp out more rounds faster from an auto. With practice, however, a finely tunes single-action Ruger can beat just about anything. :-)
 
I reas about McGivern; but until I saw Miculek's feat on the History channel, I wouldn't have believed it. He shot(6?), reloaded, and shot(6?) again faster than most accomplished shooters could empty a 13rd Hi-Power! Oh, and he actually achieved GROUPS, not just emptied his gun. What a sight to behold :)
 
Ed McGivern and Jerry Miculek have both proven a revolver to be mechanically faster than a semi-auto. Using a S&W revolver, Miculek recently set a record of 6 shots on target, a reload, and 6 more shots on target in 2.99 seconds and could consistently shoot faster and reload quicker than a semi-auto he went up against.
Miculek claims he learned to shoot so fast because of a bad flinch in his younger days. He figured if he could learn to shoot fast enough to beat the flinch he...... well, he could beat the flinch, and it seems to have worked out admirably.
 
for the first shot the single action six gun is the fastest. At least for that first shot. the nest 15 rounds tend to mess up that score though. :)
 
Having tried both, for me, it's much easier to score quick, multiple, hits with the pistol.

I shot revolvers exclusively for a couple of years, but came back to pistols.

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Make mine lean, mean, and 9x19!
 
Depends how good you are. Revolvers are mechanically faster than autos, but are you good enough to take advantage of it. In less than "highly evolved, demi-god like" hands, the auto is probably going to be faster at close distances <20 yards, with the revolver winning out at 20+ yards. At least that's how it seems to go with me.
 
Revolver is mechanically faster. In an auto, you have a built in time lag for the slide to reciprocate. Shooting a revolver, the only time lag is how fast you can manipulate your trigger finger. Lock time, of course, applies in both cases, but since this is only a few millionths of a second and beyond human ability to defeat, is of no consequence.
Having said that, I think the average person will probably shoot fastest with an SA auto. It would be interesting to compare DA ONLY autos to DA revolvers.
FWIW, when I fist started shooting IPSC in 1981 (it ws so long ago, they didn't have a 180 rule,) I was the only new shooter shooting a 1911; all the others had revolvers. I won new shooter, but had problems with my gun jamming every third shot. After my first match, I switched to a Model 19 4" w/Hogue Monogrip, and did fine with that and three speedloaders using USA brand .357 158 gr.
Speed's fine, accuracy is final. You can't miss fast enough to win a gunfight.

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Shoot straight & make big holes, regards, Richard at The Shottist's Center
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>In an auto, you have a built in time lag for the slide to reciprocate. Shooting a revolver, the only time lag is how fast you can manipulate your trigger finger.[/quote]

So the heart of the issue is whether a human finger (the limiting factor for a revolver) can "cycle" faster than the slide of an auto pistol. If we were to assume that Jerry Miculek's record split times represent the limit of human finger speed, we could compare that number to the cycling speed of the fastest semiauto pistol to come up with an answer.

What is the record time for six shots from a revolver?
 
Does anyone have the equipment to test/time this?

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"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with Army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." Wilson vs. State, Ark. 1878
 
Matt, Mr Miculek also set an eight shot record with a different revolver. He fired eight shots (seven split times) in one second.
 
Yep, revolvers are mechanically faster. In fact if it is only two or three shots the single action revolver is the fastest. I saw Dan Combs shoot 2 shots that only sounded like one. I had to look at the holes on the paper and empty cases in the cylinder to believe that he actually fired twice. 3 shots wasn't much slower, but at least you could hear that it wasn't one shot.
 
45King, IMHO DAO semiautos aren't even remotely close to DA revolvers for smoothness--which is where the speed will come from. If you compare average to average, it's that way; if you compare the best possible examples of each, the gap widens even more. The geometry and leverages in the semiauto just won't allow it.

I am still in awe of the things that Ed McGivern did. Even more surprising were the results his students achieved--so preternatural reflexes were not the whole story.

Frankly, a good DA revolver is still probably the best choice for civilian/police use, contrary to the whims of fashion. For really serious military use I would opt for a good basic 1911.

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As radom and JeffOTMG pointed out the single action revolver is faster with a "first shot out of the hoslter" in the hands of someone who knows how to use one.
To further complicate the discussion has anyone ever seen Bob Mundin fan a single action army? ;)

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Gunslinger

I was promised a Shortycicle and I want a Shortycicle!
 
OK, if you had both a full-auto revolver and pistol, which would have the highest ROF? Also, if anyone could make a full-auto revolver, they'd be a genius! :D
 
The smoothness of the trigger has nothing to do with the ability to shoot a revolver fast. Miculek even said that pulling the trigger is 1/3 of speed shooting. The trigger return is 2/3. That's why he uses S&W's. McGivern said the same thing in his book Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting. I have always thought that revolvers were mechanically faster, and I love a BURT (Big Ugly Round Thing) more than any semi, but I saw Munden slap the trigger on a 1911 and fire 3 shots in .13. Compare the splits on that to McGivern and Miculek, both of whom are my heroes. Best.
 
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