Why a revolver?

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Skoopski

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 27, 2015
Messages
389
Location
Missouri, USA
I can't explain it, but they seem more personal to me.

And Bob, I ALWAYS enjoy seeing pictures of your guns. Thanks.
 

Rclark

Hunter
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
3,533
Location
Butte, MT
Because it fits my personality I suppose. Enjoy reading about the West and such... Revolvers also fit how I use a gun as well. I like my SAs for woods walking, camping, fishing (open carry)... I like my Bulldog for CC in town. I like SA for shooting at the range. I have no need to try to rattle off 10 rounds in 2 seconds flat. I like to take my time at hit what I aim at. I like even older SA shooting with cap/ball. I am probably the only person who doesn't care for the 'look' of S&W revolvers too. But if I was military/police, I would pick up the right tool for the right job which probably would be a semi-auto. Since I am not, I am content to just go out and enjoy my Single Actions.
 

ADP3

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 23, 2001
Messages
485
Location
SC
All of my current handguns are revolvers. My first handgun was a Single Six that the folks gave me for Christmas in 1968. I've been hooked ever since. I've had many autos, but they never appealed to me as much as revolvers. Revolvers are more versatile than autos. They don't depend on a specific powder charge or bullet weight range to function reliably. You can shoot a cream puff plinking load or a fire breathing stump buster out of the same cylinder with just two pulls of the trigger. Revolvers don't have the capacity of autos, but autos don't have the power of revolvers. Some autos come close, and of course there are single shots that surpass revolvers, but autos just don't have as much horsepower. More revolvers have sights adjustable for windage and elevation than autos too so I can adjust sights quickly for load and range. The only thing I miss in an auto over a revolver is after a range session there's only one chamber to clean. :D

Best Regards,
ADP3
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2000
Messages
1,266
Location
Tennessee
All the above are great reasons, I do love
revolvers. For self defense I believe in them too.
For example, the bad guy is coming at me with a knife, pull my SP101 and pull the trigger...oh crap a misfire...pull the trigger again, bad guy down!! Whew, glad I didn't have to rack that slide... 8)
FT44
 

A.J.

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jun 25, 2017
Messages
485
Location
Michigan
I agree with the OP. I could have written the same thing. Revolvers and shotguns are my weapons of choice.
 

Flyover_Country

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
62
In addition to the above:

1. Revolvers are often chambered for rounds that are much more powerful than most semi-automatics are, and are thus much more usable for hunting. You can get a giant semi-auto like an AMT Automag that will shoot .44 Magnums but that is a rare, expensive, bulky, and heavy semi-auto.

2. Revolvers will shoot a very wide variety of ammunition without any issues other than the point of aim possibly changing. You can shoot anything from popgun cowboy action loads to full-powered hunting loads, use jacketed or cast bullets, use anything from very lightweight bullets to very heavy bullets, use any shape of bullet you care to, and in some chamberings, even shoot different length cartridges. Semi-autos are much more picky and the farther you go away from the production ammunition the firearm was designed around, the more likely you will have a failure to feed/failure to eject.

3. Revolvers are commonly available with longer barrels than semi-autos, allowing them to extract more power from a round than a semi-auto. They won't extract much more power from a typical semi-auto round as those are designed for a near-complete powder burn in a short barrel, but it does allow for much more powerful rounds with much more powder as there is enough barrel to burn it.

4. If you reload, a semi-auto sprays your brass all over while a revolver keeps it in the cylinder for you to easily remove and keep.

5. Revolvers are mechanically simpler and due to their manual activation of the action, far less likely to malfunction in use. I see a lot of people have failure to chamber/failure to eject problems with semi-autos at the range- and this includes semi-auto rifles, shotguns, and pistols. It's very rare to see a bolt gun, revolver, break-action rifle/shotgun/pistol fail to load or eject, and it if does, it was usually a defective round as the cause (COAL too long and won't chamber, etc.) Lever-action rifles and pump-action rifles and shotguns will very occasionally have a failure to eject, but it is far, far less common than the same thing happening with a semi-auto.
 

roashooter

Single-Sixer
Joined
Oct 26, 2007
Messages
124
My first handgun I purchased at the outrageous sum of 50 bucks....some 50+ years ago...a Blackhawk 357...that I still have to this day...no doubt planted the seeds of admiration for revolvers. All of my handguns but for three...two Browning HPs..and one SA 1911...are revolvers...but the ones I find the most satisfying and fascinating...are my four Ruger Old Army's
 

Jimbo357mag

Hawkeye
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
10,350
Location
So. Florida
Flyover_Country said:
In addition to the above:

1. Revolvers are often chambered for rounds that are much more powerful than most semi-automatics are, and are thus much more usable for hunting...

2. Revolvers will shoot a very wide variety of ammunition without any issues...

3. Revolvers are commonly available with longer barrels than semi-autos, allowing them to extract more power from a round...

4. If you reload, a semi-auto sprays your brass all over while a revolver keeps it in the cylinder...

5. Revolvers are mechanically simpler and due to their manual activation of the action, far less likely to malfunction...
Those are some great reasons put into words. Thanks for your input.
 

Snyd

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 26, 2009
Messages
433
Location
Alaska
To answer your title/question... "Why a revolver?" the answer is ...exactly!... Why just "A" revolver?! A guys definitely needs more than one!!
 

Pal Val

Buckeye
Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
1,553
Location
S.E. PA, USA
Why a revolver? Because when the chips are down, I want to have a handgun that will go "bang" when I pull the trigger, no ifs, ands or buts.
 

Flyover_Country

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
62
MaxP said:
As a fairly avid handgun hunter, what else would I use? :mrgreen:

In all seriousness, you could use a break-action single shot like a T/C Contender. Or less practically, a bolt-action rifle without the buttstock like Remington's former XP100.
 

MaxP

Buckeye
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Messages
1,012
Location
Virginia
Flyover_Country said:
MaxP said:
As a fairly avid handgun hunter, what else would I use? :mrgreen:

In all seriousness, you could use a break-action single shot like a T/C Contender. Or less practically, a bolt-action rifle without the buttstock like Remington's former XP100.

I said handgun hunting, not impractical short rifle hunting. :mrgreen:
 

grobin

Blackhawk
Joined
Mar 8, 2016
Messages
846
Unfortunately the one big drawback o a revolver is that by and large—except for the BFP—they aren't available in a lot of cartridges. As for h TC and XP100 being impractical there speaks someone who as never used one. I fired a lot of rounds through my XP100 back when I was doing silhouette competition. I took a bunch of deer with it and with the 7mm-08 pistol I upgraded to (I'm still sorry I sold it).

But I like single action revolvers because they are easy to use with the 'point & shoot' technique. Besides they are just fun to shoot, particularly in the heaver calibers—well not so much in 45-70 as 30-30.
 

Flyover_Country

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
62
grobin said:
Unfortunately the one big drawback o a revolver is that by and large—except for the BFP—they aren't available in a lot of cartridges. As for h TC and XP100 being impractical there speaks someone who as never used one. I fired a lot of rounds through my XP100 back when I was doing silhouette competition. I took a bunch of deer with it and with the 7mm-08 pistol I upgraded to (I'm still sorry I sold it).

But I like single action revolvers because they are easy to use with the 'point & shoot' technique. Besides they are just fun to shoot, particularly in the heaver calibers—well not so much in 45-70 as 30-30.

Revolvers are chambered in a fairly small number of cartridges, but as long as they cover the spread of the general intended usage of revolvers, then what is the issue? There are hundreds of very slightly different rifle rounds. Many are effectively identical for hunting purposes. You could likely do whatever you wanted to do with only about 10 of them, and half that many if attempting to shoot game beyond 300 yards was not required. For example, a rifle rack containing a .22 LR, .223 Rem, .30-06, .375 H&H, and a .458 Win Mag would be enough to hunt anything on the earth from chipmunk to elephant with an appropriately-sized rifle.

Shotgunners only have 6 gauges even remotely available, and of those 6, two comprise nearly the entire market. You hear no whining that we need an 11 gauge or other unique chamberings despite this lack of selection. Revolvers, like shotguns, can have a fairly wide spread in bullet weight and power level to use the same revolver on different game. The one type of cartridge revolvers generally are not chambered for is a small-caliber, high-velocity round used for silhouette such as the XP100's .221 Fireball. Silhouette is a very different game than hunting, though.
 

MaxP

Buckeye
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Messages
1,012
Location
Virginia
grobin said:
Unfortunately the one big drawback o a revolver is that by and large—except for the BFP—they aren't available in a lot of cartridges. As for h TC and XP100 being impractical there speaks someone who as never used one. I fired a lot of rounds through my XP100 back when I was doing silhouette competition. I took a bunch of deer with it and with the 7mm-08 pistol I upgraded to (I'm still sorry I sold it).

But I like single action revolvers because they are easy to use with the 'point & shoot' technique. Besides they are just fun to shoot, particularly in the heaver calibers—well not so much in 45-70 as 30-30.

I have to respectfully disagree. There are plenty of different chamberings available in revolvers to cover everything from rodents to pachyderms and everything in between. I don't see a lack of options in the least. Short rifles in bottle-necked rifle cartridges? If you can't shoot it offhand, it's hard to argue that it's a handgun.
 

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