Pistols, semi auto v/s revolvers

[doug1980]

Semi Auto only because I have no experience with revolvers. Never held one let alone shot one.

[kyratshooter]

The only folks that think revolvers have fewer parts than a simiauto have never been inside a revolver. A lot of the critical parts are itty bitty things too!

I love my 45s and I have developed a stong infatuation with a CZ75 I picked up in a trade a few weeks back. It's the final evolution of the Browning system. Accurate as a rifle, SA/DA, can be carried in condition one and a double action trigger better than most revolvers.

I even depend on a lazer equipped P95 with a big ole 20 shot mag on the nightstand.

But what is stashed in safe places all over North KY, SW Ohio and half of TN are a bunch of mid frame .357 revolvers.

[Rick]

They've never been inside an H&R I'll tell ya that. You have to build pins for the pins and hope everything stays together long enough to get it back together. Even if it does you have no assurance that it will be lined up correctly, which means you get to start all over again.

[Delta 5168]

Revolver. you can't beat simple.

[kyratshooter]

They've never been inside an H&R I'll tell ya that. You have to build pins for the pins and hope everything stays together long enough to get it back together. Even if it does you have no assurance that it will be lined up correctly, which means you get to start all over again.

H&R revolvers have a self distruct mechinism where each part is spring loaded and critical parts have bigger launch devices than noncritical parts. Somewhere, deep in the shag pile carpet of an apartment in Lebanon,TN lies burried half an H&R 32 pistol that literally exploded in my hands as pin #2 was removed back in 1977.

I got the pistol back together using ball point pen springs and nails I polished down to size using an electric drill. It requires dental picks and slave pins to work on an H&R!

Charter Arms pistols are just as bad and an old model Colt Woodsman .22 will give a seasoned gunsmith a nervous breakdown. Rugers are built as component units and one does not repair them, one replaces units.

S&W and Colt revolvers, even the big frame ones, are dependent on several very tiney through pins for proper timing and "forcing" anything on a quality revolver is going to throw the timing completely off.

In contrast a Colt style SA revolver has only 6 moving parts; hammer, hand, bolt, trigger, cylinder and ejector. There are three springs thrown in but they don't count. Any single part can stop working and you can still make a SSA fire. Not efficiently, but it will fire.

[Rick]

Yeah, but they're simple. Remember?

[kyratshooter]

The amazing thing, to me at least, is how well firearms hold up, espically quality firearms.

I have an Enfield rifle, used hard since 1915, two of my better revolvers were made in the 1930s, a Mauser rifle that faught the Spanish Civil War, a Mosin that faught WW2 and God only knows where else. My best shotgun is older than I am, and I do not anticipatre anything in any of them "breaking" or wearing out.

When I open one of my S&W revolvers the internals look like new. Parts put inside there the first time in 1937 show only a good polish after tens of thousands of rounds.

In fact, after shooting and repairing as a hobby and professionally for over 50 years I can say that the number of quality firearms I have "repaired" due to wear and tear I could count on both hands. Most repairs were due to someone dingling with their gear or simply bad engineering. By bad engineering I am refering to things like the O-rings for 1100 Remingtons that disentergrate due to exhaust fumes and things like that. And there are the goofballs that think every reload should power an Atlas rocket into orbit! That will trash one quickly. Everything has its limits.

However, if you are worried about keeping a horde of "spare parts" for your main guns you have chosen the wrong guns, or not enough of the same guns. If my old N-frame is still clicking along the one you buy today should still be shooting on its origional parts in 2087!

[tsitenha]

I have always been facinated with the S&W kit gun .22lr, finally got one, can't carry it in Kanata but maybe there will be a day?
If I expect that I would need more power then I bring my rifle.

[lucznik]

I carry a 9mm auto most days because it's small.

But, if I had to make the choice of only one, it would be my 4", L-frame, S&W 686+ Mtn Gun. Loaded with 180 gr. Nosler Partitions or Hornady XTPs on top of a good stiff charge of 2400 gives you a very formitable big game hunting round. Loaded with light 110 - 125 gr. hollowpoints it's an unsurpased "man-stopper." Loaded with .38 spcl wadcutters, it's an absolute pussycat to shoot and makes for a great small game hunter.

[Simple Survivor]

I've seen revolvers go down before. No machine's perfect. Revolver, semi-auto. Doesn't really matter as long as you train with what you have. That's the key. Each platform has strengths and weaknesses and training will help strengthen the positives and negate the negatives. I'm a Beretta guy and I love high capacity autos. That's not to say I "can't shoot and need more bullets." It's preference. I know a guy that runs revolvers that I would never want to get into a gunfight with. Train with what you have.

[Batch]

If a revolver goes down in a fight, it is out for the whole fight. I carry a Sig226 Navy with the 18 round mag. That gives me 19 rounds.

As a hunting sidearm I carry a S&W 29 with a 4" barrel. But, I would trade that for a longer barrel one. Like my dad's old Colt Python he used to carry in a shoulder holster so he could get to it if he was crawling through the palmettos after a hog.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

A fellow once told me it wasn't the bow, but the Indian. I try to keep that in mind most of the time about most things.

Well-said; well-said indeed!

-- Nighteyes (Mississippi Choctaw)

[Daniel Nighteyes]

I like them both but if I had to pick one It would be a 4" S&W model 29, just got to love a 44 MAG.

Not to be TOO picky here, but from what I know a .44 Mag round fired thru a 4-inch barrel won't produce more than a heckuva fireball, and a velocity/stopping power about the same as a .44 Special round.

Of course I could be mistaken, and am more than willing to have my viewpoint corrected -- with information, facts and hard data of course.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

Now for my own answer: It depends. It depends on the particular situation, mission, objective, etc.

If we're talking about "being waked up in the middle of the night and having to defend person and family", I go with the revolver each and every time. In my case its an older 4-inch S&W Model 19 in .357 magnum, loaded with .38 +P rounds. Trust me on this; even if I am not quite awake, I know how to use it to maximum advantage.

In other situations, had it not been for the canoe accident, I would have opted for my SIG P226. Though they would have been my emotional favorites, the two Series 70 Colt Combat Commanders (one blued, one satin nickel) were just too difficult to deal with in most situations. [Please note, carefully, that I once owned TWO of them - one for me, one for my wife - before the canoe accident. Too bad that they're now at the bottom of that ever-so-deep lake...]

[hunter63]

Another victim of the TCA.....(tragic canoe accident).....been going around.

[kyratshooter]

I have been thinking about the "Canoe Accident".

I have decided that if I am ever faced with confiscation or forced turn in (the likey senerio and the way they did it in 1938), there will truely be a great canoe accident.

Before the government gets mine I will sink them in the lake.

Just so they will wonder for eternity where all of them went too.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

Before the government gets mine I will sink them in the lake.

Just so they will wonder for eternity where all of them went too.

Unfortunately, a bunch of us are way ahead of ya... {Sob!}

[Beans]

Although I am a great fan of the 1911 platform and it is my choice of CC 60% of the time, my Glock gets the other 40%. If I were to go where maintenance or the lack of the ability to perform maintenance was going to be a problem the Glock would be my choice.

My choices are"--- my Glock, my AK and my Ka-bar, neither seem to take much maintenance and continue working.

[Woodmaster750]

Daniel where's this lake, and it's depth? Have tanks will dive.

[Rick]

Sadly, where mine sank it's one foot deeper than man can dive. Isn't that always the case?