I carry a snubnose revolver because.....

[FortKnox]

For the 80s kid in me, if it's good enough for Ricardo Tubbs then it's good enough for me.




And for the adult I am today if it's good enough for Walter White aka Heisenberg then it's good enough for me.

[Ron_TN]

Here's my take on revolver and pistols. For a once in a life time shot and the shot being my life I'll put my faith in a revolver.  Oh yeah it dont hold 15 or more rounds but I think the reality that a pistol has a better chance of jamming will better my odds. I'm 80 and NEVER had a revolver jam.  Pistols many times!!!  I am not talkin street fight...I'm talkin home invasion.

[mootw]

One of my all time favorite carry guns is this Smith & Wesson PC 686 Plus:

 

[URL=http://s1053.photobucket.com/user/mootw/media/Revolver/817b1056-bd4f-409c-a6b2-1cbcac569be5_zpsf95f1b6e.jpg.html][/URL]

[hipower]

NIce Smith, very nice indeed.

Although I really, really like the trigger on the newer Ruger GP100 3"(soon to be added), my personal revolver fav has got to be an old Smith Model 19 with a 2.5" barrel and a T-grip handle.

Holds great! Sweet trigger and I can hit my targets with it.

[Clod Stomper]

Here's my take on revolver and pistols. For a once in a life time shot and the shot being my life I'll put my faith in a revolver. Oh yeah it dont hold 15 or more rounds but I think the reality that a pistol has a better chance of jamming will better my odds. I'm 80 and NEVER had a revolver jam. Pistols many times!!! I am not talkin street fight...I'm talkin home invasion.

I'm 42 and I've had a Smith & Wesson jam up hard, repeatedly, for no reason that I've been able to figure out. When a revolver gets jammed, it's not a simple tap-rack-bang. It will most likely involve disassembly. The reality is, if you've fired several hundred rounds through a pistol and it hasn't jammed, odds are that it won't when you need it. Given the same ammunition.

I love my revolvers, but I'll usually take a pistol for defense.

Back on topic, I don't carry a snub-nose. But my brother does. Why? It's small, simple and he doesn't have a small pistol.

[leroy]

They all work; and work very well... I like semiautos and revolvers both... The trick is to learn how they work and to learn to shoot 'em and shoot 'em well...

 

leroy

[crossfire]

I like snubnose and carry and LCR or my Glock 26.

 

This has it's place in the night stand. S&W 386 SC/S. I believe they were only made 1 or 2 years.

 

Kicks like a mule with .357 but not too bad with .38spl.

 

Edited May 31, 2015 by crossfire

[Patton]

Here's my take on revolver and pistols. For a once in a life time shot and the shot being my life I'll put my faith in a revolver. 

I know what you are saying, but I often think that the first shot in a semi-auto may actually be even more reliable as long as there is a round in the chamber. A lot has to happen for a revolver to fire, and a lot has to happen for a semi-auto to cycle.

I carry a variety of snub-noses revolvers as a primary, and my favorite is by far a j frame. My all-time favorite was a 1991 640 38 spl that I foolishly sold. I like to carry the Airweights, but the all steel versions shoot so much better.

[K191145]

I'm 42 and I've had a Smith & Wesson jam up hard, repeatedly, for no reason that I've been able to figure out. When a revolver gets jammed, it's not a simple tap-rack-bang. It will most likely involve disassembly. The reality is, if you've fired several hundred rounds through a pistol and it hasn't jammed, odds are that it won't when you need it. Given the same ammunition.

I love my revolvers, but I'll usually take a pistol for defense.

Back on topic, I don't carry a snub-nose. But my brother does. Why? It's small, simple and he doesn't have a small pistol.

 

I have had .38 Special revolvers fail to cycle just because of certain ammo. I have noticed that some .38 rounds are too long for some revolvers and the tip of the bullet snags the edge of the barrell. I guess forcing cone is not the proper term since it's inside the barrell. Anyway, .357's don't have that problem.

[ou812]

Here's my take on revolver and pistols. For a once in a life time shot and the shot being my life I'll put my faith in a revolver.  Oh yeah it dont hold 15 or more rounds but I think the reality that a pistol has a better chance of jamming will better my odds. I'm 80 and NEVER had a revolver jam.  Pistols many times!!!  I am not talkin street fight...I'm talkin home invasion.

I rented a  S&W 38 at the range last year to try it out.   It jammed.   Now being a range rental it most likely has more rounds than most guns but it still locked up.  But with that said...there is a glock 17 in a night stand  on one side of the bed and s .357 in a chest on the other side of the bed.

[TNWNGR]

When a pistol jams is generally due to mis-feed clear able with a tap, rap, bang. If it's something more then that then your down until it's figured out and resolved. It might or might not be a simple mechanical problem.
When a revolver locks up, semantic difference but none the less correct, it's generally due to a primer backing out of a primer pocket enough to lock up the cylinder. I've had this happen to me several times with reloaded ammunition but only a couple of times with factory ammunition. Clearing this is involves either a sharp Strike to the right cylinder side which if your lucky might only require your palm or fist. I've also had mechanical failure requiring repair work.
Bottom line have a fall back plan and train for it but overall the snub nose has lots of good things going for it.

[300winmag]

I've had a revolver cylinder lock up on me once a long time ago.  I was able to eventually open the cylinder.  From what I remember, I was shooting factory ammo.  Maybe the extractor star was not kept clean and pushed the cartridge a little too high.  I've also had a reloaded cartridge with a high primer keep a cylinder from turning.

 

A revolver is a good gun for someone who does not understand how to take a pistol apart to clean.  It is easier to unload and load.  I've taken revolvers that have been sitting for quite some time and they fired fine.  Most just needed a little oil to make the cylinder move smoother.  As long as the weapon is kept wiped down and dry and the ammo is not corroded, generally the revolver will fire.  Now if you drop a revolver on a hard surface or get a lot of dirt in it, you may have to take it to a gunsmith.  I've dropped a semi auto pistol on ice and it just needed to be wiped down.  The gun functioned fine when I shot it later on.

[DMark]

I carry a snubnose revolver because.....

 

They are a great ankle carry BUG to my Colt Commander.  :up:

 

S&W Airweight Model 37

 

[JAB]

...because revolvers generally don't care if a less than optimal grip results in limpwristing.  Revolvers don't care - and won't potentially fail to return to battery - if you have to jam them into an assailant's gut and pull the trigger (which, to me, is a more likely scenario than needing 15, 30, 45 rounds or more to resolve a 'serious social situation' as a civilian.)  As long as the ammo is loaded to the correct length, revolvers don't care what the 'nose' profile of the bullet is, how large the HP cavity is or how sharp the boundaries of said cavity are as there is no feed ramp or similar for the ammo to hang up on.  Any piece of machinery has to be maintained but revolvers don't care if you didn't get quite enough lube (or too much) on the slide rails because revolvers have no slide rails.  No one is likely to accidentally forget to click the safety on a revolver off because there probably isn't a safety (I'm thinking of some single action .22 revolvers that do have safeties.)  No one is likely to accidentally hit the mag release button and drop the mag in a revolver while nervous and under pressure despite spending lots of time in a calm, controlled environment training not to do so - because revolvers don't have mags to drop.  Because I am neither police, military nor any, other personnel whose job may require them to move toward an assailant or group of assailants while accompanied by other, armed personnel who are similarly armed and who are on their side.

 

The very fact that, in threads like this, there are always some folks who point out that revolvers can jam is, to me, a testament to revolver reliability.  The instances of them jamming are sort of the exceptions that prove the rule in that case and are rare enough that people can mention them as specific occasions and/or specific guns.  See, no one has to point out that semi-autos can (and likely will, at some point) jam, even if only due to an ammo issue or a magazine issue or a failure to clean issue or a failure to lube issue or a limpwristing issue or an issue of firing from an odd angle or...well, you get the point...because it happens so frequently with semiautos as to be almost a matter of course.  Sure, clearing a semiauto jam might 'only' require a tap/rack but if your life is being immediately threatened then I doubt the assailant is just going to let you call a time out even for that two or three seconds the tap/rack will take - and certainly not long enough to allow you to change mags, etc. if the tap/rack doesn't do the trick.

 

As for ammo capacity, well, if I am facing a threat so great and numerous that it is going to require 15, 30 or 45 rounds fired to stop the threat then most likely I am going to be dead before I run out of ammo.  No matter how many rounds I have in my gun or on my belt I am only one person shooting one gun .  If I am facing five or six armed assailants - meaning six people/six guns then all that ammo likely isn't going to make much difference.

 

Now, do those factors stop me from carrying a high-cap semiatuo sometimes?  Nope.  Do I think semiautos are totally unreliable pieces of junk that are just waiting for the opportunity to get their owners killed?  Nope.  Do I think that the perceived 'advantages' of a semiauto over a revolver are often both overstated and over-rated when it comes to carry by a private citizen who is neither police nor military?  Yep.  Do I think that the advantages a revolver has over a semiatuo are likewise often ignored or under-rated?  Yep.  Do I think that both have relative advantages and disadvantages in comparison to the other?  Sure.  It's just that I believe that - again, when talking about carry by a private citizen for personal protection - the odds favoring one over the other work out to be just about even with personal preference, amount of practice with a particular platform, natural ability with a particular platform and similar, individual factors being more important than which platform is chosen.

Edited June 2, 2015 by JAB

[glowdotGlock]

My EDC is a G19 but I used to pocket carry a LCR .357 for those "lite" days. I now carry a Shield 9 and doubt anything will replace it anytime soon as a pocket/bug.

[Will]

Revolver is still the best house/car gun as you can leave them loaded and not touch them for four years with no worry of the mag spring going weak. I have 

seen the best auto ever made (Glock) fire entire fifteen round mag after a year loaded,but I would not take that chance and load new mag every few months.

[greenego]

I carry an SP101. Little heavy but can handle 357 very well. I have 38 hollow points in it.

[teecro]

Revolver is still the best house/car gun as you can leave them loaded and not touch them for four years with no worry of the mag spring going weak. I have 

seen the best auto ever made (Glock) fire entire fifteen round mag after a year loaded,but I would not take that chance and load new mag every few months.

 

To which I've seen an old rattle trap Commander empty out several well used surplus mags after being loaded for least a decade.... While springs can have issues they rarely do....

[Joe357]

I also carry an sp101 with extra speedloaders and soon a lcrx 3" barrel. I do check my ammo in gun to make sure the cylinder spins freely, been doing it for years. Something an old friend told me to do many years ago and I still do it today some 40+ years later. I do have a few other revolvers for target shooting and car carry. Guess you can't teach an old fart new tricks. ;)

[TNWNGR]

It's useful to point out 2" Colt & S&W revolvers were the go to personal defense and daily carry weapon as well as issued duty weapon of Federal, State and Municipal law enforcement for many years. It was such a big thing that European and Asian military and federal agencies carried them as well. You can still find parts kits of not so old S&W M-10 2" RB revolvers consisting of everything but the frame..  

But for all its pluses an all steel snub nose is thicker and heavier then most contemporary pistols. This is where the benefits of the S&W Airweights & Ruger LCR come into play. A common practice not to long ago was to have an Airweight for daily carry and a M-36 or M-60 for frequent firing. You ran an occasional cylinder full through the AW to keep a feel for it, while lengthening its service life.

[A.J. Holst]

...because sometimes I like carrying a revolver?

I have a 2" and 3" SP, the 2 was my original EDC, the 3 has been to Gemini Customs.

Having done some course work with a revolver, unless you actively practice reloading (which I dont), speed strips are not speedy and speed loaders are slightly less slow. Validates the New York reload option...

Revolvers are old school cool...let's party likes it's 1899!

[darsk20]

.... because it's lighter than my full size 1911 and conceals better in my summer wear.

[g2122]

I love my snub nose 38s as well as the next guy, but I had a jam with my 642.  I was shooting reloads when the cylinder locked up.  some unburnt powder or something go in between the cylinder and bottom lock above the trigger.  I was able to fix it by swinging the cylinder out and cleaning the outside, but it did jam.  To its defense, reloads can be a little "dirtier" in my experiene than quality self-defense ammo. 

 

I've shot reloads through my G21.  I had a couple of bad primers that did not go off, but that was much easier to remedy in the G21.

 

Each platform has its weaknesses and benefits. 

[greenego]

Biggest draw back i have heard about a revolver is, if there is a problem, little chance you can correct it. With a semi-auto you can usually clear a jam. 

[Patton]

The biggest failure I have seen over the years with autos that wasn't operator error was magazine failure. If you don't have a backup magazine you have a single shot handgun. I have seen a couple of broken firing pins on Sigmas and a couple of broken extractors.