Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns The wrong gun & the wrong training?

Well, I'll put on a blindfold and foxtrot in this minefield. You guys are just rehashing the same arguments about revolvers vs. semi-autos that have been going on for decades and like folks are wont to do pulling arguments from the small ends of the bell curve and/or citing scenarios that have nothing to do with the OP which is about concealed carry and the cheaper, smaller autos.

Semi-autos used to be more unreliable than most of them are today. Most of that was ammo related where they would only feed round nose FMJ or ammo had to be within certain minimum and maximum lengths, the rest of that was environmental where dirt or foreign matter jammed the action. Semi-autos that were unreliable just by crappy design were fairly rare. A lot of that has been fixed. The modern striker fired pistols from any decent manufacturer are amazingly reliable, owners of P-35's and 1911's from a few decades ago probably wouldn't believe how reliable they are.

Revolvers are more prone to jamming from exterior factors, that's why modern armies no longer drag Webleys and 1917's through the mud. Ammo related problems can tie up a revolver but those are really few and far between, almost all ammo related problems in a revolver can be solved by pulling the trigger.

Semi-autos do hold more rounds (at least the larger ones) and are easier and quicker to reload. As a wise man said, nobody who has gone through a gun fight ever wanted smaller or fewer bullets.

Ammo can jam a semi-auto and it takes longer to clear a simple failure to fire than it does to pull the trigger on a revolver. Failures to feed can tie up an automatic in several different ways and can sometimes be as problematic as dirt in a revolver. But given good ammo modern semi-autos are extremely reliable.

Revolvers are easier for Dockers Dads and Soccer Moms to learn to use. I didn't say shoot accurately, I said easier to learn to use. You guys keep expecting everybody to take up your personal hobby. The folks buying guns these days are not gun people and the vast majority of them never will be. The manual of arms for a revolver is easier to understand than the manual for a semi-auto and that's just a fact. You can argue that all day but see the first two sentences here. A supposedly trained cop in Dania, FL killed a woman in the police station because he took the magazine out of his pistol and pulled the trigger. Even after training he thought that if the magazine was out then the gun was unloaded. Another cop thought that once the magazine was in that meant the gun was fully loaded. Insert magazine, gun loaded, pull trigger. Yeah, I know, "cops are the worst". But if trained officers who have to undergo repeated training can't figure out a pistol why do you expect Joe or Jane Average Citizen to do any better? There are no magazine disconnects on revolvers, they aren't needed. (and don't tell me you can't pull the trigger on a revolver when the cylinder is opened and then think you're smart for pointing this out)

Here's my opinion and fully worth any of the other 8 billion opinions on this planet.

Get a Glock 19 or Smith M&P 2.0 Compact or Sig Compact and some good quality ammo, they won't let you down. 1. Learn how to load and unload it properly. 2. Learn how to load and unload it properly. 3. Learn how to load unload it properly. 4. Keep it loaded and don't touch it. If someone is not going to take the time to do steps 1, 2, and 3 then get a revolver and go on to step 4.

If someone wants to take the time to get better in accuracy, handling, all the ways that one can get "better" then you are old enough to make up your own mind on which one to use.

Logic is confusing to most, I know. Try to do your best.

I believe in equal opportunity and harshly oppose discrimination.....keep an auto behind the right hip and a revolver in the left front pocket.

Damn, a voice of reason. Thanks for your insight, Jim.

Yep, if the ejector rod unscrews itself (happens often enough on older Smiths, for example) that gun is locked up good and tight until you can screw the ejector rod back in (no easy task). Smith changed the direction of the ejector rod threading to fix that, but it was a thing.

Another point...non gun people perceive revolvers as old fashioned and don't want them. If you talk someone into something that they don't like, they're never going to practice with it
.

You're a cut above.

I can understand why someone who doesn't do a lot of shooting, doesn't want to spend the time to feel comfortable with operating a semiauto and doesn't do concealed carry would choose a revolver for home defense but can't understand choosing one otherwise.

Anyone questioning the advantage of faster reloading and large capacity magazines should look up the Newhall Incident. 50 years ago two career criminals with plenty of firepower quickly killed four California Highway Patrol Officers armed with revolvers. Another incident where firepower and plenty of ammo were a factor was the Miami/Dade FBI shootout in 1986 that resulted in Two FBI agents dead and five wounded.

Not all shooting is for self defense, a lot of us just like to shoot, period. Tin cans, critters, plinking in general. Revolvers are a lot of fun. Nothing wrong with them at all, except in some folks' minds.

I own a revolver but I don't think that is what the OP was referencing.

Go back and read Idaho Jim's response. No one is questioning the advantage of faster reloading.

Who's conclusion starts with:

Get a Glock 19 or Smith M&P 2.0

I agree with you that revolvers are the best choice for some people, which I said in the first paragraph of my post. I own and shoot a couple myself. I didn't say or intend to say that you or anyone on the thread was questioning the advantage of faster reloading but after re reading my post I could have phrased it better.

Yes, but it was a well-reasoned discussion, unlike your snarky-assed, short comments that have offered no appreciable contribution to the discussion.

Understood. Thanks.

Even if revolvers aren't the best choices for some of these newbies, I've witnessed a lot of "training" of beginners that appeared to be more akin to teaching someone how to participate in an all-out gunfight rather than the basics of self defense and how to protect themselves in the parking lot at the grocery store.

You answered your own question in your own rant, so I gave your old guy rant exactly what it deserved.

I was menthioning steel cased ammo, not reloads.
Tula, Wolf, Winchester. And its a good chance the novice is going to run some in an auto.

The only wheelie Ive seen tied up in the described fashion was a 22 Jet and someone who failed to charge a case, not that it doesnt or cant happen.

Lady couple counties over popped two pitbulls with..."Glad my $129.00 HiPoint was handy it worked." Look poor people are people too no it's not pretty or fitted like a Nighthawk but that HiPoint probably saved her life. I use a Mossberg Mc1sc myself and I'm well pleased.

LOL

I guess some people prefer book form.

Switch it around at that's how I roll in the hood in Miami.

G19/Sig 365xl/G17 on my hip and a 642 with hardcast hp's in my front pocket.

Lady friend who was po-po for 27 yrs keeps telling me bad juju stories. I keep telling her that's no way to run a donut shop. Lol.