Years ago when I was "playing cowboy," the 24,000-acre ranch where we worked was situated in rough, remote, mountainous, heavily timbered country. It was also heavily populated with black bear and mountain lions that had absolutely no reservations about taking down a young calf. Our foreman wanted us all carrying sidearms and he preferred that we carry single-actions. Why? His reasoning was that if a single-action got a little dirty, it would still function. I wasn't going to argue. He was the boss.

Years later, when I was leading a pack string into designated wilderness areas, I always packed a single-action Ruger Blackhawk chambered in .45 Colt, loaded with some heavy duty rounds...usually 240-grain semi-jacketed hollow cavities traveling around 950 fps. Carried that for over 20 years. Why? Probably for the same reason. I guess old habits die hard.

When I shot SASS for several years, I learned to fire a single-action revolver pretty darned quickly, using my offhand thumb to do the cocking.

Sure, we'll always have the argument that semi-autos will fire faster. Our SASS group went up against the local police department in a shooting match...the cowboys using single-actions and the cops using semi-autos. Believe it or not, the cowboys won, not only in speed, but in accuracy...not just once, but several times.

Do I personally carry a single-action for self defense? No, but when "push comes to shove," if somebody feels comfortable using a single-action for self-defense, or if that's the only handgun they have available to them, they certainly could do worse.

Just my view from the saddle.

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Pack light and cinch tight.