those of you who carry the chief or similar 5-shot revolver...do you carry 5 rounds loaded in it or leave on cylinder empty for safety...what kind of holster do you use?

I load five rounds in Model 36 and 37 as the firing pin can't come in contact with the primer unless I have a defective gun.
I mostly carry them in an Uncle Mikes pocket holster as they are cheap and work well. Having said that I'll not replace them with same as new ones are made in Vietnam.

I load 5 in the wheel and do not worry about it

M36 with cylinder full

With the hammer block safety, load it with five and fear not.

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Dick

Load 5 and carry IWB appendix 95%, pocket the rest.

M-49 with 5 in the gun and another 5 on a speed strip.
Speed strip in my left front pocket and the Bodyguard in my right rear pocket.

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In dog years I'm dead.

All Five Hydra-Shocks 637-2 in a Galco form fit #CON158H

It's just as safe with five as it is with an empty cylinder. As for holsters, I carry with a pocket holster, belt holster, and sometimes an IWB holster, all made by me.





I'm left handed, and the OWB holster is a mirror image of the one I actually use. I just didn't have a picture of it handy.

A round in all cylinder holes carried in a Lobo #1 Pancake.

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- Change it back -

Our CCW instructor used to say on modern revolvers you could hit the hammer with a hammer and it wouldn't strike the primer unless the trigger was pulled. He said it as an exaggeration I don't believe anyone there tested it.
Steve W.
I do believe lots of folks do carry on an empty cylinder, a holdover from the cowboy days I guess.
Steve

All 5 loaded in a Robert Mika pocket holster or a Blackhawk Berns-Martin clone.

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Rick, W0FG
CTR2 68-72

Never had the fire arms instructor to tell us to carry five in our duty weapons. We carried all six holes full. Weapons were dropped thrown run over by cars and never caused them to fire. Had a friend that was mowing with a brush hogg and his 66 fell out of his belt and was run over by the mower and didn't fire. Wish I had taken a picture of it. It was totaled out.

36, 37, 442, 642, 60-14, Colt DS... All charge holes topped off. I primarily pocket carry these small revolvers, but do sometimes carry IWB, OWB, Small of Back and ankle. Holsters for pocket are a noname I picked up at a gun show, Don Hume for IWB and OWB, Galco Small of Back and Bianchi for the ankle.

Class III

All S&W double action revolvers have had the hammer block feature since about WWII. They are thus perfectly safe to carry ALWAYS with a full cylinder load.

Actually, a partially unloaded revolver can get its owner killed! Be safe!!!

If I was worried about an accidental discharge from a modern S&W revolver, I believe I'd load the cylinder under the hammer and skip the next one. The only way you are going to get it to fire is going to also include rotating the cylinder.

It is both safe and proper to carry a J Frame S&W(and most all modern DA revolvers) with all chambers loaded. The empty chamber practice was the safe and proper way to carry a Colt SAA revolver(and many other old revolvers) and still is. With a 5 shot revolver, leaving a chamber empty is a serious reduction in a pretty meager amount of shots available. I carry my J's in either a Galco horsehide pocket holster or a Galco ankle holster as well as in a Strong pancake holster or one of several waistband holsters. I think its reasonable to carry my fine revolvers in equally good leather. I see many people in gun shops paying $500+ for a handgun and then adding a cheap, flimsy holster to carry it in. That just doesn't make sense to me.