".a renaissance of interest in revolvers. . ." Michael Bane. You think that's true?

[txbandit]

My last two purchases were Redhawks; Backpacker in 44 and the 45/45 ACP model. Yes, I am over 60.

 

[USARMYSPEC4]

I have been shooting wheel guns since the early 60's, and my latest buy was a 986 9mm. I use it for steel shooting and just love it. The nice thin is you can reduce the powder and get a shooter with very little recoil.
I have a couple all steel semi colts for personal defense, but for fun and a lot of enjoyment, there is nothing like a good wheel gun. Just my dimes worth.

 

[jstanfield103]

All I know is that I have 8 steel plates at 25 yards they start at 12" Plates and go down to 3" plates. I have 5 semi auto's and 5 Revolvers. If I want to hit any of the smaller plates at 25 yards I have to use my revolvers or step closer for the smaller plates with the auto's.
I like both and they both have their place but you can not beat the feel of a good 6" .357 / .38 in you're hand.

 

[hkcavalier]

Guys, it's not just the "geezers" here that like revolvers. I'm not quite 40 and most of the handguns on my "buy on sight" list are revolvers. I'm not even a collector per se.

To me a well-made revolver is like a Rolex. Rolex is not going to go liquid crystal or link their watch up to satellites. The technology is set. People that buy them want something that's timeless, high quality, and yes...they get a kick out of being a bit of an anachronism (double entendre alert) with their $5,000 wrist-clock.

Some people my age give a little thought about what they're going to leave their kids or grandkids...but sadly most just have the "inexpensive toy" mindset like their $499 Black Friday special LED TV or $249 Kel-Tec P11. Both work but aren't something you're looking forward to handing off to your progeny.

 

[357-RevolverGuy]

I've always been into revolvers. Anyone who hasn't been hiding under a rock the past several years knows the most sought after guns right now are Colt snake guns, particularly the Python. Just like decades ago when you'd hear everyone quote Dirty Harry movies and say, "Is that a 44 mag?", I'm hearing people compare every revolver they see to the Python.

If there's a renaissance it's probably more toward appreciating and owning the older revolvers. But the new ones I see are also very cool. I have a few newer models on my wish list but they're all Ruger's.

 

[HarrishMasher]

Hands down regular practice shooting a revolver Double Action has made me a much better shooter. Every shooter would benefit greatly if they own and practiced with one.

I am now at the point where I shoot revolvers better than I shoot semi-autos. And I have quite a few of each, and I shoot both kinds every week.

Getting into revolvers the last few years and lots of practice has increased my shooting ability many fold.

If there is not an upswing in interest in revolvers (which I don't think there is), there should be.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

I'm thinking that it's J-frames and older guns that are predominating in revolver sales (there are always revolvers on the auction sites), but the larger revolvers used in hunting clearly sell to a certain extent and, as long as the sport of cowboy action shooting exists, single action revolvers will remain somewhat reasonably good sellers.

Colt's snake guns are all "older guns". Popular in the past, more popular now. Kind of like buying a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado or a 1965 Mustang.

Here on this Forum one should expect a predominance of revolver enthusiasts. That does not have to translate to the rest of the shooting world. I probably have 3 or 4 revolvers for each automatic pistol that I own (yes, yes, that's what we used to call them back in the day!). But that's what makes me a S&W person, actually.

 

[rifmon]

I think they are being rediscovered. While they will never be looked as "six for sure" being the only guaranteed reliable platform, Revolvers have a mechanical coolness to them.

They are versatile in that they can be loaded with the weakest wadcutters all the way to the highest plus p 38 specials suitable for home and personal defense. If you have a 357 you can proceed to hunting capabilities.
Revolvers can be purchased in shrouded hammer configurations making them a pregnant and powerful five shot derringer that may be shot from a pocket without the risk of a slide or hammer induced malfunction!
Revolvers are the only fire arm that allows the person on the visual side of the barrel to see all of it's arsenal at once. A loaded revolver is intimidating!
Revolvers do not function based upon ammo power or feed profile.
Revolvers will function after long periods of neglect. Not properly lubed and no spring replacements will not effect it reliability.

While the ranges may still be dominated by semis I notice that manufacturers such as Smith and Wesson, Ruger, Taurus, Charter Arms as well as newer actors coming onto the scene, are making more and more varied, interesting and custom models!

I own 3 semis and will soon own a revolver. I've had plenty in the last and I miss having one!

 

[wolverine]

I'm seeing more & more revolvers in my area ranges lately.

I think one of the reasons being that some of my local ranges are adding revolver classes in their weekend shooting events.

With the cost of ammo going up & brass getting harder to find at a reasonable price I find myself shooting more & more revolver classes just so I don't have to chase brass around (I reload all my ammo)

Couple that with (2) indoor ranges near me making policy that any brass that hits the floor is theirs (so I help them out here by casually tossing my cracked cases & steel cases on the floor for them to sort out)

I still shoot a lot of semi-auto at my home range, carry a semi-auto pistol, & compete with one at most events.

BUT- I have found that shooting a double action revolver also helps my semi-auto shooting & follow through.

Deep snow here in the winter so I mostly shoot revolver in the snow as no lost brass that way.

 

[Retired W4]

You see very few magnum caliber semi-autos with very few SA's used in hunting. I must confess I keep a plastic 9mm in my truck, but my home defense hand guns are .357, .44, and .44 mag (all revolvers of course). I don't expect a running gun battle at my front door. The tactical shotgun only hold around 6 rounds but are quite effective. What might you need at Wally world or the local gas station? I'm guessing most gun fights here in the U.S. are over after 3 or 4 rounds. I'm just not seeing an advantage to semi-autos in most situations. In 1969 we would start the day taking off in a UH-1 with 3000-5000 rounds of 7.62x51 but that was very different from driving around your home town. To each his own.

 

[Jhamblen86]

I must say revolvers are coming back. I'm a 29 year old man who fell in love with the wheel gun a few years ago. My favorite and most comfortable carry gun is a wheel gun. No it's not a j frame. Everyone of my friends/coworkers I take to the range who try my revolver fall as well. It may not be a massive boom but the wheel gun is growing.

 

[elm_creek_smith]

When this dinosaur shows up for qualification or practice, the Glocksketeers seem puzzled. Then, they seem embarrassed when I outshoot them with my 4 inch Model 686. Now if I could get the agency to spring for a 686+...

When they start talking about "pretty," I take my nickel-plated Model 37 with buffalo horn grips and a BK Grip adapter out of my pocket, and they are shamed into silence.

 

[dwever]

MY RANT ON ACTION and how it hurts revolver sales. And my hope my recent two Performance Center experiences are the exception and not the rule.

This thread in some ways has generally transitioned from 'do you think there's a revolver renaissance', to, 'here's why revolvers are great'. Nothing wrong with that.

I would add to the discussion the possibility that one of the things that perhaps hurts revolver popularity, particularly in the $1,000 realm, is the heavy, uneven, terrible action so many revolvers sit in showroom cabinets with. I handled a <$1,000 BNIB Pro Series SSR 686 at Shotgun Sports, Anniston Alabama, a made-for-competition Pro Series revolver, and the action was not only stiff and uneven, worse than that, it was sand grinding gritty.

Even lately from the Performance Center. My two 2015 Perf Ctr. purchases pictured below both have to go in for stone and polish, my 586 L-Comp is due back today. Two Perf Ctr 929's that were taken down in reviews showed no evidence of stoning or polishing, and one of them according to the reviewer, had milling shaving(s) in the action.

Imagine how much more winsome a revolver would be to a semi-auto shooter if you had the proper revolver action on the show-room floor. People are generally not buying products for what they can be, they are buying products for what they are.

How long will a lady shooting enthusiast fool with an $1,100 L Frame revolver once she gets in to a fight with the revolver's 13 Lbs. trigger pull like mine? Heck, even though I qualified with it at my agency out-of-the-box, I wouldn't of bought it if I didn't know how and where to get that fixed. And I have subsequently had it stone and polished at TK Custom in Illinois. And as long as I'm whining so much, the delivered Tritium site on that revolver was uselessly dim as noted by many reviewers, and there went another $135ish addressing that.

So my two 2015 purchases are numbers 4 and 5 from the Perf Ctr. In 2008/09 I bought three Perf Ctr weapons: a 627 5" Barrel 8-Shot quickly followed by another 627 but in the 2.625" barrel (UDR); and finally a 629 7.5" hunting revolver. None of those went for additional action work, and I competed with the two 627's as delivered. What's happened?

Tomorrow I'll go down to Federal Express and send TK Custom my other recent PC purchase, the UDR and it's 12+ lbs. of pull. And I'm just wondering how much Joe and Jill Consumer are missing out on because they never really experience the inherent greatness of the revolver platform because of corners being cut on $1,000 plus guns. So no wonder Joe and Jill pick up some of these guns, cycle them a couple of times, and move on to the Glock 22 and save $200 or so.

Now to be fair, I loved my 586 L-Comp right out of the box, and loved shooting it even before it went to TK Custom. But the truth of it is, as much as I'm glad I made that purchase, had I not had the experience and knowledge of how to get it right the rest of the way, I would not have bought it.

 

[one eye joe]

I'm seeing more & more revolvers in my area ranges lately.

I think one of the reasons being that some of my local ranges are adding revolver classes in their weekend shooting events.

With the cost of ammo going up & brass getting harder to find at a reasonable price I find myself shooting more & more revolver classes just so I don't have to chase brass around (I reload all my ammo)

Couple that with (2) indoor ranges near me making policy that any brass that hits the floor is theirs (so I help them out here by casually tossing my cracked cases & steel cases on the floor for them to sort out)

I still shoot a lot of semi-auto at my home range, carry a semi-auto pistol, & compete with one at most events.

BUT- I have found that shooting a double action revolver also helps my semi-auto shooting & follow through.

Deep snow here in the winter so I mostly shoot revolver in the snow as no lost brass that way.

I HAVE BEEN SHOOTING AT INDOOR RANGES, IN SEVERAL STATES, FOR OVER 50 YEARS. I HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED A RANGE THAT HAS THE AUDACITY TO CLAIM THAT ANY OF MY BRASS THAT HITS THE FLOOR BELONGS TO THEM ! ! ! MY BRASS--PAID FOR BY ME--BELONGS SOLELY TO ME. I POLICE UP ALL OF MY BRASS AND LEAVE MY PORT AS CLEAN, OR CLEANER THAN I FOUND IT. I WOULD NEVER SHOOT AT A RANGE WITH A RULE SUCH AS THIS. WHERE DO THEY IMAGINE THAT THEY GET THE AUTHORITY TO STEAL SOMEONE'S BRASS, JUST BECAUSE THAT PERSON HAPPENS TO BE SHOOTING A SEMI-AUTO ? ? ? I REALIZE THAT THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO DICTATE THE RULES ON THEIR RANGE, SO I WOULD EXERCISE MY RIGHT TO SHOOT ELSEWHERE…..

 

[Mister X]

You see very few magnum caliber semi-autos with very few SA's used in hunting. I must confess I keep a plastic 9mm in my truck, but my home defense hand guns are .357, .44, and .44 mag (all revolvers of course). I don't expect a running gun battle at my front door. The tactical shotgun only hold around 6 rounds but are quite effective. What might you need at Wally world or the local gas station? I'm guessing most gun fights here in the U.S. are over after 3 or 4 rounds. I'm just not seeing an advantage to semi-autos in most situations. In 1969 we would start the day taking off in a UH-1 with 3000-5000 rounds of 7.62x51 but that was very different from driving around your home town. To each his own.

I have an opposite perpective. I feel adequately armed with a J-frame in public settings where avoiding/escaping is often an option and will always will always being preferred over engaging. For those reactive counter-ambush scenarios that can't be avoided, I like the ECQ qualities of the snub revolver. However, in a home defense scenario, we have seen a relatively large spike in recent years of violent home invasions involving multiple armed intruders. In those situations, I want something maneuverable and high capacity immediately available to me.

 

[dwever]

I HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED A RANGE THAT HAS THE AUDACITY TO CLAIM THAT ANY OF MY BRASS THAT HITS THE FLOOR BELONGS TO THEM ! ! ! MY BRASS--PAID FOR BY ME--BELONGS SOLELY TO ME. I WOULD NEVER SHOOT AT A RANGE WITH A RULE SUCH AS THIS. WHERE DO THEY IMAGINE THAT THEY GET THE AUTHORITY TO STEAL SOMEONE'S BRASS, JUST BECAUSE THAT PERSON HAPPENS TO BE SHOOTING A SEMI-AUTO ? ? ? .

Actually, the audacity of a range to keep you safe, and second, to manage it's liability:

It is generally not a brass grab by the range. It is a safety issue. After numerous incidents of brass retrievers (or golden retrievers as they are known) reaching in to adjacent bays, being flagged by loaded weapons as a result of their actions, and/or literally being at the knees of other shooters with a hot range, ranges have felt in some cases the need to make such policy.

When retrievers are in the act of adjacent bay reaching for stray brass at a range that allows holster drawing, that presents the likelihood that said retriever can be flagged by a loaded weapon going in to or out of a holster.

Hopefully, safety is the policy's only motivation; however, even with mixed motives, the unsafe actions of some 'gatherers' has caused this policy. Gathering should be fine when the range is cold, but some of the big ranges with multiple bays and people queued up to shoot may only go cold for when a safety issue makes it necessary.

If you're the only guy on the line, generally RO's should care less even if you're down on all fours. If ten or twelve of the fourteen bays are full and the range is hot, understandably perhaps, don't be reaching over at another guys ankles whilst he is manipulating and firing his weapon.

Not agreeing or disagreeing, just saying there are cases where the range is acting out of safety and liability risk management.

 

[diyj98]

I've been on trap and skeet ranges where the policy was if your hulls hit the ground, they belong to the range. Some say safety, some say to keep the game from being slowed down. It's probably a mix of the two.

 

[DR505]

What he means by a "Renaissance"....

I think the author was saying that only guys old enough to have personally known Michaelangelo and DaVinci like revolvers....

 

[PALADIN85020]

Just call me Renaissance Man. I rather like revolvers. Reliable. Shoot nearly any power level. Let you keep ALL of your brass without hunting in the grass. Not to mention aesthetically pleasing. Here's a few that I favor. I'm sure you'll get my drift.

John

 

[Clark B]

I am seeing a bit more interest in revolvers amongst my circle of shooting buds, but I can't say if it's wide spread.

Talking to some LGS workers they do say that any shooter quality older revolvers sell faster than they used to.