Do only "old"guys edc revolvers

[digiroc]

70th Birthday Wish Granted ...

I'm about to celebrate seven decades of life on this Earth and my Wife has said that I can have any thing I want.

So after careful consideration I decided on a rare and sought after revolver, a Smith & Wesson Model 547.

This one was offered for sale on a popular auction site and I won the bidding, making this handgun the most expensive I've ever purchased :

I replaced the grips with a set of Pachmayr compacts for concealed carry:

My first 6 rounds out of the 547 just to test functionality and point of aim:

Earlier I posted my lightweight carry combination of 360PD AirLite and 3914 DAO inside the waistband. Now I have the option of going "heavy" with this pair:

With the 547 carrying six 9mm Hornady Critical Defense rounds and the 915 with 18 of the same I feel well protected.

digiroc

 

[deadear dan]

Rotoscoliosis in my back at 56 yrs of age has all but eliminated 3:00 or 4:00 carry of my Glocks so am pocket carrying a 640-1 if up close defense is necessary. Definitely makes a difference with comfort and mobility. Next CCW renewal I plan to add a 60 pro-series for appendix carry. Good to have the option of slow/precision single action shots with it as well.

 

[Talldog]

Earlier I posted my lightweight carry combination of 360PD AirLite and 3914 DAO inside the waistband. Now I have the option of going "heavy" with this pair:

What is that holster wrapped around the 360PD?

 

[digiroc]

I have had chronic back pain for 30 years Dan, and I find Appendix carry to be the most comfortable for me, especially with a heavier gun like the 547.

Going "heavy" with both the 547 and 915 is only tolerable for short periods of walking around. Fortunately I don't do much of that anymore, and riding around in my truck I'll secure the 915 in the center console, only wearing it in the small of my back if I leave the truck.

If planning on extended periods out of the truck I'll leave the 915 in the safe and take my 3914 DAO which carries and conceals much better.

digiroc

 

[SuperGoat]

I am 26 and mother of two little kids, not choosing a revolver never crossed my mind. Even when I knew nothing about guns I was in love with revolvers.
My husband likes his XD 9mm but I always tell him if you want a 'fire every time' kind of gun, you go for the revolver.
This is my defense gun, a model 65-2.

 

[digiroc]

What is that holster wrapped around the 360PD?

Talldog and deadeardan, The holsters I prefer are Kydex - Carbon Fiber models bought off eBay. Thinner and lighter than leather and don't absorb or retain moisture.

digiroc

 

[digiroc]

I've got my newly front sight painted 642 in an appendix carry kydex holster sitting right behind the laptop as I type this. So comfortable...

My newly acquired Model 547 just got a coat of white out on the front blade. Makes picking up the front sight fast, almost as good as the Big Dots on my backup gun:

digiroc

 

[TomkinsSP]

Dunno, How old is Hellboy?

 

[white cloud]

I took a SIG semiauto to the indoor range tonight. It's a nice gun. Totally reliable and holds a boat load of ammo. I just can't hit with it like I can a revolver. I think, that for me, a revolver makes more sense because only good hits count. Am I crazy?

 

[forrestinmathews]

I took a SIG semiauto to the indoor range tonight. It's a nice gun. Totally reliable and holds a boat load of ammo. I just can't hit with it like I can a revolver. I think, that for me, a revolver makes more sense because only good hits count. Am I crazy?

If you can shoot a revolver well, you can shoot the sig well also. Try decocking between shots at first and then incorporating the single action into your practice routine. You're welcome.

 

[les.b]

I've never figured out why some folks can shoot better with a revolver than a semi auto, or vice versa. I've seen both cases. One of my friends back in the day was a State Trooper, and he could shoot phenomenally with first the model 66, and then they went to the 686, and he was even better. He won many matches, and his trophies and records are still displayed at the SP headquarters. Then the SP went to the Smith and Wesson stainless steel 40 S&W...I can't remember the model right now. He was still a good shot, better than most, but never achieved the level of perfection that he had with the revolver. And believe me, he practiced!!

On the other hand, I had an attorney friend who was an officer in the Marines, then came out and went into private practice. His gun was the .45 1911. Of course he had a well tuned gun (back before all these high quality guns were available) I think he had had it worked on by an armorer in the USMC. He was a bullseye shooter. I have seen him shoot groups that I literally did not think were possible. And at like 50 yards. But he while he was fair with a revolver, he could never shoot as well as he did with that darn .45.

Best Regards, Les

 

[white cloud]

I am glad it is not just me. The SIG is beautifully finished and totally reliable but I shoot my wife's K Frame much better and it's not even my gun.

 

[Arik]

I've never figured out why some folks can shoot better with a revolver than a semi auto, or vice versa. I've seen both cases. One of my friends back in the day was a State Trooper, and he could shoot phenomenally with first the model 66, and then they went to the 686, and he was even better. He won many matches, and his trophies and records are still displayed at the SP headquarters. Then the SP went to the Smith and Wesson stainless steel 40 S&W...I can't remember the model right now. He was still a good shot, better than most, but never achieved the level of perfection that he had with the revolver. And believe me, he practiced!!

On the other hand, I had an attorney friend who was an officer in the Marines, then came out and went into private practice. His gun was the .45 1911. Of course he had a well tuned gun (back before all these high quality guns were available) I think he had had it worked on by an armorer in the USMC. He was a bullseye shooter. I have seen him shoot groups that I literally did not think were possible. And at like 50 yards. But he while he was fair with a revolver, he could never shoot as well as he did with that darn .45.

Best Regards, Les

I have a friend like that. Give him a rifle....any rifle in any caliber and configuration, and he'll turn it into a sniper rifle. He just picks them up and shoots amazing groups at long ranges with iron sights, sometimes a red dot. I'm convinced he could take an old musket and put all bullets in one hole at 500 yards! However give him any handgun at 10 yards and watch him miss the target more than half the time. It's the weirdest thing!!!

For me revolver grips just don't have enough surface area to fill my grip unless it's a oversized rubber grip, at which point it defeats the purpose of carry. Same is true for mouse guns. I can shoot both well if I shoot very slow and readjust my grip every time

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[stu1ritter]

I'm a mere 76 and have been carrying the same Model 37 I bought new in 1978, I guess you could call that a "stick in the mud". I have spent a lot of time developing the double action pull and it is pretty good. I will admit that occasionally a KelTec p32 or a NAA Wasp in .22Mag finds its way into my pocket but not very often.

Stu

 

[blues7]

I've never figured out why some folks can shoot better with a revolver than a semi auto, or vice versa. I've seen both cases.

Les, I shot my best qualification scores, (beginning in the 80's up until the early 2000's), with revolvers...specifically model 19's with 2.5" barrel and model 15 with 2" barrel.

I've come close with various semi-autos, (Colt, S&W, Glock), but never bested my highest revolver scores.

Not sure how it would work out if I shot the same course today with one vs. the other but I only qualify annually with my Glocks these days for LEOSA.

(I carry my S&W 642 or 686+ locally under my state license.)

 

[TomkinsSP]

I have carried the same M40 and M36 since the seventies and eighties. It is what I am most comforable with. My 640 may be just as good, but it isn't what I practiced and practiced and practiced with when I was young and had the time and burning desire to be the best. I can outshoot my neighbor with a Taurus, but am best with those two whom I trusted my life to for over 20 years on the job. (Of course a great revolver with fixed sights is ALLWAYS superior to even the best auto-loaders where the barrel and sights (slide) move around (fewer variables)).

 

[les.b]

Les, I shot my best qualification scores, (beginning in the 80's up until the early 2000's), with revolvers...specifically model 19's with 2.5" barrel and model 15 with 2" barrel.

I've come close with various semi-autos, (Colt, S&W, Glock), but never bested my highest revolver scores.

Not sure how it would work out if I shot the same course today with one vs. the other but I only qualify annually with my Glocks these days for LEOSA.

(I carry my S&W 642 or 686+ locally under my state license.)

I posted this somewhere else, but one week ago today I shot my LEOSA course with my former department, and shot my old issue Glock 23 for the semiauto, and shot a 96%, which I was pretty pleased with. Then shot the same course with my 640-1 Pro Series, (by the way, 80% is passing) and shot a 100%!!!

Talk about tickled?? I had been worrying about passing!! As I posted elsewhere, here's a big stress reducer: I now have electronic earmuffs, and changed out the battery before I went to shoot. I remember my first retiree shoot...I couldn't hear any commands, whistles, electronic timer buzzers, nothing, nit very well anyway. Learned my lesson. One less thing to worry about when you are under a little pressure. Like many of you, I also have a WV state permit which is good in about 39 states, I have a Florida permit, and here in WV we have "constitutional carry", so no one really needs a permit here, but I like to be covered when I travel...belt and suspenders!!

Anyway, sort of relevant to the revolver vs semi topic.

Best Regards, Les

 

[StarPacker]

We pack the .38 because it works

To all you gun toters who think the 20th century was the Stone Age,.38 revolvers will get the job done for defense.

Beginning in 1973, I was a cop in Los Angeles County. Every fellow cop I knew carried a .38 special in either a Colt or S&W with a 4 or 6 inch barrel. I carried a Colt Trooper Mk III with a four-inch barrel in an old Bianchi border patrolman holster. Twelve spare rounds of ammunition were carried in dump pouches, as speed loaders hadn't been approved as yet. After a night shoot in which the nose of the ammunition hung up, I bought a .357 magnum version of the dump pouches and kept my ammo in Bianchi speed strips. I positioned them so they opened on the top instead of dumping so all I had to do was pull up on the strip tab. On my paddle key ring was a key for the shotgun lock and a call box key.

I was newly married and making $960 a month. My take home pay was $333 every two weeks. There was little money left over at the end of the month so an off-duty gun was out of the question. I carried the old Colt everywhere on and off duty. Off duty it was carried in an old Safariland OWB, tan with thumb break-designed holster. I still have the Trooper and both holsters.

We shot monthly qualifications and were paid extra depending upon expertise. Maximum shooting pay was $16.00 a month. Shooting pay was paid in one lump sum the first pay period in December. The trigger on the old Trooper was nowhere as slick as on a S&W, but I practiced until I could quickly stage the trigger and touch it off at the last until I made Distinguished Expert pay. $192.00 was a lot of money in 1973 dollars.

The 'auto only generation' may say that we didn't have the need for high capacity autos as it was before the age of terrorism. You're right, but we did have the Crips, Bloods, Hells Angels, Mexican Mafia, bank robbers working in pairs and armed ex-cons. Home invasion robberies wasn't even a term yet, but I wished we could carry Colt 1911's, but we were able to get the job done with .38 revolvers.

I think much of it was due to the fact that we talked and communicated with one another and we practiced not only shooting, but 'what if's, What if we're ambushed in the alley?, What if you sense something hinky on a traffic stop? or What if your partner is held at gunpoint?", etc. If something caught our eyes and didn't look right or even if it made us wonder "why" we stopped and investigated.

We knew how to talk to people. I remember my field training officer made me get out of the car one swing shift (1630 – 0230 hours) in a residential area. He told me that I had to stop and talk with everyone on the one side of the block and down the other. He said he'd wait for me and I would have to relate every detail of every conversion I had with members of the public. There's no app for that!

No we were not politically correct as we pulled our revolvers on many people at the slightest provocation. I can't count the number of times I pointed my revolver and covered some citizen who came up to the car to talk.

We were trained and had the frame of mind to carry out the use of deadly force. We didn't have or need psychologists for use of force incidents.

With my Colt and eighteen rounds of ammo, I rode and walked, entered burglarized buildings, conducted felony car stops and faced down armed criminals. We all carried eighteen rounds of ammo and I didn't know anyone who carried a backup weapon until the mid and late 70's when the AMT .380 and North American Arms .22 short came out.

In 1987, I attended the mandatory two-day semi auto class and started carrying a S&W 645. Later I carried a Glock 17 before ending my 30-year career with a S&W model 15. I carried two twin HKS speed loader pouches on my Sam Brown. Why? I disliked the DA/SA trigger on the old 645 and it was heavy. Like the Glock, the trigger pull was consistent from shot to shot with the model 15 without worrying about the partially staged trigger on the Glock. The .38 ammo had changed over the years from 110 grain Super Vels to Winchester 110 grain +P. I never felt under gunned and still don't. I have a four-inch S&W model 64 next to my computer as I type.

You may well say a .38 revolver is unsuited or outdated for personal defense, but that is only your opinion. I've been there and done that. I've stared down the barrel at countless people with the .38 and it has never let me down. I do not know of a failure of the delivery system or ammo in actual use. It may not be stylish in the 21st century and it certainly isn't perfect, but what weapons system is? An academy classmate of mine working for another department shot a suspect with a S&W .44. Two shots to the chest at up close and personal distance. The suspect was alive upon arrival of the paramedics. My four-inch .38 has worked on multiple and moving targets (another cop and I would drive to Lancaster before there were people there to shoot running jackrabbits). I have trusted my life and the lives of my partners with it.
Be safe. I am.

 

[stu1ritter]

Thanks for the input StarPacker, nothing like hearing it from the horses mouth.

Stu

 

[susieqz]

star, you experience makes me feel very good about my model 15.
thank you.