S&W Wheel Guns in the Future

[Biggfoot44]

The revolver is already dead.

The revolver will live forever.

For the general public and casual gunowners, when they think "pistol" they are heavily influenced by what the Military and LE uses. Heck by this point in time we have an entire generation of LEO's who have never even fired a revolver. (With typical 20-25yr retirement cycles only a comparitive handfull of oldtimers either on final countdown to retirement , or post retirement double dipping came on the job before 1990- at which point revolvers were already a small minority.) The percentage of the cantankerous and quirky using DA revolvers as a primary duty gun for LE or quasi-LE , is probably similar to the % of cantankerous coots still using SA revolvers as duty guns circa 1940 . ( Hey at least I recognize I'm cantankerous .)

But as niche guns they remain strong , and will continue to do so. Small frame snubs have real advantages as BUG's and will remain strong with wide segments. Revolvers will remain popular for recreation , field shooting and hunting. Heck SA revolvers have been " obsolete and superceeded " ever since the introduction of Hand Ejectors and New Service , but they are still highly popular. Even among the younger in age , and/or newer to firearms there remains a fair amoint of intrest in medium-ish frame .357's . I know this is a S&W forum , but I'm seeing a 2 or 3:1 preference for GP100 vs L Frame.


Switching gears to a musical analogy ; Jazz , Blues , Classical , Bluegrass , and yes Rock n; Roll are all niche forms of music that are still around and not going anywhere.. While Rap and (whatever they call that electronic noise) being the musical mainstream.

 

[bigfreakinrevolver]

I'm doing my part on keeping them alive! I'm 28 and own 27 S&W revolvers and a shield. No other semi autos. I was spoiled with rifles from ww1 and ww2 and now I can't hardly own a piece of plastic. As others have said AR's while a good firearm I will never own one.

 

[Jhawk412]

Revolver's are alive and well

I teach the 8-hour class required for getting a concealed carry license in Kansas (soon to become another Constitutional Carry state I hope.) A lot of my class members are non-traditional gun people. Many older folks who have never shot a gun or only had minimal contact are getting their concealed carry licenses because the state of the world we live in.

I review revolvers and autos in detail with the class and I find an actual majority of these brand new older shooters prefer the revolver. One big issue is the inability to successfully, or at least comfortably, rack the slide on the semis. One reason for this is they just don't know how to do it. The other is fear of the unknown. But for many, they simply no longer have the dexterity or hand strength to do it, either from disease such as arthritis or atrophy of their muscles.

The other is the "complexity" if you will of loading the magazine and then figuring out how to rack the slide to load the chamber. And of course the reverse to unload. There's an unease about understanding the manual of arms with a semi whereas the revolver is so much more straightforward.

And they shoot revolvers just fine. I do have Crimson Trace grips on almost all of them, which helps a ton for aiming and trigger control. (We usually do some dry firing before the range session to smooth things out.) They aren't looking to take on a carload of mal-contents looking for trouble, they just want to be able to defend themselves from a serious attacker. They don't worry about 6 shots or 15 shots. They just worry about the first one.

 

[AlphaSig]

Just shelled out $810 for a SS S&W 4" 686-3 and it must be at least 20years old... said it before but it would be nice if Smith would make a limited run of classics like that for sale as new. Wonder how fast they would sell ... It's kind of like a '69 camaro IMO ...