Revolver Reloading Hand Preference

[Bruce Cartwright]

Folks:

Here is a post from something that I was working on this past summer. I figured it might be of interest here.

SAC Tactical
Thoughts of a Brick Agent
Revolver Reloading and Hand Preference
Copyright @ 8-July-2020

“Why?”

That is a dangerous question to ask. Asking folks why they do something forces people to explain their actions and justify their position, hopefully based upon logic. Asking why also tends to annoy folks, especially bosses. That said, asking “Why?” tends to lead to better understanding of the underlying subject at hand.

Fast forward to a recent firearms training session I did for myself. I was getting ready for an upcoming revolver class and decided to work on my revolver skills. One of the courses I shot was the FBI Double Action Revolver Course. Since I had the run of the range, I set my target at 25 yards and decided to work my way back. As I prepared, without conscious thought, I filled my right front trouser pocket with loose 38 Special ammunition. I paused and asked myself: “Why?”. The short answer is that is the way I was trained at the FBI Academy. We were taught to fill our right (dominant hand) front pants pocket with loose rounds so we could fill the magazines of our issued Sig pistols without having to return to the table containing training ammunition.

That thought caused me to wonder where that practice came from. I called another retired agent/gun guy who went through our academy in 1989 in one of the last revolver classes. He informed me that he was taught the same technique. In fact, he elaborated that when he was taught how to reload a revolver, the sequence of reloading progressed through the speed loader, then to the 2X2 pouch and finally to loose rounds in his pants pocket.

After that conversation, I reached out to another retired agent of my acquaintance. He went through the academy in the late 1960s. He did not have speed loaders etc. and reloaded his revolver (a Colt Official Police, which he later traded for a S&W Model 10) using his dominant hand.

The attached photographs are of a late model S&W Model 10 “skinny” barrel revolver, along with a Bucheimer thumbreak holster, a Bucheimer “2X2” cartridge pouch and a Safariland Comp II speed loader and Split Six belt pouch. All the leather gear pictured was issued to agents by the FBI during the revolver period.





My theory is that once the 2X2 pouch, followed by speed loaders arrived on the scene, the earlier practice of transferring your revolver from your dominant to supporting hand continued. Instead of reloading loose rounds from your pocket, an agent would reload from the 2X2 pouch on his belt. That practice evolved into reloading with your speed loader in your dominant hand. The practice explained by the agent trained in 1989 appears to be the culmination of the revolver training doctrine in the FBI at the time.




My reasoning behind my assumption is that it probably is easier to reload loose rounds with a shooter’s dominant hand. Ensuing generations of agents and trainers probably continued the practice when the 2X2 pouches and speed loaders came on scene. The practice remained well into the semiauto era. I remember when I attended FBI Firearms Instructor School nearly two decades ago, we were taught to reload revolvers in this manner. By then the use of the 2X2 pouch had faded from use and we relied upon speed loaders.

Additionally, teaching large numbers of trainees, tends to give you, as a trainer, a different perspective. You must find techniques that work across the board. When I reload a revolver today, I use my support (left) hand to guide my speed loader into the charge holes of my revolver’s cylinder. It is a faster technique. For me. Thinking about it a bit, if I had to teach classes of 50 trainees today how to reload a revolver, I may very well teach a dominant hand reload technique. Obviously, no agencies are teaching the revolver as a primary weapon anymore. That said, I think it pays to know where and under what circumstances a technique was developed. It is one thing to use a technique that works great with a dedicated shooter, and quite another to teach a large group of largely new shooters.

Back to my recent training session. I realized the value of being able to reload loose rounds from a pocket with my dominate hand. One of the agents involved in the FBI Miami shooting in 1986 was able to access a box of spare 38 Special service ammunition from the glove box of his Bureau vehicle (called “Bucar” in Bureau parlance) and reloaded his service revolver with loose rounds. Speed loaders may be everywhere and easily available, but for dedicated revolver shooters, knowing how to reload a revolver with loose rounds is a skill worth having.
One thing I caught myself doing, was dropping the revolver toward my waist/belt. I wondered if I could reload the cylinder with loose rounds and maintain my situational awareness of the threat (my target). All I had to do was bring my support (left) hand up, keep the muzzle depressed and look over the cylinder at the threat. I kept the cylinder in my peripheral vision and did not have any difficulty reloading the cylinder. Of course, I did all of this on a nice flat range on a gorgeous Montana summer day when no one was trying to kill me. I suspect I could do this in the dark and will confirm that with some dry fire practice.

I may never find definitive proof of my theory about why the Bureau taught shooters to switch hands to reload their revolvers, but from the evidence I have gathered, it makes logical sense. Sort of a cool bit of historical detective work.

Bruce

[blues]

I guess, like you say, Bruce, what works is generally going to be with how you've trained.

I first cycled through FLETC in 1983 where we shot 2.5" Model 19's. (Our agency issued 2" Model 15's and 2" Model 36's.)

I can't remember ever not transferring the firearm to my weak hand and loading with my strong hand following breaking the cylinder open. This would be with a dump pouch, speed strips or loose rounds from a pocket. I do know that I have done it with my support hand just to have done it, but never at a qual, as I recall, and never as a practice on the street.

I've often wondered if it was optimal...but these days my one and only wheel gun has a very limited role around home and environs...so I'm not all that fired up to try to change old habits at this juncture.

Good post, enjoyed it.

(I stopped carrying a J frame in 1995 or 1996 when a G26 took its place for backup or primary on the job. It was semi-autos only from that point on until I retired about 10 years later.)

[Rex G]

Excellent article/chapter/post, sir!

The training cadre at the Houston Police Academy, in Texas, taught right-handers, as of 1983/1984, to switch the revolver to the left hand hand, to hold the weapon, while using the right hand to handle the speed-loader. IIRC, we were told that this was how the FBI did it, and that it made the most sense, as the more-dextrous hand was handling the relatively small speed-loader.

Made perfect sense to me, as a lefty, too. Yes, it made/makes perfect sense, to me, as a lefty. It also makes perfect sense, if I factor-out being a lefty, and pretend to be a righty. Whichever hand I use to shoot the revolver, it made, and still makes, perfect ergonomic sense hold it in the left hand, and handle the speed-loader, or loose cartridges, with the right hand. I do not even remember what was taught as a “left-handed shooter’s reload,” because it made the most ergonomic sense to hold the weapon in the left hand, and reload with the right hand. We were using S&W L-Frames, the “standard” duty revolver. (We were expected to buy, or otherwise furnish, our own duty revolvers, so those already owning a K-Frame, or some few specified Colt and Ruger revolvers, at the start of the academy, could get permission to use those guns, rather than acquire an L-Frame.)

I had not established a “primary” carry position, prior to police academy training, because there was no generally-legal private-citizen handgun carry, in Texas, at the time. Even though a left-handed individual, it made plenty of sense to carry on the right hip, and be a right-handed shooter. I can eat and shoot at the same time. I can write and shoot shoot at the same time. OK, seriously, if I would be patrolling alone, in a patrol car, the norm for Houston PD patrol officers, at that time, my right hip would be the more-accessible hip. If taking notes, during an interview, and suddenly attacked, rather than drop my pen, to be able to draw my weapon, that pen can become a pointy weapon, while I let the note pad fall, to free my right hand to draw the revolver. If someone is trying to snatch my revolver, my more-skilled left hand is free to perform wrathful things to my attacker, while my right hand is either holding the revolver firmly within the holster, or is performing the relatively simpler task of holding onto the weapon’s grip.

Plus, in my individual case, as one who writes lefty, but throws with my right arm, drawing a heavy revolver, from the then-mandated low-slung duty rig, was not unlike throwing.

Every left-handers’ DA revolver reload I have tried, since then, has felt clumsier than the corresponding right-hand reload.

I did adopt Michael De Bethancourt’s right-handed reload, which keeps the revolver in the right hand, when I learned it at the Snubby Summit in 2005, but only for smaller revolvers. With revolvers up to the SP101 and K-Frame, in size, my index finger is able to reach through the frame window, to bear against the cylinder. Bigger revolvers require me to shift my firing grip, to use Michael’s reloading technique, so it is best, for me, to keep using the FBI method, with the GP100 and DA Sixes. I have not adopted Michael’s left-hand revolver reload, as his righty reload, or defaulting to the FBI/HPD righty reload, is more efficient.

I can make either method work, well enough, so it would not be a colossal blunder to default to the FBI/HPD method, with a smaller revolver, or to use Michael’s method, with a Speed Six or GP100. If anything, I am more-likely, I would think, if under extreme stress, to default to the FBI technique I first learned in 1983/1984.

[Bruce Cartwright]

I can't remember ever not transferring the firearm to my weak hand and loading with my strong hand following breaking the cylinder open. This would be with a dump pouch, speed strips or loose rounds from a pocket. I do know that I have done it with my support hand just to have done it, but never at a qual, as I recall, and never as a practice on the street.

I've often wondered if it was optimal...but these days my one and only wheel gun has a very limited role around home and environs...so I'm not all that fired up to try to change old habits at this juncture.

Excellent article/chapter/post, sir!

The training cadre at the Houston Police Academy, in Texas, taught right-handers, as of 1983/1984, to switch the revolver to the left hand hand, to hold the weapon, while using the right hand to handle the speed-loader. IIRC, we were told that this was how the FBI did it, and that it made the most sense, as the more-dextrous hand was handling the relatively small speed-loader.

I can make either method work, well enough, so it would not be a colossal blunder to default to the FBI/HPD method, with a smaller revolver, or to use Michael’s method, with a Speed Six or GP100. If anything, I am more-likely, I would think, if under extreme stress, to default to the FBI technique I first learned in 1983/1984.

Blues and RexG:

A couple of years ago, I switched to a reload technique where I use my support hand to manipulate the speed loader. I switched because my son beat me repeatedly using this technique (and remembering what Pat Rogers said about "repeated, demoralizing failure", I chose to switch). It works for me and I have put a pile of time in getting good with it. That said, for folks who trained all their career with a technique it may not make sense to switch especially since most folks are carrying semiauto handguns. That said, I shot a quick video of my son using the speed loader in his support hand technique and showed it to a dear friend who is a retired police officer who is very switched on tactically and he had positive things to say about it. I suspect it is pretty much a situationally dependent decision. If the person can dedicate sufficient time to make the support hand technique work great. If not, stick with what was learned that has served well for a number of years.

Thanks for the kind words and praise.

[blues]

Forgot to mention, I've never been issued, owned or used speed loaders. Speed strips were as high tech as I got. (Well, and dump pouches.)

Just didn't care for the bulk in pocket...and never tried 'em on the belt.

[Malamute]

Blues and RexG:

A couple of years ago, I switched to a reload technique where I use my support hand to manipulate the speed loader. I switched because my son beat me repeatedly using this technique (and remembering what Pat Rogers said about "repeated, demoralizing failure", I chose to switch). It works for me and I have put a pile of time in getting good with it. That said, for folks who trained all their career with a technique it may not make sense to switch especially since most folks are carrying semiauto handguns. That said, I shot a quick video of my son using the speed loader in his support hand technique and showed it to a dear friend who is a retired police officer who is very switched on tactically and he had positive things to say about it. I suspect it is pretty much a situationally dependent decision. If the person can dedicate sufficient time to make the support hand technique work great. If not, stick with what was learned that has served well for a number of years.

Thanks for the kind words and praise.

It makes sense in the strictly speed sense to use the left hand for a speed loader, though as you said, it may be difficult for some of us to switch this late in the game. The why part of not changing for me is that I dont use speed loaders exclusively, neither in defensive consideration or as field/utility guns, besides also using single action revolvers quite a bit. The majority of DA revolver shooting i do is with 22 RF, which dont do as well with speed loaders. It works well right handed for loading loose rounds, or from a cartridge belt, speed strip or speed loaders with the same hand. My right hand I call the smart hand, the left hand the dumb hand. I may be able to train the dumb one to do some smart tricks, but its not a naturally occurring event and requires more thought and practice.

Thanks for the excellent post that started this.

[Hambo]

I can't remember ever not transferring the firearm to my weak hand and loading with my strong hand following breaking the cylinder open.

I was taught the same way, but I did try keeping the revolver in my right hand a few times. I know DB teaches it and that many people do it successfully, but I wasn't one of them. The whole process seemed unnatural, and the twist knob on my HKS speedloaders didn't help, so I abandoned speed for a sure reload.

It's one of many things I'll be able to do automatically when I'm in a nursing home and don't remember my name.

[fatdog]

I did adopt Michael De Bethancourt’s right-handed reload, which keeps the revolver in the right hand, when I learned it at the Snubby Summit in 2005, but only for smaller revolvers. With revolvers up to the SP101 and K-Frame, in size, my index finger is able to reach through the frame window, to bear against the cylinder. Bigger revolvers require me to shift my firing grip, to use Michael’s reloading technique, so it is best, for me, to keep using the FBI method, with the GP100 and DA Sixes. .

Same here (what a great event that was) and it has worked better for me with the speedstrips which is always my snub reload, and I am faster. It took lots of reps to get keeping the revolver in my dominant hand down, and I have just hung with it for 6 shots and speedloaders although I am not any faster with it for those than I am changing hands. Just a matter of doing both types of reloads (speed strip or speedloader) one way at this point.

[SCCY Marshal]

As a righty, I use my left hand to reload. Having heen taught revolver by cops who came online in the wheelgun era, it took time to break the F.B.I. reload which had deeply planted in my brain. It works with pocket snubs, pull-the-ejector latches, K-frames, and even N-frames with thinner than target stocks. It lets me park a reload on my left side where I had become accustomed through years of autoloader carry. Also kept my right trouser pocket clear for a snub, knife, or whatever so the left pocket more reliably had space for the loader anyway. Carrying my belt gun appendix inside-the-waistband, support side appendix is the open space for a 2x2x2 pouch (still one of the best items the G-men ever spec'd out) and my left hand is right there.

If the speedloader dumps rounds, I can come out with a handful of cartridges, stick the ejector rod between a couple fingers, and use my right hand to stuff charge holes like plucking biscuits from a tea saucer. In my life, the Ohio/Taylor reload both fits and works. As a bonus, I find the speed loader, strip, or fumbled cartridges to fall away much more cleanly than when my left hand is on the gun and acting as a shelf for everything to land on and become a minor hangup. There being no such thing as a free lunch, I do lose the ability to keep the revolver in my line of sight given my less than circus performer flexibility where it is easy when doing a hand transfer reload.

That all said, non-hand-transfer can get real awkward real quick in other positions as when behind cover or grounded. The appendix 2x2x2 is accessible to my right hand if the F.B.I. technique is indicated. In the cold seasons, I'll often have a speed strip in my strongside vest/jacket pocket acting as both a hem weight and to be available to my right hand.

I practice the Ohio/Taylor on the timer as much as I bother to practice timed reloads. To keep the F.B.I. reload on tap as an alternative, I just sometimes use it for administrative loading.

On the days I'm introducing a novice to a wheelgun, I just default to the F.B.I. technique. It is robust, intuitive, and works with more hand sizes on more frames with a greater variety of stocks. The Ohio/Taylor seems to me better suited as a technique introduced later for someone to try on their own and adopt or discard as suits their life and body. Though I'm sure an actual instructor would have better and likely different unsight.

[That Guy]

Being left-handed, I never came across a reloading technique that seemed robust and didn't require shifting the gun to my right hand. I use the left-handed Stressfire technique taught by Massad Ayoob, or at least as I understand it from YouTube videos.

My girlfriend on the other hand is right-handed and mostly used to semi-automatics - her first gun was a semi-automatic, as were all the following ones aside from the single revolver she owns. She prefers to keep her reloads on her left side to mimic how she would carry spare magazines. The whole idea of shifting the gun from one hand to the other seems completely alien to her.