The best Revolver for Self Defense

[Pol]

Anecdotally, recent samples have to be closely inspected, for fitting issues, as some at Ruger have forgotten what QC means, but at least Ruger CS still has a reputation for quickly making things right.

A couple of folks over at S&W have also forgotten.

[gato naranja]

I have owned and shot as many revolvers as most here. I recommend any Colt, S&W, or Ruger double action revolver in at least 38 Special. The longer the barrel the better. Though I would not suggest to Blues that he select a single action revolver for this purpose, I have a Ruger New Model Vaquero .45 Colt in my sock drawer. Ammo is factory lead. In the same drawer I have a Mossberg Shockwave in 20 gauge. The drawer is that wide. In my plan these are last ditch weapons.

Our GP-100 and 870P are probably last ditch weapons as well as utility guns, but our normalcy bias keeps us from thinking too much about the former. Neither firearm is something we ever suddenly have an urge to take to a range and shoot recreationally, though with reduced power loads, they remain manageable at our age.

(The last session of 3" 00 buckshot run through that stubby pump gun gave me the notion of "gifting" any boxes of magnum shells to people who don't mind taking the consequences. In a 4" GP-100, full power .357 ammunition remains viable for me, if not for la gata naranja.)

[willie]

12 GA 3 inch buckshot punishes the shooter even in heavier sporting shotguns. Low recoil 2.75 buckshot is mild. Perhaps you can trade the 3 inch stuff for something else. I shoot the Ruger 45 Colt from time to time and keep it near by when fishing or playing afield. I even have shot loads for a deadly serpent if he should be in the wrong place.

[SCCY Marshal]

Assuming a house gun, I'd ignore the list and channel the spirit of the late Stephen Camp. A 2" S&W model 10 with Barami Hip-Grips, grip adapter, and painted front would stow in any number of places, be easily slipped into the waistband for door answering and either occasional or regular carry. Be a K-frame both at the range and in a fight while having less barrel for an adversary to grab. Barring that, just give me a 4" pencil barrel with square butt and I could still happily go through the rest of my life.

Ruger LCR seem heavy and Low capacity in the .22...WMR, should offer aluminum cylinders with 8 and 9 rounds.

You may change your mind the first time you stab yourself with an ejector rod while trying to knock nine fired magnums loose at the same time. I'm pretty cool with their chosen six-round capacity in that chambering.

Given Smith's spotty track record with aluminum cylindered rimfire snubs, I dig Ruger's steel. I've spoken with several 43C owners who sent their gun back to mothership once or even several times. My LCR has been run hard, beat up, soaked, and just keeps going. A buddy is on his second 3" LCRx in 22 WMR after his daughter claimed the first as her new nighstand and errand-running gun. Other than being fussy about primers, as many 22 magnums are, they have both run like tops.

Item #1 on my list of things to do after this current panic settles is score a normalized availability 3" LCRx in 22 Long Rifle, replace the stock with the boot grip standard on the 2" guns, bake myself an OWB field holster, zero for my squirrel rifle load, and use as a kit gun during big game season to possibly pot upland game but definitely stay out of my way. And I'd only choose Long Rifle over WMR for ammo commonality in my hunting supply crate and quieter report prioritized over flatter trajectory. Were it just a backcountry camping gun, I'd instead lean toward the magnum.

The LCR was made right, in my opinion. Not sure I'd trust an aluminum cylindered gun to handle life in the field like I've personally seen the existing ones earn a reputation for. Personally okay with a design seeming to lean toward rugged service life over the greatest weight reduction. But my mission profile is probably different from most.

[JHC]

You may change your mind the first time you stab yourself with an ejector rod while trying to knock nine fired magnums loose at the same time. I'm pretty cool with their chosen six-round capacity in that chambering.

.

Interesting. I love my 351 but I don't think I've ever turned it over and with a single SHARP smack of the ejector rod, got all 7 to drop clean. Always a bit of picking. You don't see that with the LCRx?

[SCCY Marshal]

Interesting. I love my 351 but I don't think I've ever turned it over and with a single SHARP smack of the ejector rod, got all 7 to drop clean. Always a bit of picking. You don't see that with the LCRx?

Yes and no. The rule of IF. If you keep the cylinder clean, if you use a load it likes, if you get the muzzle vertical, if you give a sharp rap to the rod, they scoot out as reliably as a K-frame thirty-eight. Nickled cases also help.

Use ammo that expands tightly, start hitting promers with second strikes which stake them more tightly in place, let if get dirty, start getting lazy with reloads, you run into problems. The ejector rod is very much full-length in 22LR but not in WMR. So J-frame rules apply in lack of tolerance for shortcuts.

Still easier to get along with than any seven or nine shot 22 WMR revolver I've ever tried. The nines in particular have been brutally intolerant of anything outside the ideal.

[DueSpada]

Kimber K6S TLE
Colt King Cobra
Taurus Judge
Ruger GP100
Smith & Wesson Model 69
S&W Performance Center M&P R8

That list hardly seems a sincere effort for "Six Best Revolvers for Home Defense". More like the usual
gunmag ad copy fluff. One would like to see guns that had a bit of a track record. The absence of the
S&W Model 10 tells the tale.

[Joe in PNG]

Kimber K6S TLE
Colt King Cobra
Taurus Judge
Ruger GP100
Smith & Wesson Model 69
S&W Performance Center M&P R8

That list hardly seems a sincere effort for "Six Best Revolvers for Home Defense". More like the usual
gunmag ad copy fluff. One would like to see guns that had a bit of a track record. The absence of the
S&W Model 10 tells the tale.

One could speculate that the list is written more to confirm the pre-existing biases of the potential readers, and thus hopefully entice them to buy the mag for validation.

[JHC]

The absence of the
S&W Model 10 tells the tale.

Of my wheelie stable I'd gravitate to my 3" Model 10 or so cool Royal Hong Kong Police surplussed 4" pencil barrel Model 10. Both have old days buttery actions.

That said I've got a AIWB holster from FIST for a 4" N frame and my Model 28 is not that bad in it. It's trigger is pretty heavy albeit smooth. It's a 28 no dash that is tight as a bank vault but I sense the recent dry fire is tuning the DA pull a bit.

And I'm just theese close to ordering a Dale Fricke Gideon for my 6" Model 14.

(2021 is looking like a year of transition to shooting a lot more .38 because I've got a shitton of brass whereas I haven't saved a bit of my 9mm for the past 20 years)

[revolvergeek]

https://www.handgunsmag.com/editoria...defense/386911

From my IDPA feed:

Kimber K6S TLE
Colt King Cobra
Taurus Judge
Ruger GP100
Smith & Wesson Model 69
S&W Performance Center M&P R8

Let the games begin. Which of this would you put in Grandma and Grandpa's underwear drawer for the bad times?

Of course, I have an opinion but I don't want to spoil the fun.

Of that list either the Ruger GP100 or the S&W Performance Center M&P R8 (my preference). The Kimber is smaller and harder to shoot, the Original King Cobra was mostly junk and the new one is promising but unproven, the Judge is ... well the Judge (.410 is *mostly* useless out of short 2-3" barrels and Taurus quality control has bit me several times now), and the 69 is fun but only holds 5 rounds. If you are going to load The Grams up with low recoil ammo, more is better. 8 wadcutters with a red dot sight and a weapon light could settle a lot so stuff...