Modern Self-Defense Revolvers

[Borderland]

Great read. Thanks for the link.

I like my Sigs and HK's but I have a number of revolvers also. The first handgun I purchased was a surplus Webley about 50 years ago. Had at least one ever since.

[HeavyDuty]

Things like this will shame me into getting more proficient with my revolvers.

[Borderland]

An interesting thread with interesting replies so far.

An awful lot of what I need a sidearm for can easily be covered by a good revolver. Aside from ease/speed of reloading and on-board ammunition capacity limitations, there isn't much a semiauto can do better for me.

I hate cleaning revolvers, but other than that, my boomer/neanderthal self finds them more "honest" and procedurally easy to use than most semiautos. Everyone in the family has been getting older and training less, and I increasingly choose to take the SP-101 along in lieu of a semiauto. People can make of that what they will.

Do you remove the cylinder?

[gato naranja]

Do you remove the cylinder?

On DA revolvers I prefer to leave the cylinders in place, but if I have leaded things up badly by using a particularly malignant lead/lube/powder combo, the Rugers will get taken down. My SP-101 in particular has a propensity to lead up something fierce; my new-to-me GP100 is not so bad.

The bane of my wheelgun usage is the powder/crud ring from using .38 Special brass in a .357 cylinder, along with rough throats and forcing cones. It took me a while, but I no longer give a rat's rump about "burn rings" on the face of the cylinder; as long as I have gotten any surface buildup off and wiped it down, I'm golden. I used to be OCD about not just cleaning, but over-cleaning; the father of a shooting buddy finally convinced me that beyond a certain point, all I was doing was wearing things out faster.

(His guns all got used regularly, yet they remained accurate, tight and reasonably attractive. His advice could be broadly put as "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it doesn't need cleaning, then don't clean it.")

One of the downsides of revolver use has not been mentioned, but I'll say it here: finding a good revolver 'smith within driving distance can be a challenge. I can replace some parts myself, and I can even do a bit of fitting, but I am no gunsmith. When it comes to revolvers, neither are some people who do claim to be gunsmiths.

[HeavyDuty]

On DA revolvers I prefer to leave the cylinders in place, but if I have leaded things up badly by using a particularly malignant lead/lube/powder combo, the Rugers will get taken down. My SP-101 in particular has a propensity to lead up something fierce; my new-to-me GP100 is not so bad.

The bane of my wheelgun usage is the powder/crud ring from using .38 Special brass in a .357 cylinder, along with rough throats and forcing cones. It took me a while, but I no longer give a rat's rump about "burn rings" on the face of the cylinder; as long as I have gotten any surface buildup off and wiped it down, I'm golden. I used to be OCD about not just cleaning, but over-cleaning; the father of a shooting buddy finally convinced me that beyond a certain point, all I was doing was wearing things out faster.

(His guns all got used regularly, yet they remained accurate, tight and reasonably attractive. His advice could be broadly put as "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it doesn't need cleaning, then don't clean it.")

One of the downsides of revolver use has not been mentioned, but I'll say it here: finding a good revolver 'smith within driving distance can be a challenge. I can replace some parts myself, and I can even do a bit of fitting, but I am no gunsmith. When it comes to revolvers, neither are some people who do claim to be gunsmiths.

That ring is why I always loaded light in .357 cases, and will do the same in .44 Mag cases for the 69.

[Borderland]

That ring is why I always loaded light in .357 cases, and will do the same in .44 Mag cases for the 69.

I load .357 cases "light" also using about half the powder if I were loading to 1250 fps using 2400. A fast powder will get you 850 fps no problem. One might ask why even have a .357 if all I'm going to do is shoot 38 spl loads in it. I've often asked myself the same question and all I can say is I can shoot more light loads in my model 19's than magnum loads. I've thought about buying a model 10, 14 or 15 but they're all K frames and I already have several of those.

I only clean about every 3rd trip to the range, maybe every 5-600 rds. and the cylinders come out.

[Spartan1980]

I've never had an issue with the crud rings in the cylinder and I've shot many thousands of .38 Short Colts in my 686. A bronze brush and Hoppes #9 takes it right out. I never go more than 400-500 rounds without brushing. My OCD may be why but I've always been a little perplexed by everyone saying it's a problem.

[revchuck38]

Do you remove the cylinder?

Only when the cylinder starts revolving sluggishly. I'll pull it off, clean the crud off the yoke, lube it really lightly, and put it back together. It takes a couple of thousand rounds to get to that point. I typically run .38s in my .38s and .357s in my .357s so I don't have to worry about that carbon ring, but crud builds up at the end of the chamber when shooting lubed lead bullets (and coated lead bullets to a lesser extent) anyway and that gets dry-brushed out with a stainless chamber brush. The front of the cylinder on my stainless guns stays black; it gets cleaned, but getting that black off isn't worth the trouble IMO.

[JTMcC]

I load .357 cases "light" also using about half the powder if I were loading to 1250 fps using 2400. A fast powder will get you 850 fps no problem. One might ask why even have a .357 if all I'm going to do is shoot 38 spl loads in it. I've often asked myself the same question and all I can say is I can shoot more light loads in my model 19's than magnum loads. I've thought about buying a model 10, 14 or 15 but they're all K frames and I already have several of those.

I only clean about every 3rd trip to the range, maybe every 5-600 rds. and the cylinders come out.

I will never ask that.

There's nothing wrong to me about having extra capability in case you just might want or need it someday.
And there's nothing wrong to me with being able to shoot 2 types of ammo, in unusual or weird times.

If my wife is carrying 38+P and I'm carrying .357's, she can still harvest my remaining ammo off my carcass if need be, if her gun is a .357

[Borderland]

Only when the cylinder starts revolving sluggishly. I'll pull it off, clean the crud off the yoke, lube it really lightly, and put it back together. It takes a couple of thousand rounds to get to that point. I typically run .38s in my .38s and .357s in my .357s so I don't have to worry about that carbon ring, but crud builds up at the end of the chamber when shooting lubed lead bullets (and coated lead bullets to a lesser extent) anyway and that gets dry-brushed out with a stainless chamber brush. The front of the cylinder on my stainless guns stays black; it gets cleaned, but getting that black off isn't worth the trouble IMO.

I have a stainless 1911 and a 625. The muzzles look like hell even after I clean them. Somehow those matt finishes soak up the powder residue. It's like it just works it's way into the finish and is there permanently. It's just a cosmetic thing to me and I'm not real anal about how it looks as long as I know it's clean.