If I were forced to pick a single revolver to carry me through from now until my appointment with the furnace, something like a 4” K6 gets about 85% of the way to my ideal. Stick in a full stroke ejector rod that will clear magnum cases would get it nearly perfect.
Ken
BBI: ...”you better not forget the safe word because shit's about to get weird”...
revchuck38: ...”mo' ammo is mo' betta' unless you're swimming or on fire.”
Colts have their charms, but durability and longevity is typically not one of them, comparatively. I don't know about their newly issued stuff. I'm all Ruger for anything that would be considered serious use, although I have several pre-lock S&Ws that are more of a "for funsies" sort of thing that could be pressed into service if needed.Originally Posted by SwampDweller
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Many of the comments here are centered around the high-volume use of a revolver on the range and how problematic that can be. But will these issues get you kilt in da streetz?
We're spoiled by how good autoloaders have become, and I include myself with my Berettas, Walthers and M&Ps. But assuming carry (vs. practice) ammo in a revolver with clean chambers and nothing under the extractor star, it's pretty unlikely you'll have issues in the one reload you might need in a defensive situation. I'm guilty of running a couple of hundred rounds through an autoloader at the range and then loading up with my carry ammo at the end of the session and thinking nothing of it, but there's no way I'd do that with a round gun.
A clean carry revolver without excessive grit-and-lint-magnet oil is basically going to be as reliable as a mechanical object built by humans and operated by a human can be, if and when needed. A revolver won’t get you KITS by virtue of its intolerance for shmutz in and about the cylinder.
The issue with high round count usage comes into play when trying to eliminate the human error through training and competition. It’s the old abuse v. neglect issue. Like you point out, carrying a dirty modern pistol is usually fine; carrying a dirty revolver is asking for a problem.
@jetfire has a social media project going on under the same name as this thread, and his solution (albeit he was aiming for technical updates and not durability, specifically) was to purchase two 7-shot L-frames and dedicate one to training/dryfire. One gun stays dedicated to matches and carry.
Well, you may be a man. You may be a leprechaun. Only one thing’s for sure… you’re in the wrong basement.
I keep pretty meticulous round count/cleaning logs of the guns I shoot. The highest round count GP100 I have in my possession right now is my 10mm Match Champion, which has had 2110 rounds through it, mostly 40 S&W. It's been cleaned three times, which may not seem like a lot at first. I have a Beretta APX which has had a similar number of rounds...and has been cleaned all of zero times.
The highest round count I ever pushed an individual S&W revolver to was a 625 in 45 ACP that ate 6,213 rounds. I'd clean it every 500 rounds or so. We're not talking a deep scrub or anything, because wheelguns don't usually need that much cleaning. With jacketed ammo, a boresnake and brushing the cylinder face is pretty sufficient. This video details how I clean my wheelguns:
Or....
You answered your own question and thoughts.So for the most part I think it's coming down to a pre-lock used S&W, or a new production Ruger GP100.
I think folks here are right to push you towards the Match Champion GP100. I have the 'poor man's MC' (a 4" taper barrel GP100). With compact grips it carries as well as anything in this size range (i.e., K-L frame sized).
If I were buying a new production 'combat revolver' - Match Champion, fit compact grips, shoot it. I personally won't bother with 7-shooters, because you can't load 7 in competition.
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@jetfire can tell us for sure, but I'm pretty sure the reason two L-Frames were chosen as "Modern Combat Revolvers" has less to do with them being Smiths and more to do with the availability of optics mounts that hold zero. I know he tried multiple mounts for the Rugers and Smiths, along with multiple optics types (RMR, SRO, ACRO) only the Smith version he is running with the ACRO held zero.
I'm saying that not to denigrate Smith, but to note it's not the durability of the design for why it was chosen, rather the ability to mount and maintain the accessories that he wanted.
I'm pretty sure if he could, Caleb would go Ruger revolve with a dot...but hey I could be wrong.
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Yeah, the problem with the after market available red dot mounts for Ruger is that they all just use the rear sight elevation screw hole to secure the mount, and that's not secure enough to keep the mount from shifting around under recoil. The two best mini RDS mounts are the Apex Tactical ACRO mount for S&W, and Trijicon's own mount for RMR/SRO pattern dots. Both of those mounts use all three screw holes on the top strap of the revolver and are super secure. I went with the Apex over the Trijicon because I like the people who work at Apex better, and I had two RDOs lying around that weren't on guns at the moment.
^^^ Is there room to drill and tap any more screwholes in base for the Rugers?
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
All of this is pretty much where I have ended up, in terms of mindset.
I say this as a guy who likes revolvers, and is clearly a bit of a gear whore, so I’ve owned exemplars of all of them.
When the dust settled (for now) I ended up with a small pile of vintage Smiths, all pre lock—including K frames divided into shooting as much as I can afford too; shooting a little, because, reserved for defensive applications; safe queens, because, old enough to flex the intergenerational privilege card with a smattering of guns nobody outside of Roy Jinks knows exist.
If I was buying a new gun—which I have done too much of—knowing what I know about the CS levels of the various companies out there, it would be a Ruger MC with compact grips first, and a K6s with a longer barrel second, with the caveat that snap caps are mandatory with the K6 for dry firing to keep the firing pin from becoming a wear item. Conceivably, buying 3 K6s in short order (shoot, carry, spare) would be an entirely valid way to go, if one likes the design as much as I do.
The 3 K6 idea really isn’t any different from the classic 3 G19 idea, or the 3 no-lock K frame idea, or...
JMO.
A couple hundred rounds in a range session would be my typical range day with a revolver. Setting aside mechanical failures, which in my experience are about even between autoloaders and revolvers, I really haven't seen issues. The exception would be a Dan Wesson Model 15 gapped at .002 between the barrel and the cylinder. That did bind up quick (maybe 20 rounds?). Gapped at the DW recommended .004 though and it never had issues either. Keys would be I clean after every range session and stick to decent quality jacketed or plated ammunition. You're not going thousands of rounds without cleaning a revolver but if you keep up a reasonable cleaning cycle you shouldn't have issues.
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