Many preppers frown upon the thought of using a revolver as their primary defense handgun, and there are good reasons to choose something other than a wheelgun. There is one overriding factor that guarantees revolvers will always have a place in my hand, though…
You pull the trigger, the gun goes “BANG!”.
Every.
Single.
Time.
A Heritage Arms .22 revolver isn’t a good choice for self-defense, not because it’s a revolver, but rather it’s a poor choice because it’s a .22
Revolvers have been around for hundreds of years, but they really started to be developed with self-rotating cylinders in the mid 1800’s. They were widely used in the civil war, and once the sealed metal cartridge became readily available in the later part of the 1800’s, they became the king-of-the-hill in handgun technology.
Around 1900, semi-automatic handguns started to be developed, in large part with the Browning FN-1903, and we all know what happened in 1911 as one of the masterpieces of handgun engineering (perhaps the single greatest handgun ever) was released in the 1911 Colt .45 semi-auto.
Over the following century, the semi-auto was further developed into a reliable weapon, and it was adopted first by military forces and government agencies. The revolver remained the gun-of-choice for most police departments, with S&W Model 10 .38 revolvers saturating the law-enforcement market.
In Russia, the somewhat wonky Nagant Revolver was systematically replaced starting in the 1930’s by the TT series (based off of the previously mentioned Browning FN-1903) but it continued to see service through World War II (in fact, in places, it’s still in service today). They were available as a surplus gun for many years in the US at dirt cheap prices, so may longer-term preppers have one or two of them. I did a review of this crazy design and you can read it by clicking below. NOTE: Don’t buy this gun as a prepping gun, it’s wonky, underpowered and expensive to shoot.
Review: M1895 Nagant Revolver… “Shoot on Sunday, load all week”
Then? Along came Gaston Glock. It’s no understatement to say that Glock help re-invent the law enforcement and military firearms industry, as his designs and similar guns from Berretta, S&W and many other companies soon took over, leading to a phase-out of revolvers in most government service because semi-autos now had excellent reliablity and offered a much higher magazine count… why carry 6 shots when you can carry 15?
SO… you might ask… if semi-auto has taken over law enforcement, doesn’t that mean that revolvers are a “thing of the past”?
Absolutely not.
There are many reasons that revolvers are still a top choice for personal protection handguns, so lets take a look at six of them:
- Again, they go bang. Every. Single. Time
- While they have a limited magazine capacity, guns designed for speedloaders can be reloaded extremely quickly.
- This limited magazine capacity keeps them off the top of the “gun grabber” list.
- One that I find handy, if you reload, it doesn’t eject your brass all over the area… you can simply drop it in a pouch and move on.
- You can shoot in areas you don’t want cluttered up with brass
- They are not nearly as picky about the ammo they eat than a lot of the semi-auto cousins.
If you see me out at the place, working around the cabin, down by the pond or in the back acres, I will probably be carrying a revolver, most likely one of my S&W Model 10’s. I don’t really expect trouble from the human neighbors, but we do have varmints that we need to keep under control, and frankly there are meth heads in some of these woods.
Let’s top this article off with a few links to gun reviews I’ve done here on 3BY in the last year.
Salty’s Gun Review: North American Arms .22 Magnum Convertible w/Holster Grip
Good post, was just talking about revolvers with a friend a couple weeks ago. While not infallible, the revolver does have a solid place in the prepper arsenal today. Generally reliable but when they do go wonky it’s not a simple fix like with many semi-autos. My first handgun was a 4″ 357 and still have it these 29 years later. I enjoy just able to put a snubby into a coat pocket with a speed strip to run up to the store or pizza place for takeout without having to strap on pistol x and holster especially if not wearing pants that require a belt. We’re planning on adding a couple more to our collection this year, a RIA M200 or M206 and maybe something in 357 flavor. I really miss my Nagant revolver, even had the spare cylinder to fire 32ACP, shouldn’t have sold it at all.
People who are not gun enthusiasts can benefit from keeping a revolver instead of an autoloader in the bedstand for an emergency. A revolver can sit there for 20 years and be ready to dependably fire because there are no springs under tension.