Revolvers vs. Autos

A couple posts back, I opined that I was not backwards enough in this day and age to still distrust Autos. The Other Ryan, in comments stated that if anything, he believed that Autos were more reliable than revolvers. He stated that taking a quality revolver off the shelf and having it go heads-up against a modern service pistol, such as a Glock or M&P, and he would bet that in shooting a wheelbarrow of ammo through each would result in reliability issues with the revolver before the auto. He defined reliability issues as the gun failing to function at a 95% level. In other words, the first gun to fail to work 95 shots out of 100 would lose the competition.

Thing is, I tend to agree with him. Given THOSE conditions. I still trust a revolver more. Here's why.

I've shot a lot. I shot guns all the time growing up. I grew up in the 80's and 90's, the son of a cop in a rural town. Know what we shot? Revolvers. Smith & Wessons.

I grew up and went into law enforcement, and continued shooting. Only now, my shooting mostly focuses around my service weapon. Know what it is? An Auto. A Glock, to be exact.

Now I know that competitive shooters, and serious gun writers, and hell likely some hobbiests shoot more than me. But I know I shoot a hell of a lot more than the average cop, and a good bit more than the average gunnie. Until I moved to the Big City in May, and lost easy access to shooting land, I shot several boxes each month. Easily over 1000 rounds each year. Sadly, since moving, I haven't shot nearly as much. Maybe 500 rounds all told, with less than 300 of that being handgun shooting. (I went to a carbine course, and shot a few hundred rounds of .223.)

I say all that to say this: I have never had a revolver fail on me. I have once SEEN a revolver get decommissioned due to faulty powder in the ammo. The bullet got stuck in the bore. But if the next round had been fired, it would have shot. It would have also likely caused a catastrophic failure in the gun, too. Revolvers can also have their timing go to crap, or have parts of their lockwork fail, causing the gun to fail. At that point, the revolver is nothing more than a paperweight.

Now, I've also shot a lot of autos. Have I had them fail on me? YES. Was it a less than 5% failure rate? Yes. Was it because of the gun itself? Sometimes. Sometimes it didn't want to feed the particular ammo I had. Sometimes I was limp-wristing. Sometimes, when I was simulating firing from the hip on close targets, I had the gun in too tight to my body, and the slide hit my belly, causing it to not fully cycle. All of the failures I have experienced I have been able to clear with a tap, a rack, and a trigger pull.

But they still failed.

I have never had a revolver fail. And over the course of my life I have probably shot a revolver twice as much a an auto.

So, is Ryan correct in his opinion? Given the 95% function rate, I believe he may be. As I said, I have had probably a few dozen failures with an auto, but I would bet that they still functioned at over 95%. Given Ryan's guidelines, I have never had a gun become "unreliable".

Thing is, when a revolver fails, and it is an actual failure of the weapon, not bad ammo, you will likely need tools, if not a gunsmith to get it working again.

With an auto, when you have a failure, you can often fix it quickly, right there, just by going through a failure drill.

So in my completely biased opinion, a revolver will work 100% of the time, until it doesn't, at which point it will likely be useless in the field. An auto will work better than 95% of the time, and a failure you will likely be able to fix right there, on the spot.

So by the standard of 100% reliability, I feel like the revolver will get the nod, every time.

Think of this: lots of people have done a 2000 round torture test of semi-auto handguns, and the results can be illuminating. I feel as if a 2000 round test of a Ruger GP100 would be pretty boring. I bet that if ammo reliability was not a concern, it would reliably shoot every single round, first to last.

So that's my thoughts on that. And that's why I like revolvers.

Gun Porn for Old NFO

A set of Herrett's Shooting Ace grips on my 36. I wasn't planning on posting pics till I had tried them for a week or so, but NFO is laid up reading blogs while recovering from surgery.

Also, I plan on doing a post this weekend (an idea that comes from a comment left by The Other Ryan in my last post) about my feelings concerning semi-autos vs. revolvers, and concepts of use, which I hope you will enjoy, to NFO.

Get better, man.

36

Well, I have pretty much given up on carrying my Kahr CW9. Don't get me wrong, there are no problems with that gun. It's a great gun. It's just not the gun that I am most comfortable carrying, anymore.

I tend to favor revolvers over autos. Now, I like autos, and carry one on duty. I'm not backwards enough to still distrust autos in this day-and-age. There are literally hundreds of dead-nuts reliable autos out there that I would be comfortable trusting my life with, if I got enough trigger time behind them.

But I LIKE revolvers. Yeah, I admit a bias that doesn't have any basis in actual application. I just like revolvers more than semi-autos. Revolvers have soul.

But with a carry gun, I am always trying to strike a balance. I want a gun that is easy to conceal, comfortable on the belt, but that is as close in size to a fighting pistol as I can get, while maintaining small enough dimensions to carry OWB, and still easily conceal it with a shirt.

For the last year or so, that gun has been a Kahr CW9. If checked all the boxes for me.

But since getting the Model 36, it has taken over as my daily carry piece. With the 3 inch, heavy barrel, and the Pachmayr grips, this little j-frame handles like a fighting revolver.

But it still carries like a j-frame. I have carries it off-duty every day for a week. I know I need to carry it more to truly get a feel for how it is going to work out long-term, but I can conceal it under a polo-shirt, and I can carry it all day without it rubbing wrong or getting heavy and uncomfortable.

I feel like this is a perfect carry solution for me.

Neatsfoot Oil

A hand-rubbed, oil finish can be a beautiful thing on the right piece of leather.

Tortilla

Sometimes, things just come together. This holster is one of those things. From the drawing a few posts back, I started playing with the outline of the holster, because I didn't like the outline I had; I just didn't think it looked "right". After a few minutes, the drawing transformed into the Tortilla-style holster you see in the picture. I cut it out, and started stitching, and when I was done, I really couldn't believe the result.

There is about a million minute details about holster making that are easy to get wrong. I usually get something wrong. The stitching is sometimes slightly uneven, or they don't lay flat on the stitch-line. The demensions of the projecr may be slightly off. Not so much that you have to scrap the piece and start over, but enough that you, the maker, notice, and it bothers you. Sometimes to get the cut you want, you have to cut across the grain of the leather, and it makes for weird stretching. Sometimes you slip while cutting, and nick the finish on the side of the holster.

Any of these things can easily go wrong. Sometimes multiple ones go wrong, and when you get done, you can't point at any one thing and say "that screwed this project up", but the project is screwed up nonetheless.

And sometimes everything comes together. The grain is beautiful, the stitching is perfect, and the measurements are precise. You were able to cut the leather so that the natural grain enhances, rather than detracts from the piece. It all just works.

And that's why you keep making things, and trying to get better.

Biscuits

Ever have a sensory experience that brings you back 20 years? I've been the weekend at my dad's, and he cooked biscuits this morning. Hand-flung, cat-head biscuits.

He made them pretty regular when we were growing up.

After they were done this morning, I cut one and slathered butter on it, and dipped it into cane syrup.

And for just a minute, I was 10 years old, sitting next to a kerosene heater, relishing in the warmth and sweetness of a home made biscuit with cane syrup, getting ready to go hunting, the smell of hoppes #9 faintly hanging in the air around the shotguns leaned in the corner.

What a damn memory! 

Thanks for the biscuits pop. They meant more to me than you know.

Fun

Ya know, when I'm really having a good time, I usually forget to take pictures.

Today I saw my brother, shot my patrol rifle, shot my usual off-duty gun, a Khar CW9, and shot my new Model 36.

Had a blast, and hung out with my brother, bullshitting for the better part of 4 hours.

I took a quick pic when I got home, but it's not a great one, because that target got pasted over, and we kept shooting.

All the bullets in that 2-inch orange target came from that gun, though.

Using single-action, it is very easy to keep all shots in 2 inches at 7 yards. Almost trivially easy.

And this from a guy that hasn't shot a handgun since May... early May...

I like this new Model 36. It's a shooter.

Conceptualizing

Thoughts on a holster for a 3-inch j-frame.

Hallo-wine

My step-mom likes wine. I was in the dollar store today, and saw a holiday wine glass I thought she would enjoy. I will be seeing her and my dad next weekend, so I'll bring this by.

Aaaanndddd... BEER!

Finished bottling. It made less than I hoped, at 43 bottles, but I did lose some in the explosion, and several bottles worth was inseparable from the sediment.

I hope this pumpkin beer turns out good.