Revolvers

[Dusty44]

Whatever happened to revolvers? 

Two or three years ago the gunshop cases were full of revolvers.  Half,  maybe two-thirds of the handguns for sale were revolvers.  Now there is not one single new revolver in the cases.  On a visit in mid-September  one major gun store in my area had perhaps as many as somewhere between one hundred and two hundred handguns,  every one is a semi-auto.  My favorite small gunshop had a collection of used / pre-owned revolvers in 357 and 38 or 22 but that is all.  Their 'new' handguns are all semi-autos.

There have not been any revolvers in any of the major-name gun and sporting goods stores to my knowledge since late spring at least. 

Ammo for 357 and 44 Mag is appearing again but the price is shocking,  even higher than last year and the bullet weights are all very light,  at least for what I have seen on the shelves.

It is beginning to look like a paraphrase from Henry Ford:  "You can have any kind or caliber of handgun you want just so long as it is a semi-auto in 9MM."

[imschur]

The shop where I bought my Kimber 1911 had about 25 percent new revolvers. Interestingly if there was one branded represented more than the rest it was Taurus and mostly those specialized hand cannons.

I think some of the issue is with the younger generation who is inspired by military service and even possibly video games has zero interest in revolvers and even worse 1911 with wood grips or any gun with wood for that matter.

[survivalshop]

Origanal revolvers are hard to come by now a days . I have bought three in the last two years , a Colt Anaconda (44mag. ) a S&W Mod. 19 target master (357.mag. ) & a Colt King Cobra  (357 mag. )

The shop I go to has some of the new as said offerings In the Taurus, but once in a while he has some good used revolvers (I think I buy most of them )

When I bought the King Cobra , he had two Pythons ,one in .357 mag . & a 22LR mod. I forget whats its true designation is , but both had never been fired & even the cylinder had not been turned .

He was keeping them of course .

I'm still looking for a Org. S&W "N " frame in 45 LC..

[Dusty44]

I think all the gunshops I have visited had some of those Taurus 'Judge' revolvers.  They serve a purpose but I want my own guns to be better suited to target shooting and sometimes for backup when hunting.  I had forgotten about the Taurus offerings.  I do know there were no Taurus PT 1911's in the displays on my last trip.

[ryantowry_81]

Still lots of revolvers in gun stores here. Even Fred myer and walmart carry  Revolvers here mainly 44 mag and bigger and 22 for grouse and ptarmigan. I personally love both my rugers, 454 and 22.

[Dusty44]

This morning I was doing essential business and the route home 'just happened' to pass my favorite gunshop.  I was absolutely amazed to see a collection of revolvers in the cases again.  Seasonal?  One Taurus Judge,  several Blackhawks including one in 44 Mag,  other single-action revolvers including a couple of Uberti "Outlaws."  Still some used 357's but not as many.

Mostly bolt action rifles and a big selection of shotguns in the racks behind the cases today and very few AR style rifles in any caliber.  Had to be a change of merchandise on display.  They could hardly have sold all the AR's that were lined up a few weeks ago?

It was interesting to see about twenty different 380 semi-autos very prominent on a top shelf,  itty-bitty up to just small.  I wonder about the comments that 9MM  is not enough if the situation is serious---  but the 380 is less potent than 9MM?  Maybe better with a little 22LR for self defense carry than a 380?  Just a rhetorical question:  I know that thousands of pages of magazine articles have been wasted on the subject! 

 

[survivalshop]

Shot placement is more critical with a smaller caliber, but they will still work . I was shot with a .22 & it put me down . Still have the bullet in the muscle tissue of my spine . Its been there since 1977.

The newer ammo with the new type bullets they are using , make good self defence ammo.

There is nothing wrong with the 9MM  as long as the right ammo is used.

The 380 is so popular because of its size. They can be worn or carried just about any where.

[ryantowry_81]

If you want a carry gun with some knock down look into the kahr pm45. My wife bought me one for a wedding present and it is amazing. Size of my wallet and still shoots 45 comfortably.

[SWshooter]

You wonder why 380's are so popular? Do you know the rules of gun fighting?        1. You can't be in a gun fight if you don't have a gun.

    a. The gun you have in your pocket, when you need it, is the best gun to have in a gun fight.

    b. People who are involved in gun fights, who don't have guns, are called victims.

    c. Always cheat, try to start every gun fight with your gun in your hand, while your opponents gun is in his pocket, holster, glovebox, gun safe, etc.

2. A pistol is what you use to fight your way to your rifle.

3. If you know your going to be in a gun fight, you bring a rifle.

    a. If you have a friend who has a rifle, bring him with you.

    b. I f he has friends with rifles, bring them too.

4. The only thing that matters at the end of a gun fight is, who is still standing up, and who is lying on the ground bleeding.

These are my rules for gun fighting. They have been refined from my 40 odd years of experience. They probably resemble other people's rules, as experience seems to teach the same lessons over and over. If you don't like them because they seem too harsh or unfair, you should think carefully about whether you should carry a gun or not.

[ryantowry_81]

My number one rule of carry guns is to get the most gun you know you will carry everywhere with you. By most I mean most stopping power, most rounds, and most practiced.

[SWshooter]

There is no single handgun that you can carry always, unless your satisfied with a 25 acp as your main armament. You need a range of guns, like a golfer has clubs. You need something really small, like a P-3AT, for really hot summer weather, when all you can wear is shorts and an A shirt, or no shirt. Also works well for fancy dress, when a chunk of iron in your suit pants pocket prints something awful, and you may have to remove your jacket in public. Then there's a medium sized general carry gun that you carry most of the time in an IWB under a shirt or jacket. Last but not least is your serious gun. When you can't bring a rifle but you want some serious fire power, like a full size 1911 or maybe a Glock 20, I prefer a Delta Gold Cup in 10mm. Then there are some nice to haves, I use a 4" 629 during hunting season, you never know what you might spot off the side of the road, and I don't like leaving my rifle and gear in the truck and being disarmed. Since I often hunt with a 44 mag carbine the 629 uses the same ammo. If I'm carrying another rifle I'll carry a 2 1/2" 66 357 mag, it's a little smaller and lighter, but still a deer killer if required. I also have a Keltec P-11 I carry into jurisdictions where my permit is not valid, if necessary I can ditch it and not be out a lot of money. I also have a couple coat pocket guns for really cold weather where drawing from an IWB or shoulder holster would be nearly impossible. I'm partial to an old Bulldog 44 Spec., not too heavy but has enough punch loaded with 240 gr SWC's to handle heavy clothing. Of course you need a bunch of holsters to cover the various situations. Picking the right handgun to go with the occasion should be a lot like picking which suit to wear. This tie or that, the vest or not, fancy shoes or plain. 380 with the pocket holster or the IWB, Maybe the CBOB in an IWB or the 357 snubby in the shoulder holster, possibly the LCP in the ankle holster. The well dressed gentleman should certainly have enough armament to match his wardrobe.

[ryantowry_81]

Yeah up here in Alaska I don't worry about having any smaller than my pm45 cause it never gets warm enough up here to not wear a shirt haha and the pm45 fits in my pocket  real easy. Then there is open carry, which I know is not a viable option in some areas where it would cause some scare but every one up here is pretty used to guns when there are blacks and grizzlys that wonder through town once and a while.

I also have my ruger redhawk 44 I open carry when I feel I need more than the  45 acp.

[SWshooter]

When I was 18 and just got my permit, I used to carry a 45 SAA 4 3/4's on a belt exposed any time I was hunting. Went into grocery stores and restaurants and lots of public places and nobody ever thought twice about it. When I was 16-18 I brought a rifle to school on a public bus every Monday for rifle club. This was in a town of 40,000 or so in Western New York. Almost everybody hunted, at least for deer. Now nobody hunts anymore and open carry is against the law. Times have sure changed, and certainly not for the better. I would sure like to live someplace where I could carry a large handgun on my belt without anyone taking any particular notice.

[survivalshop]

If you want a carry gun with some knock down look into the kahr pm45. My wife bought me one for a wedding present and it is amazing. Size of my wallet and still shoots 45 comfortably.

I Carrie my PM45 daily, I some times forget its there.

My IWB holster has a spare mag for it also.

I carrie mine with one in the chamber & five in the mag.. FMJ hard ball .

[ryantowry_81]

mine is the same except i use some hard cast lead.

[98Z5V]

You need a range of guns, like a golfer has clubs.

Amen, brother.  <thumbsup>  I've got a 3" Kimber Ultra RCP II, a 5" Kimber Desert Warrior, a 5" Kimber (polymer) BP TEN II (double-stack hi-cap mag, even for .45 ACP).  I'm currently on the lookout for a 4" Kimber Super Carry Pro to round everything out.  AR builds keep getting in my way of ownership of that gun, sadly...  :o

I have a 5" Taurus PT92 9mm that sits in the back of the safe.  It's 21 years old now, and fulfilled it's role as a training gun "as close as I could afford to the issue Beretta 92F pistol."  Nowadays, I won't carry anything that doesn't as least start with ".4-something."  ;D

[DocLarsen]

Hey guys,

I haven't intro'ed yet, well I did, but timed out before I saved and lost it all.  I will redo it soon.  I only have one pistol at the moment: my beloved blackhawk 44mag.  I love this gun it is powerful and accurate, but not very concealable.  I am looking to get a concealable .40 S&W soon and the get my CCW.  There are several smallish (3.5") automatics that I am considering.  Seems like someone comes out with another one on a weekly basis.

SeaDoc

[7.62fan]

I've been either lucky or not to have had at least one handgun from all of the current and past manufacturers. For durability you can't beat a Ruger. However, I always seem to migrate back to Smith & Wesson, mostly the short barrel versions. I have a 642 and "Bounty Hunter" 29. The 29 is great. I didn't think much of it at first, especially with the tacky "Bounty Hunter" lasered into the right side of the barrel. But I finally (3 yrs later)went out and shot it, and was extremely surprised in it's handling and accuracy of Win 240 JSP at 75ft. It completely changed my thinking of the 44 for SD, although maybe trimming the velocity down to Special +P.

[Dusty44]

A week before Christmas I visited CheaperThanDirt in Ft Worth.  I wanted to just get a real-time first-person touchy-feely look at a Ruger "New Vaquero."  The Redhawks and Blackhawks are too large for my hands to be comfortable with.  CTD had New Vaquero's in both calibers and at least three different barrel lengths.  I have planned to 'come back later' before and regretted it.  I brought home a 4 5/8" 357 mag version.  This revolver feels really good in my hand and the trigger is beautiful.  In the last few days I loaded some new Remington brass with generic LSWC 158 gr and Cast Performance 160 gr LBT and (the Devil made me do it) the last ten rounds of the Cast Performance with genuine Goex Black Powder.  I will post my impressions when it becomes possible to shoot this stuff and my impressions of the New Vaquero.  I am still coping with the after effects of last summer's surgery. 

My Taurus PT 1911 (45 ACP) had problems holding on to magazines other that the two that came with it and would not easily release empty magazines nor would the slide (usually) lock open after a string of shots.  I put a new Ed Brown slide lock into it (from Brownell's) and all the slides I have will now lock into place and release properly.  I will have to wait until I can shoot again to see how the 'lock open' function for the slide works now.  For the rest,  the PT 1911 easily makes 2 inch groups at 25 yds if I am having a passable day.

I am thinking about buying a 9 MM or else a 45 ACP that has both double action and will accept the conversion 9 MM parts that are in my Colt so that I can reconfigure the Colt (38 Super Auto) to factory original.  I have too many rounds of 9 MM to forget about them but prefer to shoot 45 ACP.  My impression of the 38 Super cartridge is that it should be the 'go to' for all in need of a semi-auto with serious power instead of having been left largely on the dusty shelves of history.  I once had the opportunity to shoot a friend's Glock in 9 MM side-by-side with the Colt shooting 38 Super Auto.  The Colt gave the impression of a serious magnum 9 MM.  Feel of recoil about half way between the 9 MM and the 45 ACP.  Anyone who does not know the capabilities of the 38 Super should research it.  It is a great cartridge and seemingly would be able to do anything the '9' & '10' metric cartridges can do and maybe better with a little work on bullets and powders.  Of course,  most 38 Super aficionados think that way!

[SWshooter]

I don't think you can convert a 45 slide to a 38 super, the breech face is bigger. They use one slide for 9mm, 38 Super, and 40S&W/10mm; and a different slide for 45 ACP, and 460 Rowland. They take different extractors too. I don't think you can load a 38 Super to match a 10mm, at least if you load to real 10mm ballistics. I always thought an alloy frame Commander in 38 Super would make an excellent CCW gun. I'm in the process of having a Colt Delta Gold Cup rebuilt as a carry gun. I've had a ramped 10mm barrel and a ramped 40 S&W barrel fitted. I'm having a set of Elliason night sights fitted, the frame bobtailed, and new fire control parts fitted. I never thought about having a 38 Super barrel fitted, I'll have to see if ramped Super barrels are available. It would be nice to have a gun that would fire all three cartridges. I was down at the 'smiths dropping off parts and money( a lot of that) on Thursday and got to handle the gun with the  bobtailed frame. It really makes the gun feel completely different from a standard 1911. You can turn the gun into your hand more and get more easily behind the frame. It should handle recoil better and also conceal easier. As for 3" revolver barrels, my personal feeling is that they are neither fish nor fowl, too long for real concealment and too short for hunting. I seem to run either 4" or 2 1/2"  barrels on most of my revolvers. I finally sold my 3" Smith as I never used it.

[Dusty44]

My Colt came as a 38 Super.  Ammunition a few years ago was so difficult to find that I researched a comment hanging by a thread of memory and found parts or a kit for changing an M1911 to 9MM listed at Impact Guns which I bought.  Just before Christmas,  2010,  and again a week ago I was in several places that sell ammo and have not seen any 38 Super for sale,  again.  I have bought and have on hand a few boxes bought when I did see them.  9 MM ammo is of course readily available and I have a lot of it bought before ammo became scarce (and expensive).

When the package of 9 MM parts arrived the plastic bags carried Brownell's labels and were shipped directly from Brownell's.  I had been unable to find any reference at Brownell's when I was looking for a source.  I had researched the forums and read a lot of commentary in forums dated a good while back.  Parts are fairly easy.  Barrel, link,  link pin (I had to order them separately but they arrived assembled),  spring and bushing.  The barrel was slightly oversized externally so it could be made to fit properly.  The rest of the parts drop in.  I had a gunsmith fit the barrel but I think it would not have been beyond my capabilities if that had been necessary.

A magazine is required for each caliber.  The 9 MM might work in a 38 Super magazine but it is better to have a magazine with the spacer at the back for the 9 MM just to be sure.  The old postings spoke of some guns that would shoot 9 MM very well with the 38 Super mags and some where it was a lost cause.  Some would work with the same extractors,  some not.  My Colt needed a little tweaking  of the extractor.  So one person said all he had to do was field strip and reassemble with the appropriate parts and could shoot 38 Super and 9 MM at will with no problems ever with the 38 Super mag.  Others said they could do that after having a gunsmith tweak the extractor and then sometimes the 38 Super mags worked and sometimes not.  It seems to depend on the gun.  I think I recall that the 45 ACP needs a different extractor used that will not work with the smaller cartridges,  or the other way around,  or both?

I found a reference in those old postings for a shop manual for the M1911,  author  Jerry Kuhnhausen,  indicating that Amazon had it for sale.  I tried Amazon,  Borders,  Barnes & Noble and drew a blank.  Last summer (2010) I was idly looking through a list of books for sale and buying a few for general reading.  One book was listed only as "The M1911/M1911A1 Pistols."  I added it to my shopping list thinking it was a historical review of these guns.  When it arrived I was floored by the realization that it was a copy of Jerry Kuhnhausen's book.  The entire title and reference is:  "The U.S. M1911/M1911A1 Pistols & commercial M1911 type pistols  A Shop Manual- Volume 2 in the Kuhnhausen .45 Auto Series;"    Author:  Jerry Kuhnhausen;  Copyright 1997;  "A Heritage - VSP Shop Manual;"  "Published and Distributed by Heritage Gun Books."  Paperback.  This is a very serious technical book.  Anything anyone ever needed to know about an M1911 is almost certainly in there.

I do not remember where I did buy the manual.  It may be that I was trying to find it by a wrong title and by an ISBN number that does not seem to appear on the copy I have.  Author's name did not work.  Maybe I bought it from Safari,  I do not now know.  And it may have been in a list of closeouts?  If you want a copy,  all I can do is wish you and all others who might be interested luck. 

[SWshooter]

Most people that shoot the odd and unusual cartridges learn pretty quick that it's handload or nothing. You might find some ammo at some of the smaller specialty shops like Cor-Bon, Double-Tap, etc.