{"id":2797,"date":"2015-01-14T17:44:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T22:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/?p=2797"},"modified":"2015-02-11T20:00:47","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T01:00:47","slug":"semi-autos-vs-revolvers-wrong-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/semi-autos-vs-revolvers-wrong-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Semi-Autos Better Than Revolvers? Wrong Question."},"content":{"rendered":"

In the history of the development of firearms technology, there’s a good chunk of the timeline\u00a0between the debut of Sam Colt’s famous invention and the early 20th century where revolvers were clearly the tool best suited for personal protection. But then semi-automatic pistols came onto the scene\u00a0and challenged the place of the revolver as the dominant\u00a0firearm for self-defense. Of course at first, there really was no contest. The early semi-autos weren’t exactly user-friendly, and reliability was a major concern. At least in the U.S., the revolver would remain\u00a0the favorite for a long time to come.<\/p>

But gradually, the technology and engineering behind autoloaders improved and now 100 years later, there are\u00a0fewer obvious advantages to being armed with a\u00a0revolver over a modern semi-auto. So the same question keeps coming up: “Are semi-autos\u00a0better<\/em> than revolvers?” Or phrased another way, “Are revolvers\u00a0still relevant?” or “Are revolvers obsolete?”<\/p>

The topic is worth discussing, but I think these are the wrong questions. They’re wrong\u00a0because they’re vague and overly broad and lead to answers\u00a0that don’t help anybody. These kinds of questions\u00a0ask us to focus on the tools and the technology and tell us nothing about the people that will be using them.<\/p>

For example, a fan of semi-autos might take the question and consider merely the mechanical and technological merits of the options at hand.\u00a0Taken that way,\u00a0of course<\/em> semi-autos are superior. \u00a0They recoil less. The triggers are easier to manipulate. The sights are usually much bigger and better. Today’s semi-autos are more reliable than ever and no more prone to malfunction and failure\u00a0than the average wheel gun. And most importantly,\u00a0semi-autos\u00a0have two to three times the ammo capacity of a revolver of equal size and weight. More bullets is more better. Game\u00a0over, autoloaders win.<\/p>

\"Ruger<\/a>
Ruger LCR 357 with some very dirty Speer Gold Dot .38 Special +P ammo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Revolver aficionados tend to\u00a0side-step these kinds of arguments and come back with counter-examples\u00a0that are much more contextualized or personal. They’ll tell you all about Jerry Miculek’s sub 1-second\u00a0reloads<\/a> or how many gun fights Jim Cirillo<\/a> won with six shooters. They’ll point to stories about poorly trained police officers bullet-hosing innocent bystanders<\/a> during a shootout on a crowded city street as evidence\u00a0that revolvers are better since they require the shooter to practice more discretion with his shots. And you’ll hear all about how they personally shoot revolvers better or that they don’t “feel under gunned” when they carry a j-frame snub.<\/p>

In the end nobody changes their mind and nobody learns anything. Fortunately, there are better ways\u00a0to attack this question of “semi-autos versus revolvers”.<\/p>

First, we’ll have to get over the assumption that this kind of discussion is\u00a0the Handgun Super Bowl. There doesn’t have to be a winner and a loser. We can compare these two technologies without implying that the gun with the less optimal “pros and cons” list is completely useless and that everybody who carries one is ignorant.<\/p>

Similarly, we also have to remember that\u00a0a new\u00a0technology doesn’t always completely displace what came before it, even if the new tool is\u00a0better in many\u00a0ways. Firearms were a big upgrade over swords and bows\u00a0but they didn’t completely eliminate the usefulness of hand to hand weapons. To this day, blades\u00a0are still frequently used as a last ditch self-defense tool when the firearm fails or is not accessible.<\/p>

Without a doubt, modern semi-auto pistols provide many mechanical advantages over revolvers. High ammo capacity in particular really does provide an edge that at least has\u00a0the potential to increase your odds of coming out of a fight alive.\u00a0That fact doesn’t at all contradict\u00a0the idea that revolvers can still be viable for self-defense today, and may even excel in some areas that semi-autos do not.<\/p>

<\/p>

\"S&W
Smith and Wesson’s 28-2 Highway Patrolman, chambered in .357 Magnum<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Finally, we’ll have an easier time framing the discussion if we keep in mind the human factor — that the right tool for the job depends on the person using the tool. I don’t mean that “it’s the Indian and not the arrow”. In reality, both matter<\/a>. What I mean is that asking \u201care semi-autos objectively better self defense tools than revolvers?\u201d can’t be answered\u00a0in a general sense\u00a0without a lot of\u00a0“most of the time” and “probably” and “the average person” kind of assumptions.\u00a0It’s a\u00a0vastly different and much more difficult\u00a0question than\u00a0\u201cIs a revolver\/semi-auto the right tool for person x<\/i> in situation y<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>

So instead of assuming that revolvers have to either\u00a0enjoy equal status with semi-autos or be completely banished to museums, I’d like to hear a\u00a0debate\u00a0that explores the middle ground.\u00a0If there are some less obvious benefits offered by revolvers, what are they, and in what circumstances do they come into play? What kind of person is\u00a0better off being armed with a revolver than a semi-auto? Are there ways to overcome some of the major shortcomings of revolvers?\u00a0What new technologies could be applied to revolvers to make them better?<\/p>

Of course,\u00a0I don’t expect the internet to provide the platform for\u00a0balanced and reasonable debate on these nuanced issues — I’ll have to head out into the “real world” for that. So over the next few months,\u00a0I’m diving head first into the realm\u00a0of round guns. I’ll be carrying them, shooting them, and finding out everything there is to know about revolvers\u00a0and their role as\u00a0modern self-defense tools. Every once and a while, I’ll pop back in to let you know what I’ve found, so stay tuned…<\/p> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the history of the development of firearms technology, there’s a good chunk of the timeline\u00a0between the debut of Sam … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216,6],"tags":[47,21,42,17,208,19,58],"class_list":["post-2797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wheel-gun-wednesday","category-toolbox","tag-concealed-carry","tag-handguns","tag-revolvers","tag-self-defense","tag-semi-autos","tag-tactics","tag-training"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSemi-Automatic Pistols vs. Revolvers - Which is Better?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Semi-automatic pistols vs. revolvers - what's better for self-defense? 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