Wheel Guns

I am a profound believer in revolvers for self-defense. The gun writers, when recently polled, admitted to carrying a snub-nosed revolver for their own defense. Each of these writers spends thousands of words extolling the virtues of the newest semi-auto pistol in their respective monthly rags, but they carry a wheelie. Why?

Here are my reasons. A revolver is:
1) Idiot proof. Pull the trigger, it works. Some folks complain about the 15 or so pounds of required trigger pull. People, if your life is in jeopardy, you will not think this an issue. Besides, you really need to want the gun to go off, so unintentional discharges are mostly prevented (allowing for the obvious stupidity attack).
2) Reliable. There are two situations which can ruin your whole day with a semi. One is a stove-pipe round, where it doesn't completely eject the spent casing and put a new round in battery. To recover from this, a slap-and-rack is necessary, costing valuable time in a crisis. This cannot happen in a wheel gun.
3) Reliable II. The other is a dud, a cartridge that fails to go "boom". In a semi-auto, the same slap and rack drill is the only solution. In a revolver, just pull the trigger again. A new round is rotated into battery, and you are good to go.
4) The FBI statistics indicate most lethal gunfights occur at seven feet. You don't need those fancy sights. In the real world, you probably won't get the chance to use them. You need to practice. A LOT.
5) The irregular shape of the snubbie allows a pocket carry without the boxy shape of a semiautomatic pistol making the gun obvious.

There is more, but you can see the positives outweigh the negatives. We carry in the real world, wearing real clothes. The folks at Smith & Wesson have an extensive line of really good "snubbies". Many are hammerless or shrouded hammer, so they will not snag on clothes or purses. These aren't designed for Sunday afternoon plinking. For that, buy yourself a Ruger Mark II and have a ball.

Later