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JTarrou  1yr ago (text post)   3221 thread views

I'm a "gun guy", AMA

A couple people had expressed interest in this topic, and I have a bit of extra time for a couple days, so here goes:

Bona fides: I am a former infantry NCO and sniper, hunter, competitive shooter, reloader, hobby gunsmith, sometimes firearms trainer and currently work in a gun shop, mostly on the paperwork/compliance side. Back in the day, was a qualified expert with every standard small arm in the US inventory circa 2003 (M2, 4, 9, 16, 19, 249, 240B, 21, 24, 82 etc.), and today hang around the 75th percentile of USPSA classifications. I've shot Cap-and-Ball, Trap and Sporting Clays badly; Bullseye and PRS somewhat better and IDPA/USPSA/UML/Two-gun with some local success. Been active in the 2A community since the mid-90s, got my first instructor cert in high school, and have held a CPL for almost twenty years now.

I certainly don't claim to be an expert in every aspect of firearms, there's huge areas that escape my knowledge base, but if you've got questions I'll do my best to answer.

Technical questions

Gun control proposals for feasibility

Industry

Training

Wacky opinions

General geekery

Some competition links (not my own) just for the interested.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=U5IhsWamaLY&t=173

https://youtube.com/watch?v=93nEEINflXE

https://youtube.com/watch?v=utcky0zq10E

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xVh4CjbgK7s

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0IK2RUxVq3A

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Someone suggested to me they believed switching from revolvers to pistols in the police force was a mistake, that having fewer, higher caliber bullets ready to shoot had a psychological effect on police officers that translated to fewer missed shots, fewer bystander fatalities, and more deliberate, accurate shooting on behalf of the officers.

I've never been able to find any concrete data on this, and I'm not sure if it's true or just something the person made up after watching Dirty Harry.

I very much doubt it. There are exactly zero practical reasons to use a revolver over a semi-auto as a general duty weapon.

There may be a small effect because the two most common number of shots fired by cops is one or everything in the gun. As revolvers carry fewer rounds, they might shoot less, but that could have good and bad results. If your goal is to get cops to fire their guns less, then this would accomplish it. If the goal is bad guys down and good guys not, then it's a wash.

Revolvers are much more difficult to shoot well than semi-autos, mostly due to long, heavy triggers. There is also the issue of the cylinder gap, which affects both accuracy and power. There's just no upside to revolvers other than that they are cool.

There are exactly zero practical reasons to use a revolver over a semi-auto as a general duty weapon.

There's just no upside to revolvers . . .

Nitpick: pistols can't be fired out of battery, but revolvers can. Extremely rarely an issue for police, though, and there's no way it's worth the other tradeoffs. A backup revolved could be kept under the external vest if anyone really cared enough about this contingency.

I will nit your pick! A muzzle stand-off device will allow contact shots without pushing the slide out of battery, and are smaller, lighter and cheaper than a revolver.

There's just no upside to revolvers other than that they are cool.

There is one minor upside to revolvers: You can use them to fire cartridges that are too large to comfortably fit in a pistol grip magazine. This is a niche case, but is useful for handgun hunting in especially old-fashioned states.

This is true, but not super relevant to police duty guns.

That makes sense, thanks.

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