I am using "pistol" in this post as a shorthand for "semi-automatic pistol" or "autoloading pistol".[1] The earlier post with regard to the case for revolvers is here.
Pistols have several advantages over revolvers:
First, a similar-sized pistol will almost always carry more ammunition. A snub-nosed revolver in the 13-19oz weight range will normally hold five rounds, possibly six. A pistol in that weight range (.380, 9mm) will hold six to eight rounds. As you go closer to 30oz or so, you can have double-stack 9mms that hold a dozen rounds or more and single-stack .45s with nine rounds. The advantages of having more cartridges in a gunfight need hardly be expounded upon.
Second, if you carry a second magazine, a pistol is far faster and easier to reload. Eject the empty magazine, insert a second magazine, thumb off the slide release and you're back in the fight. Revolvers require more steps and unwieldy gadgets such as speedloaders or speed strips.
Third, a pistol is almost always thinner across than a revolver. Even a five-shot .38 snubbie is nearly two inches thick, while a compact 9mm/.380 will be half that. Thinner means easier to conceal.
Fourth, a pistol is far easier to maintain, tune and customize. Revolvers are far more intricate in their workings. Only brave souls and gunsmiths toy with the mechanism of a revolver. Many pistols can be easily detail-stripped to their individual parts and reassembled, as they were designed to be maintained by people without trade-school level training and in not optimal conditions.
Fifth, pistols can be safer around children. The average child will have a very hard time trying to load and fire a 1911 or most other pistols. Racking the slide normally takes some hand strength.
Sixth, the complexity and the variability of the operation of many makes of pistols could give you a moment's edge in a struggle if your opponent gets possession of your gun. He may try to move the safety up when it is moved down to fire or vice versa. He may decock the weapon instead. He might drop the magazine out of the pistol. Revolvers, on the other hand, can be fired by idiots and small children.
Seventh, because pistols use the recoil energy of the cartridge to chamber a fresh round, the ammunition generally has the same level of impulse for both target and defensive rounds. You will have to train the way you will fight. You won't be surprised by the recoil of the weapon; unlike in a revolver, where if you use light target loads for practice and heavy loads for defense, you may have a nasty surprise when you fire one off and the weapon kicks back a lot harder than you are accustomed to.
[1]So sue me.
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3 comments:
Of course, you *need* to maintain, tune, and customize a pistol, because they have far more parts capable of jamming, behaving in a jerky manner, binding, or otherwise causing problems. They have feed springs that get weak and cause misfeeds, they're picky about the ammo they'll accept without jamming, etc. Someone once described a Glock to me as a fine Austrian mistress, expensive, high maintenance, and temperamental. He was exaggerating a bit, but compared to a revolver, not by much.
Clearly if you're looking for a concealed weapon a pistol is far more appropriate due to its trimmer cut, and if you need a hefty ammo load and the ability to swiftly swap in new magazines a pistol will definitely get you there where a revolver won't. But when it comes to point-click-dead, ain't no substitute for a revolver. It's the Apple Macintosh of handguns -- maybe complicated behind the scenes, but it gets sh*t done with the minimum of fuss, muss, and training where a pistol might need the slide jacked and the safety clicked before you can actually bring it on target.
Admittedly, I don't like Glocks. But having said that, the one I owned was thoroughly reliable. It fed and shot every brand of .40 that I fed through it. Their pricing is down towards the budget end of the spectrum, they are usually far cheaper than their competition (except for the ex-combloc makers), about half the price of a Kimber 1911 and on a par with a reasonable revolver.
Just don't limp-wrist it while in a panic to bring it on target, because it *will* jam solid as a rock after the first shot. Not because it is a bad pistol, but because that's the nature of a recoil-operated autopistol. For a law officer who trains on the weapon it's a good weapon, but I would not advise a homeowner looking for a self-defense weapon for his home to buy one. A weapon used in a panic situation is one where you want point-click-bang ease of use and reliability.
Not to mention that a revolver loaded with hollow point bullets puts a *big* hole in a perp...
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