Revolver tactics/handling questions

[SeriousStudent]

This is the reason I was trained by an experienced revolver shooter/instructor to load two rounds from a Speed Strip and not loose rounds during a partial reload. Ideally a quick full cylinder reload during a lull in a fight when the current threat is neutralized would be ideal, but having a limited number of cartridges on hand makes the issue of ammunition management critical.

Indeed. I practice the most with J-frame revolvers, because they require the most practice to be proficient.

One of the things I work on a lot, is the "load two, shoot two" drill.

[26 Inf]

Ahhh... Memories. Those of us old enough to start with wheel guns back when they were the norm really lived through a different era.

Our academy did not "disallow" revolvers. Around 1992 though, they made the time requirements to get X amount of accurate rounds downrange VERY short for primary duty weapons. Word was out that unless you practiced speed-loading every day, you would more than likely fail to qualify. By then "most" in the department were carrying autos, but this pushed the few old timers into making the switch.

We were the state Academy, so when the boss allowed us to do that he was risking some degree of alienation from a few agency heads. By that time, however, there were very few revolver shooters left.

[Damon]

For me, if the primary is a revolver (k-frame or larger), it is on the belt. It is reloaded from speed loaders. They are faster than speed strips. I will dump rounds on the ground if I top off. For a back up (j-frame) I don't plan to reload. They are hard to reload, slow to deploy and are last ditch for me.

[26 Inf]

One thing I would add, if you are going to get instruction on speed loading get it from a LE instructor perspective. JM and many other competitors are wicked fast but their techniques are not the 'I will be sure, always' techniques needed for SD.

JM

[T2C]

One thing I would add, if you are going to get instruction on speed loading get it from a LE instructor perspective. JM and many other competitors are wicked fast but their techniques are not the 'I will be sure, always' techniques needed for SD.

JM

Could you please be more specific? I am always willing to learn one more thing about pistolcraft.

[Gunnar da Wolf]

In my case I'm large framed. J frame revolvers don't fit my hand and I'm prone to dress around the gun I'm wearing. I carry a revolver on occasion and it's a 4" Mountain Gun in .44 Mag. I carry a speedloader in a pouch in front of the holster and a speed strip on a pouch behind the holster. If I'm wearing a cover garment there is an extra speedloader weighting down the strong side of the jacket or vest in the handwarmer pocket. Eighteen extra rounds is six more than I carried for several years when I first started in Law Enforcement (there were extra speed loaders in my vehicle back then). If I expend more than half of the six rounds in the gun I plan on using a speed loader to totally recharge ASAP. If I fire one or two and no threat is imminent or if I dispatch an animal for some reason I plan (and practice) easing the ejector star up and flicking the expended cartridges out of the chambers with the edge of a speed strip. Then using the speed strip to top off those chambers. It's amusing how younger shooters seem to think the revolver takes forever to reload. When I used to fire the off duty course with my co-workers I was usually waiting for the semi auto guys to catch up.

I'm not sure about 26 Inf's statement about JM but he is using a speed rig usually with moon clips in open pouches and not something you'd carry everyday in his videos. I'm sure Mr. Miculek would be quite competent if forced to use a gun in self defense and I believe he goes back to when the revolver was king. I wonder what he carries?

My problem has been finding the Winchester Platinum Point load I usually carry in the .44, now I need to find some equivalent.

[plain old dave]

My (somewhat useless and mostly obsolete) thoughts:

Firstly, Elmer Keith. His EDC was earlier a 4" 44 Special N-frame and later one of the first .44 Magnums, usually stoked with his smoldering-hot 44 Special handloads. Far as I know he never carried any sort of speed loaders. For handguns, his main adage was if you need to shoot twice, you're not carrying enough gun. The corollary was if you were going to carry a gun, you should carry the biggest gun you could handle; he had almost no use for what were then called "pocket" automatics and revolvers. There's a neat story about him stopping a bank robbery in DC during an early trip to NRA HQ and how it eventually led to him being a deputy sheriff just so he could carry his "Magnum .44 Special " when he traveled.

Secondly, my EDC is the 1905 Smith and Wesson 32-20 posted elsewhere. We have a sort of ConCarry here in TN; you don't need a permit to have a loaded gun in your car. I have a zip strip with six extra shells. All 12 are 115gr lead flat points with a fairly large flat surface on the nose.

For reloading, simplifying the thing is always best. Shoot dry, then reload. A good friend is a peace officer, and he told me the one time he discharged his handgun in the line of duty he has no specific memory of having done it. Remembers the whole incident, just not the actual sighting and trigger manipulation. Bill Jordan's recollection of finding his empties in his shirt pocket bears mention, too. Given all the psychological things that happen in that small deadly space, reason demands that any way we can DECREASE the amount of activity requiring fine motor skills (i.e. shoot gun dry then reload vice fishing selected empties out of a cylinder) is going to bring value.

[26 Inf]

Could you please be more specific? I am always willing to learn one more thing about pistolcraft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FbUMqoyjDw This is a pretty traditional and fundamentally sound way to reload. On the slow-mo notice how JM's hand is coming away before the rounds are really even nose into the cylinder. That is great for competition but not very tactically sound, what I was refering to as 'I will be sure, always.' (As I type this I'm shaking my head - me picking apart JM's technique -LOL) Also note he is using moon clips not speedloaders.

Other speed techniques with speed loaders involved using dade's or safariland's - pushing the button and at the same time closing the cylinder. If the cylinder is clean the rounds drop in before the cylinder closes thus preventing them from hanging up on the left case head shield.

What I was primarily referring to is the one hand technique which is pictured and talked about in the thrid photo/box down. http://www.shootingusa.com/PRO_TIPS/.../miculek5.html

Myself and another LE firearms instructor spent about a half-hour in the LGS the other day hoorahing a former Bianchi Cup winner about his use of this technique - 'Wah? How else you going to load it?' (All good fun until it comes time to have him work on your gun and you pay for the laughs at youe expense LOL).

[Gunnar da Wolf]

LoL! I had to rewatch a couple JM videos. He does lob that reload in like a hand grenade. I use the Safariland speedloader and you have to press it against the extractor star to release but the benefit is the rounds are injected in the chambers. Closing the cylinder wipes the empty loader off the gun as 26 Inf describes.

[Det-Sog]

Great thread. I'm really thinking about picking up a j-frame for the hot summer months. Nothing pocket carries better imho.. I carried one for years back in the day and miss it. It's perfect for those sweltering summer days when you want to just drop it in a pair of shorts instead of "dressing around the weapon"..