Dismayed by revolver quality generally, with very few exceptions

[gaijin]

Why? Revolvers are uniquely suited to high degrees of precision for a handgun, and are well suited to handgun hunting. In fact, I’d bet the first optic you saw on a handgun would have been a scoped revolver, back in the day. GIGN even had a scoped Manhurin. I’d say banging steel or murdering feral swine at ~100 yds with unmodified post-40 eyeballs is well within the fun factor of a nicely made .357.

It’s a reversible modification on most revolvers that have adjustable rear sights, such as SP-101, GP100, Blackhawk, Redhawk, and J-Frames on up through the S&W line. I also wish someone would make a plate for a Kimber K6.

Nostalgia isn’t always the way you remember it….when I was a kid, lots of Boomer-gen hunters owned scoped Smiths, and it was normal.

Yes. I believe it was a scope on a Colt Python.
And I had early Burris 2X scopes on a couple of K frame, Davis PPC guns.
Optics inarguably make taking the mechanical precision available from a wheel gun much more effortless or efficient.
I was referring to the “sin” of putting optics on such a classy wheel gun, in jest.

[1168]

Yes. I believe it was a scope on a Colt Python.
And I had early Burris 2X scopes on a couple of K frame, Davis PPC guns.
Optics inarguably make taking the mechanical precision available from a wheel gun much more effortless or efficient.
I was referring to the “sin” of putting optics on such a classy wheel gun, in jest.

I figured you were at least half joking, but it’s still a good discussion that I think gets overlooked by nostalgic purists that may read this later. And yeah, it’s a rather classy gun. I’d not buy a valuable collector’s piece to screw with, but a current one that anyone could pick up at PSA (if they can get the attention of the counter dude), sure why not. It’ll look like ass after a while, anyway.

[kirkland]

If you want a revolver you can beat like a rented mule, you'll probably need a Ruger. I'm saying this as somebody with 80+ revolvers, and I have shot a couple out of time.

About 15 years ago, I wanted to get better with my G19 carry gun. So I got a fairly new Smith 686-5, and shot it in classes. I would be that weird guy with a belt full of speedloaders at the end of the line, and everyone else shooting Glock 19's and 17's. These were two-day classes where we would shoot 700-1000 rounds. I put 13,000 rounds through that pistol in 9 months, all double-action.

S&W sent me a call tag when I explained what I had done, as they wanted to see it. They kept it for a month, and rebuilt it. It runs like a champ again.

My new "forvever" gun is a 3" GP-100 in .38 Special. It runs likes a scalded dog, and has a great trigger courtesy of a friend.

And that advice served me well. If you want to get good with a striker-fired gun, shoot a DA revolver for a year. Wayne Dobbs taught me that, and it worked well for me.

Those old L frames are tough as hell. I have an old 586 that I've simply abused the hell out of. It was already beat up when I got it with who knows how many rounds through it. It's my woods revolver.