In defence of the old "wheelie"

Written by: this like totally clandestine dude who wished to remain anonymous, surreptitious and hidden from the public eye

In recent years the old revolver has been taking the backseat in comparison to the newer autoloading pistols. A lot of folks out there see the revolver as an obsolete piece of weaponry. They should know better, really.

As beautifully crafted as a Glock or Beretta may be, the revolver has some truly unique features that might not be appreciated at first glance. First: A revolver carried or owned for defence purposes, can be loaded to full capacity, and be left that way for several years, actually for the whole lifespan of that revolver if the situation demands it. No fatigue on magazine springs exist. This is not the case with an autoloader which very well could experience malfunctions due to extended storage with fully loaded clips.

Second: Due to the very limited amount of practice that the average person undergoes, its more than likely that IF a malfunction (with an automatic) should occur under stress, that person would spend several seconds of valuable time to clear that malfunction. With a revolver all you would have to do is to pull the trigger again. Nthing else. I cannot for my life think of any technique more "user friendly" than this.

Third: Since the cartridge in the cylinder already lies inside the equivalent to the chamber of an auto, the bullets on typical revolver cartridges can be utilized with features much superior to the typical autoloading cartridge. (Yeah, like silver hollowpoints for killing vampires... -ed.) To facilitate feeding into the chamber, an "auto" cartridge most often has its jacket going all the way forward, on a well rounded or pointed ogive, to prevent having the bullet catch on to the feed ramp, or getting the projectile itself shaved or battered. This is not the best design considering the relatively modest velocity that almost ANY (yes, including magnums) pistol/revolver caliber achieves. A typical revolver bullet on the other hand, often feature a flat profile, with a hefty amount of lead exposed at the front, and a cavity that runs down almost to the height of the cannelure. This means that even if the bullet for some reason should not even begin to expand, its flat profile will give a vastly superior crushing of the encountered tissue (but don't worry, this is very unlikely to happen). Should the projectile be shot at a vehicle, the exposed lead at the front will help to prevent the bullet from glancing off, much as the old "löffelspitz" of German WW2 fame. The fact that the revolver caliber bullets often have a thicker jacket also contributes to increased penetration. In short: a revolver bullet has the ability to expand more reliably, and thereafter hold together better than the ordinary autopistol bullet. This reminds me a lot of the "nosler partition" bullets wich are famous for giving both reliable expansion and deep penetration due to the reinforcement of the latter half of the bullet (and a very soft tip).