re: Good home defense revolver?

And to expand on my last reply, here's a bookmarked one TL;DR:

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Best pistol to start a woman out with is a .38 Smith and Wesson airweight.

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I have to be with CivilTiger here and disagree with you entirely on this one. And I'm not just some dude bloviating without evidence.

I'll give you my reasons here and feel free to dissect any of them:

1. Tiny revolvers with heavy double action triggers are very difficult to shoot accurately. The heavy trigger requires lots of practice to put rounds where the shooter wants them to go. If you don't think anyone could miss in an up-close encounter think again. It's not as easy as pointing the laser from the gun and pulling the trigger. From loading the gun to shooting it to connecting with your target, the shooting process is dynamic. Many new students of mine were surprised that handgun shooting takes practice and they were more surprised at how hard it is to be accurate with their own 38 snubbies.

2. Tiny revolvers have tons of felt recoil, and as Prop said, if it's a 357 mag it will likely be loaded with hot ammo for self defense. This not only induces tons of flinch into the shooter for every shot (which hurts accuracy) but also runs the risk of making the shooter slightly timid of the gun. What good is a tool when you have no real confidence to use it?

3. Tiny revolvers lack capacity (typically only 5 in the cylinder). While people will preach all day about only one bullet being sufficient, I would advise you go to Active Self Protection on YouTube and see how common it is for a perp to take 4-5 rounds and not only survive, but run with authority. It's not like Hollywood and I will ALWAYS take more rounds over fewer rounds. There are situations where a larger gun may be more cumbersome and harder to access but a home defense scenario or a car defense scenario is not one of them. If you are not required to carry the gun on you, a larger gun with a full sized magazine (15-19 rounds of 9mm) will give you a much greater advantage every single time.

4. A full sized pistol is not as hard to rack as a small semi auto since the recoil spring is longer. Think of the "spring constant" back in physics class - the longer the spring, the less force is required to compress it. An overhand racking method with your fingers behind the ejection port is the best way to do it. It may require practice and some coaching but it is quite easy once it's learned, as is any movement that requires repetition and muscle memory.

5.

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Ease of use is the number one priority for a woman in a situation like this

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- basically implying here that a woman is incapable of practicing and incapable of making calm rational decisions in a time of stress. Training can solve all of these and I would strongly advise it with a revolver too. And I would disagree to ease of use being the #1 priority.

6. And from my own personal experience, I have yet to have a woman come through my class with a snub 38 who fired it through the entire 50 rounds of qualifying. I tell every student to bring 50 rounds of 9mm to try in my guns and I have yet to have a woman say the revolver is easier. I can promise you I'm not making this up - 100% of the time thus far, women have preferred my array of 9mm handguns to their own personal 38 revolvers.

TL;DL - revolvers are not as good as full sized 9mm handguns for a lot of reasons.

I did a small test on my P320 and G19 to see which would load an empty case the best.

I would lock the slide back, load an empty in the mag and release the slide.

The glock didn't load once. The P320 didn't load twice.

That was 20 tries each.


ETA: I have a shield with an Apex trigger. I've put probably 500 rounds through it. I can't remember any failures but won't promise that.

Glad you’ve had good luck with them. My frequency of having equipment issues with everything in life is famous within my family. I gotta keep my shite simple as possible.

Would never recommend birdshot for self defense against humans. You want to do real damage to your target rather than relying on your target feeling pain and submitting.

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You can get the 686 in a 7 round and that is an awesome platform. Nice thick revolver to handle .357.

I have an old Smith and Wesson Model 19 Combat Special in .357 Mag; it is the old FBI gun. I will stick with it.

I agree that the 357 is def a good man stopper, but the best would be a stretch. And your key words were one shot. Chances are pretty unlikely that a person, with little to no training, hits a human in the first shot. Hell, most cop shoot outs have a very low percentage of hits vs shots fired. If it had to be a revolver, a judge with .410 for the first few rounds would be the way to go. It’s going to kick any worse than a .357, and you get more projectiles on the first shot. Lots of bad info regarding women and revolvers out there. Mid-size 9mm is the way to go for a nightstand gun. 17 rounds of fury.

I agree with that too. I was in law enforcement for 8 years and we had to qualify twice a year. On the other side of that, LE folks can usually handle the stressful situations better than your average civilian. Same reason we had to get OC'ed to be able to carry it. I think your average civilian wants to be able to put more lead down range in a situation where they have to use their gun. But all bets are off once bullets start flying. Hopefully a person has trained enough for some instincts to kick in, such as slap, rack, and shoot. Can't do that with a 6 shot revolver. Once it clicks you are probably on E and in a bind if more lead is needed.

No doubt that she does. I'm assuming she's been shooting and is not a beginner? For a beginner, a mid to full size 9 can be much easier to handle than a snubby wheel gun. Easier trigger pull, easier recoil, and again more rounds backing you up. But it's all about the shooter and what they are comfortable with.