Replies

I will say this:

1) My revolvers are fun and dependable, and they are real work-horses for when I need a few well-placed heavy-duty rounds without fumbling around before shooting.

2) But for fun, “shooting a lot” or “shooting a bunch in a short time,” revolvers just don’t cut it. Even with speed-loaders, they’re slow to unload and reload, and the un/re load occurs after every 5-9 shots, depending on the caliber. Of course, time and effort (and some sore thumbs) are needed to load magazines for semi-auto’s, but that can be done well in advance of a fun outing (or zombie attack, but I repeat myself), and it’s still very fast overall compared to un/re loading revolvers.

3) If my (loaded) revolver is found by a child or other gun-naive person, or taken from me, it can be easily fired by them with no special knowledge or skills, even if there is no round under the hammer or in the next spot to be moved to the firing position with cocking the gun. All that’s needed is a thumb pull on the hammer and/or a simple squeeze of the trigger. That’s a huge risk I’m not willing to take. With my semi-auto’s, without a round in the chamber but with a loaded magazine, there is a much better chance the child, gun-naive person, or person taking my gun from me cannot fire it, at least not very quickly—might not know how to rack it, might not have the strength to rack it, might not know how to release the safety, might not know how to squeeze the grip safety (if it’s that kind of extra safety), and/or might drop the magazine inadvertently trying to get the gun to work (decreasing the chance of racking a single round or of getting off a second or further round). Indeed, one of my fav semi-auto’s is the Walther PPK/S, and if the safety is off, then even if the gun is correctly racked, the hammer will not cock with the racking and the trigger will not function in double-action style until that safety is turned off. If I anticipate trouble or do not expect to be around children or gun-naive persons, I might have a round in the chamber already, but for many situations, my semi-’s aren’t that way. The small amount of time the somewhat more knowledgeable gun users take to try to operate my semi’s, if I’m aware of it, will be very useful for me to try to take back the weapon or stop the hammer/trigger action, start an escape, reach a backup weapon or knife, or physically attack the gun-wielder.

4) Semi-auto’s are just plain sexier. You know it, I know it, we all know it.