In my military days I was very fond of automatics. Particularly those designed by John Moses Browning.
However, even the best automatic jams every now and then.
Revolvers never jam.
Myth: Revolvers never jam.
Yes, they do! I carried a S&W Airweight Bodyguard in a pocket holster for a while. I went to the range one day to fire it, took it out of the pocket holster, pulled the trigger.....and nothing happened.
The Bodyguard is the one with the shrouded, but exposed, hammer and I discovered that pocket lint had gotten down inside the shroud and would not let the hammer come all the way back with the DA pull. I was able to cock it and fire in SA, but could not get enough leverage in DA to make the weapon fire.
It had only been a week since I had fired it last (I used to go to the range once a week) and it was a surprisingly small amount of lint that jammed the gun.
Needless to say, I do not own that model of gun anymore.
Not true. They SELDOM jam. I had a burst primer lock up a S&W mod 66. Admittedly rare, but it does happen.
Until a squib shoves the bullet into the forcing cone. You can't open the cylinder or rotate it until the bullet is tapped back into the cylinder. Preferably with a small wood dowel and not while you are trying to defend yourself in a fire fight.
Revolver jam #2 happens when you load with taper crimped cartridges. The first round fired unseats all the rest. That happened to me when I purchased a box of 44 magnum reloads (at a gun show) that were taper crimped and intended for a Magnum Research Desert Eagle. I had 5 rounds of unseated cartridges. I stopped shooting that ammo and "disassembled" the 5 cartridges when I got home. Each was refilled with Win296 powder and reseated. I then took every cartridge from that batch and used a Lee Factory Precision Roll Crimp die to put a good, hard crimp on each round. They all fired flawlessly after that.
The lesson learned is that your self defense revolver needs to be kept squeaky clean and only use known good self defense ammo when that is the purpose for carrying it. My favorite is Federal HydraShok .357mag in 125 gr.
I had a friend at American Shooting Center in San Diego. He was the bodyguard for the Secretary of Defense for a while. He carried the S&W BodyGuard model. It was his favorite because of the ability to cock it and fire single action. The fully shrouded (enclosed hammer) model 640 doesn't have the pocket lint problem, but must always be fired DA.