The downside to a wheel gun for ANY self defense situation is capacity and reload times. If you KNOW that you will only face one or at most two miscreants it might be enough....if your skills are adequate. These days crime often arrives in volume....as in several perpetrators at a time. The ONLY viable response to such situations is magazine fed and semi automatic.
Some good thoughts put there - thanks for linking to it. One of my ranch carry guns is a 1st Gen. Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Spcl. What I particularly like to do is carry a shotshell in case of poisonous snake encounter. It is light and smallish (a bit larger than a true snub nose) and the .44 instills a lot of confidence, even if it reduced to 5 shot capacity.
Still sounds like a winner to me in a home defense scenario, minus the snake shot 1st round.
In addition to what he said I would add that the short barrel and decrease in accuracy make me less likely to start blazing away from a distance. It makes me think in terms of the threat being real instead of overreacting.
As I commented on the original article, in the vast majority of self-defense incidents that happen in a public place, the number of rounds fired is zero, so capacity and reloading time isn't a factor. In the home, it might be different. But what I want to know is, what happened to the front sight on the 640 in the photo? Does the camera angle make it look like that?
Old 1811, I added a clickable link at the bottom of the blog post that links to an old (year 2009) article about that revolver; it's a Performance Center revolver with a ported barrel. Dunno that the port helps or hurts my shooting; it's a nice carry and it was a bargain when I bought it.
One of my coffee-drinking buddies knew of a retired nurse in Florida who shot a home-invader with a .38 Special. Being a nurse she had a pretty good idea of where to hit him.
The perp turned around and ran down the stairs. He barely made it out the door before his brain stopped working due to loss of blood.
Regarding mass-attacks, I don't think you need hundreds of rounds if you score a solid hit with every pull of the trigger. Even idiots quickly figure out that the game they started isn't any fun when that happens.
Thank you. That was an interesting read. I especially liked the part about cutting your hand on the cylinder edge. (Yes, I'm a sick you-know-what.) I've never seen, or even heard of, a cylinder edge being that sharp. Also, does the muzzle flash popping up ahead of (behind?) the front sight affect low-light shooting? Anyway, I still think you got a pretty good pocket gun there. Thank you again for referring me to your article.
The downside to a wheel gun for ANY self defense situation is capacity and reload times.
ReplyDeleteIf you KNOW that you will only face one or at most two miscreants it might be enough....if
your skills are adequate. These days crime often arrives in volume....as in several perpetrators at a time. The ONLY viable response to such situations is magazine fed and semi automatic.
Some good thoughts put there - thanks for linking to it. One of my ranch carry guns is a 1st Gen. Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Spcl. What I particularly like to do is carry a shotshell in case of poisonous snake encounter. It is light and smallish (a bit larger than a true snub nose) and the .44 instills a lot of confidence, even if it reduced to 5 shot capacity.
ReplyDeleteStill sounds like a winner to me in a home defense scenario, minus the snake shot 1st round.
In addition to what he said I would add that the short barrel and decrease in accuracy make me less likely to start blazing away from a distance. It makes me think in terms of the threat being real instead of overreacting.
ReplyDeleteGrace and peace
I like it!
ReplyDeleteAs I commented on the original article, in the vast majority of self-defense incidents that happen in a public place, the number of rounds fired is zero, so capacity and reloading time isn't a factor. In the home, it might be different.
ReplyDeleteBut what I want to know is, what happened to the front sight on the 640 in the photo? Does the camera angle make it look like that?
Old 1811, I added a clickable link at the bottom of the blog post that links to an old (year 2009) article about that revolver; it's a Performance Center revolver with a ported barrel. Dunno that the port helps or hurts my shooting; it's a nice carry and it was a bargain when I bought it.
ReplyDeleteOne of my coffee-drinking buddies knew of a retired nurse in Florida who shot a home-invader with a .38 Special. Being a nurse she had a pretty good idea of where to hit him.
ReplyDeleteThe perp turned around and ran down the stairs. He barely made it out the door before his brain stopped working due to loss of blood.
Regarding mass-attacks, I don't think you need hundreds of rounds if you score a solid hit with every pull of the trigger. Even idiots quickly figure out that the game they started isn't any fun when that happens.
Thank you. That was an interesting read. I especially liked the part about cutting your hand on the cylinder edge. (Yes, I'm a sick you-know-what.) I've never seen, or even heard of, a cylinder edge being that sharp. Also, does the muzzle flash popping up ahead of (behind?) the front sight affect low-light shooting?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I still think you got a pretty good pocket gun there. Thank you again for referring me to your article.