You can call them, “Gym guns,” or, “Gi Guns,” or, “Sweatpants guns,” or, “Board shorts guns,” but we are all talking about the same thing…an abbreviated version of a full size pistol, or a purpose built compact or subcompact gun, made for ease of carry, and less for ease of use.  MANY folks are relying on these guns in the limited or specialized role of low profile carry to the gym/yoga studio (although how in the hell someone does yoga with a gun on, without everyone seeing said gun, is beyond me) or running in the park or the track.  Along those same lines, many members of the Civilian Defender crowd rely on an abbreviated weapon, for everyday carry, either out of convenience (hey, smaller guns ARE easier to carry!) or because they don’t want to get made by their peers, or their employer, either out of embarrassment, or because they might lose their job.  We’ve all got to put food on the table, and the best way to do that is through gainful employment!  Luckily, I’m self employed.

I work out, five to six days per week, in a style of workout called, “High Intensity Interval Training.”  I’ll make the caveat that HIIT workouts aren’t for everyone; either you love it or you hate it.  I find that it works well for both my fitness goals, AND since I’m recovering (3 months now) from heart surgery, it allows me to give my recently remodeled and rebooted heart a good amount of stimuli, to encourage healing.  On Mondays, the workout consists of a 60 minute interval of jogging/running and sprinting on a treadmill, and lifting weights, specifically focusing on the arms.  There are a number of different trainers, who do a number of different workouts.  It is really hard to get the same workout twice, even from the same trainer.  So, I went to a trainer that has a VERY difficult arm day, in hopes that I would not be able to lift my arms afterward, and be really shaky.  Of course, this feeling is transient, and is gone within a few hours.  But, I thought it might be interesting to shoot a series of abbreviated guns, using the TACTICAL PROFESSOR’S BASELINE PERFORMANCE DRILL, and see how I faired, with noodle arms.

I shot the drills faster than I normally do.  Normally, I really stress accuracy, and that is the point of the drill, but with my arms smoked, I didn’t really feel like holding them out in front of me, as long as I normally would in a non-tensed state!  Not spraying and praying, by any means, but definitely faster than laying bullets on top of other bullets.  On the 3 shot and 4 shot strings, I was going for .5 splits or better, regardless of range.  The other complicating factor is that all of these guns have short sight radii, meaning that the distance from the front sight to the rear sight is abbreviated, and thus a bit of a wobble that might be barely perceivable on a 4″ barreled service pistol, is QUITE apparent on the shorter barreled guns…and even worse with the shakes.

I’m sure that there will be people who will disagree with me on this, but I find that in the majority of situations that a CIVILIAN DEFENDER will find themselves in, the choice of the pistol matters not.  My personal caveats are that it is chambered in a round that is effective (READ:  .38 Special is my minimum) and that it is controllable (READ:  I don’t like Scandium/Titanium frame J frames…partially because they are brutal to shoot, which inhibits regular practice, and also because they are ammo sensitive; you cannot use certain bullets since they will pull, with inertia, from the cases).  I don’t care if you use a revolver (duh) or a pistol for personal self-defense.  Nobody is raiding a fortified Nazi castle here…we are just regular Joes and JoeAnne’s trying to get back to our car with a load of groceries.  Tom Givens from RANGEMASTER keeps a database of all of his students that have been involved in self-defense shootings.  Of all of his students, he has had 65, to date, that have been involved in armed self-defense situations.  Of those 65, three of those students were murdered, for the contents of their pockets, because they were unarmed.  The other 62 were armed, and were victorious.  Of those 62, whether they had a pistol or a revolver, they made it through their nightmare.  So, while it would be GREAT for everyone to pack a Glock 19 or a Smith M&P, I know that isn’t a possibility for everyone due to stature, or finances, or simply aesthetics.  So whatever you use, make sure you can get it out of the holster and onto the bad guy quickly, hit exactly what you are aiming at, reload it if it runs empty, and fix it if it stops running.  Make it a point to achieve a high level of mastery in all of those skills, and you’ll be well prepared for the majority of situations you’ll encounter.  The choice of pistol is really not as important as most people consider it to be.  Don’t buy or carry crap, but think of it analogously to a car, that you may have to drive across the country.  Would you buy an uncomfortable, poorly functioning, piece of crap, made of pot metal and held together with wood screws?  Guns in the same vein exist, and some foolish boobs use them for self-defense.  Don’t be that guy or gal.

The Smith and Wesson M&P Compact 9mm.  Similar in size envelope to the Glock 26 (sorta halfway in size between a Glock 26 and a Glock 19) is this handy little machine.  My significant other has one of these as her carry piece, and although I’ve had this pistol for several years, I bought it, got distracted by something, and it just sat in my safe.  I changed the sights from the factory Novak with 3 painted white dots (which I have found have a tremendous propensity to fly out of the sockets of the sights, while shooting) to the Dawson Precision, “Charger,” fiber optic sights.  Partially because like I said, I don’t like the ejecting dots on the Novaks, and also because I wanted to test the utility of fiber optics on a carry gun.  I REALLY like the rear sight on this.  If the front sight takes a dump on me, I’ll just replace it with something that is the same height and width, but made of steel.  

LESSONS LEARNED

I know that someone with a science background is going to read this and flip their wig at all the variables that I threw in here.  So, in that vein, no…it is not, “rigorous scientific testing.”  However, it is reproducible to you, the reader.  Go beat your arms to a pulp, in whatever form of exercise you prefer.  Then take any accuracy intensive drill (preferably one you know how you shoot, “cold,” in a non-tensed state) and shoot it when your arms feel like limp spaghetti noodles.  Compare your scores.  MY TAKEAWAY from this is that sights and trigger manipulation will get you through, even if you’re not using a gun you’ve completely, “bonded,” to.  Also, the acceptable, “wobble zone,” when you are in a post-exercise state, “moves,” quicker.  The involuntary rattle in the limbs and hands does a pretty good job, I think, of simulating peri-incident stress.  That makes the wobble zone, especially on the distant shooting strings, more difficult to manage, and really requires a sure grip, and careful manipulation of the trigger.  A few readers have asked how I manipulate the trigger, and I use the, “flip and press,” method taught by Bill Rogers of the Rogers shooting school.  I find that I don’t have the, “trigger freeze,” issue that some folks experience when switching from pistol to revolver and vice versa.  I can also switch from DAO autos to DA/SA without a drastic transition.

But that wobble zone…shooting at distance, even only 45 feet, when your arms are burning and weak feeling, is difficult!  Give it a try and post your thoughts in the comments section.  Thanks for reading!

-Dr. House

It has been nearly four years since Paul Everett Gomez died, in Seattle WA.  Paul was on his way to British Columbia, to deliver his unique brand of training.  Paul had two flagship courses, 1.  RPM…”Robust Pistol Manipulation” that was Paul’s unique spin on ambidextrous gun handling, both shooting, loading, and fixing malfunctions, with EACH hand and one-hand-only, and 2.  “Urban AK,” which was essentially, utilization of the AK at distances normally reserved for pistol and shotgun work, that is, inside of 25 yards.  Paul slept on my sofa bed, the night before he departed Nashville for Seattle, and he left his carry pistol, a Glock 17, and his, “bag gun,” an underfolding AKM, in my possession.  Paul stayed at my house regularly, every couple of days, and this was the custom when he flew to places he couldn’t carry at.  I still have Paul’s guns, and they will be given to his children once they are old enough to have them.

I first met Paul at a Tactical Response, “Fighting Rifle,” course in about the Fall of 2006.  Paul and I were the only students in a class of ten, that were using AK variants.  At the time, the carbine itself cost less than $350, and a case of Wolf ammunition was $99, and sometimes you could find it for $79!  Very inexpensive by today’s standards.  Magazines were plentiful, and could be had for $8 to $10 each.  Well, Paul and I were, at first, the odd men out, as everyone else in the class had an M4 of some sort, along with the flashlights, and red dot optics that work so well with the Stoner family of carbines and rifles.  Paul and I had simple, wood stocked rifles, with simple nylon slings, and iron sights.  They were about as, “stock,” as an AK could get.  The weather was cold, and there was even some snow on the ground, but despite the precipitation, neither of our rifles had any malfunctions, and we both finished the class admirably.  Our friendship was forged from there on out.

Over the next several years, I trained with Paul extensively.  Sometimes we went to conferences, and would be in the same instruction blocks, and other times, we would just beat the stuffing out of each other in my living room, garage, or backyard.  We also worked and taught together, both at the home range in Tennessee, and on the road.  We formed a local training group, which used a rural range to test out various experimental training blocks, that would eventually become Paul’s flagship course, (RPM) as well as his Urban AK class.  Paul and I devised an, “AK battlefield pickup,” drill that we ran students of varying skill levels through, at a tactical conference.  Paul favored the AK, and I was a fan of the shotgun.

Before Paul’s death, he had been working on a book covering his method of AK utilization, for the civilian user.  It was never published.  Excerpts of it are here, and will illustrate what Paul thought that the AK could do for the self-defense user.

Manipulating the Safety

 

The two biggest complaints with the AK platform have always been the sights and the location of the selector lever. Thankfully, we have sighting options now that we didn’t have just a short while ago, but we are stuck with the clackety-clack selector lever. The selector lever is placed in a completely inappropriate location which prohibits the user from maintaining a firing grip on the gun while being in a position to disengage the safety in a timely manner. There are several different methods of actuating the safety, as well as simply carrying the gun with the chamber empty and the safety off and racking the action prior to engagement. I would no more advocate carrying a carbine with the chamber empty than I would for carrying a pistol in that condition. If you store your AK with the chamber clear that’s well and good, but when it is put into defensive service, it needs to have a round in the chamber and the safety engaged. The method that I advocate maintains a physical reference point on the pistol grip, keeps excess movement to a minimum, and allows positive control over the weapon should that become an issue in close quarters.

 

As the weapon is depressed into the ready position, the gun-side hand loosens its grip allowing the fingers and wrist to rotate to make contact with then selector lever. The thumb of the gun-side hand stays around the pistol grip as much as possible. For me this means that the tip of my right thumb back to the first joint stays around the pistol grip and my second (social) finger contacts the shelf on the selector lever, with my index finger resting above and my ring finger resting below. Once contact has been made, upward pressure moves the selector lever to safe and the hand maintains its position with the fingers staged on the selector lever and the thumb hooked around the pistol grip. The gun-side hand maintains this position at all times unless it must perform a task which requires it to move elsewhere. To disengage the safety and establish a firing grip, the fingers initially move as a unit dragging downward in a tight arc. Once the safety has been disengaged, the fingers continue moving towards the pistol grip, with the exception of the trigger finger which immediately locates the trigger and begins the firing stroke. This action sequence is known as “Click-Touch”. As the selector lever disengages the safety (click) the trigger finger locates the trigger (touch) and begins to remove the slack (if you intend to fire immediately).

 

Due to the positioning of the gun-hand thumb, it is very intuitive to help secure the gun by grasping the pistol grip tightly to aid in retention. With many of the other methods taught for actuating the safety, the gun-side hand is merely resting on the selector without assisting in controlling the gun at all. Should a disarm attempt be made against someone holding an AK in that fashion, the gun literally peels away from them. Maintaining a firm grasp of the magazine and having the gun-side thumb indexed to grasp the pistol grip goes a long way toward insuring your control of the gun.

In keeping with the Gomez Doctrine, I decided to put the carbine to paper, in a test that would demonstrate many of the operating characteristics that Paul believed make the AK a superior weapon for the civilian defender to use, in lieu of a pistol, at, “probable,” engagement distances.  That is, particularly 5-10 yards (household distances) and a maximum of 25 yards (upper limits of the majority of civilian self-defense shootings).  To do this, I used one of my (NOW) favorite benchmark tests, THE TACTICAL PROFESSOR’S, “BASELINE PERFORMANCE,” drill.  I slightly modified it for the rifle, starting at the Gomez, “Low Ready,” and shooting the drills at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 yards.  I used a 30 round Bulgarian Waffle Magazine, and a 20 round Hungarian magazine for the drill.  As I said, I started from the, “Low Ready Position,” that Gomez talked about, here:

Deployment from Ready Positions

Low Ready

 

The default ready position for use with the Kalashnikov, or any other carbine, is known as the Low Ready Position. It is important to understand that low ready is a flexible position. It is not a fixed point, such as “the support side arm must rest against the ribcage and the muzzle must be held at a 45-degree angle” but rather any point along a given arc that accomplishes the necessary goal at that time. Low ready can be with the gun muzzle depressed just below the eye-target line and it can also be with the muzzle pointing six inches forward of your toes. I feel quite strongly that good guys don’t point guns at other good guys, so for me, my default low ready position directs the muzzle at such an angle that it is pointing towards the ground in front of whomever I am interacting with. The exact angle changes based on distance and environmental factors, but this position allows me to observe the scene while obstructing as little of it as possible, not violate any of the universal gunhandling rules and still present and aggressive image.

 

To familiarize yourself with the low ready position, begin with the gun on point, in the offhand position. From the offhand position, depress the muzzle. Realize that only the shoulders and the upper portion of the stock are moving. As the muzzle moves downward, the butt stock will begin to move away from your chest. As long as the lower portion of the stock, called the toe, remains in place and both hands maintain their original positions on the gun, you are in an acceptable low ready. The toe of the stock maintaining contact with your chest serves as a physical reference point which, along with the cheekbone, allows you to rapidly return the gun to the offhand position and engage the threats as need be.

 

Anytime that the weapon is not on point, aimed in on a target, or malfunctioning, it should be on safe. Practicing moving the selector lever from safe to fire as the AK is brought from ready to point and as it is brought from point to ready you should practice the reverse. It does absolutely no good to quickly get your gun on target only to discover that it won’t go bang and it’s rather embarrassing.

 

Muzzle Depressed Centerline Ready

 

Muzzle depressed centerline ready can be thought of as an extreme low ready. However, it possesses some unique attributes which must be addressed separately. The purpose of the muzzle depressed centerline position is to allow unrestricted movement in 360 degrees. If you were to attempt to turn completely around with your carbine in a more traditional low ready position, the cone that would be swept by the muzzle would be unacceptable in many situations. It would also require an inordinate amount of attention to continuously adjust the muzzle to avoid non-threats in the environment. With the muzzle depressed centerline ready, the gun can be “parked” with the muzzle straight down between your feet. To place the AK into muzzle depressed centerline ready, dismount the gun from the offhand position into low ready. As the edge of the magazine contacts your centerline around waist level, rotate the gun towards your non-gun side so that the ejection port is facing forward and your grip is maintained on the magazine which is now facing towards your gun-side. The gun-side hand releases from the pistol grip, except for the thumb and stages on the selector lever, as described previously. To return to the offhand position from here, simply rotate the gun inboard which returns it to low ready and continue back to the offhand position.

The stock sights are made to please the collector and military purist crowd, and they simply are tough to use!  There is almost no light visible on either side of the front sight, in the stock configuration.  I did paint the front sight with red nail polish, after shooting outdoors in the bright sun, to help pick it up, quickly.  I will also take a dental diamond bur to the rear sight and hog it out into a, “U-notch,” not unlike the Warren Tactical Sights on my pistol.  If you don’t have access to dental rotary tools, you could use a dremel, and I know other folks that have done the same thing manually, with a chainsaw file.  This seemingly simple and basic modification makes a simple rifle even better.  Hit it with a Q tip full of cold blue to cut down on the glare, and you are ready.

CLOSING

Paul and I used to argue at length, over sasparillas (me) and Shock Tops (him) about the viability of the AK as a home/shop defense weapon for the (what I am now calling) CIVILIAN DEFENDER.  I was a dogged fan of the shotgun for home defense, and he was an AK proponent, although we both practiced with each weapon type.  At the time, the Corbon DPX for the 7.62×39 had been widely released, and Paul was a fan of it for anti-personnel use.  We talked about the danger of pellet accountability, but I think a great deal of that would have been remedied by the Federal Flite Control buckshot loading.  One thing I learned from Paul (of many) was to thoroughly think through a problem…no matter how small, and study the component parts, to figure out what the best direction to find the answer was.  I think that Paul would LOVE the Century Arms American Made AK’s.  Even though he would probably prefer a stamped receiver, instead of the milled, due to the weight savings, he would agree that the AK63D is a rugged, accurate, well-handling machine, with just a couple of tweaks (to the grip and the sights), would serve well in the role of the, “Urban AK.”

The world lost a Great Father, a Good Friend, a Wise Instructor, and a Brilliant Polymath in May 2012.  Paul lived to seek out knowledge, and he was very much a believer in the idea that if you wanted to master a subject, you should teach it!  Paul loved attending multidisciplinary tactical conferences, like the RANGEMASTER Polite Society Conference, as well as other regional and topical conferences.  In that vein, in the day following the discovery of Paul’s death, I began a monetary trust to support Paul’s three children, so that they would always be able to educationally prosper, and not go without the things that their Dad would have provided for them.  With HUGE support from Craig Douglas, Paul Sharp, Chris Fry, Cecil Burch, Tom and Lynne Givens, Claude Werner, Rob Pincus, Larry Lindenman, Chuck Haggard, Caleb Causey and the entire TPI (Total Protection Interactive) community, Dr. William Aprill and I organized the first PAUL-E-PALOOZA MEMORIAL TRAINING CONFERENCE in 2012.  It was a huge educational and philanthropical success.  We had the second PEP in 2014, and the third in 2015.  Every year, we gather more interesting instructors AND great corporate sponsors (in keeping with the mood of the conference, our only educational requirement of the instructors is that the material has to be part of the multidisciplinary spectrum, and the weirder, or more arcane, the better.  KEEP PEP WEIRD).  The NEXT PAUL-E-PALOOZA MEMORIAL TRAINING CONFERENCE will be in August of 2017.  I will post details as soon as they become available.  ALL of the funds that are generated by the tuition fees go into the Paul E. Gomez Children’s Trust, and so far, we have raised over $100,000 for Paul’s kids.  We have paid for Paul’s eldest daughter, Gabriella, to attend LSU, and we have paid for the other kids’ Boy Scout Camps, medical expenses, and so many other things that their Dad would’ve handled, if he was still alive.  It’s something that I plan on continuing as long as I am able to!  If you have attended the past PEP’s, THANK YOU for doing so, and if you want to attend the PEP’s of the future, stay tuned here, for updates on the specifics of the next conference.

Thanks again for reading!

Dr. House

Gomez, me, and a giant on the BAT BRIDGE in Austin, TX, circa May 2010.  Paul and I had just taught the largest Immediate Action Medical class we’d ever done.  Everyone in attendance had a great time and learned things that have served them well in their lives.

If you spend any amount of time shooting revolvers you’ve no doubt discovered that revolvers can be , uh, fickle.  Some days, they work with the perfection and regularity of a Swiss watch, and other days, they are like the Fiat of guns.  This can be really frustrating!  There are times where I want to throw the offending wheelgun into the nearest body of water, and simply press-on with life, using a semi-automatic pistol.

In my estimation, a revolver is very similar to the car you had in high school.  It was your, “first,” love.  You either bought or were given that car and you were responsible for its care.  When you think back, you kind of miss that car.  Even though it probably wasn’t the most state-of-the-art vehicle on the road, or didn’t have the most comfortable seats or the greatest sound system, you loved it anyway, despite its flaws.  And you look back at it, wistfully.  Revolvers, for many people, hold the same amount of nostalgia.

I’m talking about people like me here, but my first handgun was a revolver.  My first formal instruction was with a revolver, and my first several years as a professional armored truck crewman found me armed with a revolver.  So I know the beast well.  Times have changed, and although I still carry a wheelgun as a back up gun on my ankle, I still put in more time on other revolvers, aside from the BUG.  With weekly practice and training, I find myself sometimes thinking, “There has got to be a better way.”  Unfortunately, I haven’t found an ankle rig that conceals a pistol, as well as a revolver, so until that happens, my 640 is glued to me.

To combat the issues I experience regularly shooting revolvers, I’ve become accustomed to carrying several tools that make them, “run,” more efficiently, and allow me to clear common stoppages that inhibit proper functioning.  To think about this fundamentally, remember that to load and unload a revolver, you essentially have to disassemble it partway, swing the guts out one side, eject the spent cases, and then recharge the chambers, put the gun back together, and get back to it shooting.  Seems simple enough!  But, as with anything mechanical, the parts don’t always line up straight.  Literally.

Here are a few things that will help you keep your revolver running,  in optimal shape.  Since you are probably relying on a revolver for self-defense (maybe only in a back up gun role) then you understand why it’s important that it works, correctly.  These are a few issues I have encountered that can ruin your day, and how you can better prevent them.

1. CHECK YOUR SIDEPLATE SCREWS.  It isn’t often that the side plate comes loose, however the screw that is farthest forward on your side plate (crane screw) CAN work its way loose with normal use.  If it unscrews itself completely, the next time you open the revolver, the cylinder will fall out onto the ground!  That’s not a good thing, so make sure that the screws on your side plate are snug.
2. CHECK UNDER AND IN FRONT OF THE EJECTOR STAR.  Unburnt powder getting stuck in the ejection machinery of your revolver is a show stopper.  It can prevent the cylinder from opening, or even lock the ejector rod in place.  Either of these stoppages can be prevented by thoroughly keeping that space and those parts free of unburnt powder.  A note on that…I LOVE shooting wadcutters.  Depending on the brand, you may have a good deal of unburnt powder that literally falls out of the fired cases, sometimes in what seems like ridiculous amounts.  Be mindful of that, and keep that star spotless!  (The MASS of unburnt powder can also happen with ammo other than wadcutters, too.  It really varies with the brand, and even the lot of the specific ammunition.
3. CHECK THE CHAMBERS OF THE CYLINDER FOR UNBURNT POWDER OR A DEBRIS RING.  If you have a .357 Magnum revolver (or a .44 Magnum, .454 or any other revolver caliber that is capable of firing cartridges of the same diameter, but have shorter case lengths) then a ring of debris can form around the inside of the chamber, preventing insertion of the longer (Magnum) round(s).  Also, unburnt powder (as mentioned in #2 above) can simply get caught in the chamber, preventing easy insertion and extraction of other ammunition.  In dental school, we were always taught, “Don’t blow on it, Doc,” meaning that we should try and break the natural human habit to want to blow air onto something we are trying to take dust off of (and yes…there are dentists who blow on someone’s denture, then hand it back to the patient, for their approval.  GROSS.) but in this case, I’d say blowing out the chambers is a good thing!  You may or may not have a brush with you that can do the same thing.  Hence, the purpose of this article in the first place.
4. BUILD UP ON THE FORCING CONE THE FRONT OF THE CYLINDER AND THE TOP STRAP.  Your revolver is a precision instrument.  It was designed to operate in a certain set of parameters.  However, with use, that window of operable parameters widens.  Not to the point that the gun will no longer function, but it can stop functioning as well.  When you shoot lead bullets, the soft lead, and the lube that often accompanies lead projectiles, can become very hot, and shear off of the main projectile in small, molten fragments, and those fragments can fuse to the forcing cone.  If this build-up of crud gets thick enough, it will inhibit the free rotation of the cylinder face, which makes your double action trigger pull increase significantly.  If the buildup gets to be enough, it will gum up the rotation of the cylinder and make the gun inoperable.
5. HEAT.  As metal heats up, it expands.  Heat a revolver up enough, and it will expand significantly.  When I shoot revolvers in classes, especially in classes that are designed around semi-automatic pistols, they can get hot fast.  So, I like to bring a pair of revolvers, so that when one gets really hot, I can let it cool down, while the other one gets hot.  And correspondingly, the hotter the ammo (meaning rounds loaded to higher velocities) the hotter the gun will get quicker.  Again, like in #3 above, the trigger pull will start to drag, due to the impedance of the cylinder face on the forcing cone.
6. AMMO ISSUES.  One of the often quoted, “advantages,” of revolvers over semi-automatic pistols is the point of, “less ammunition sensitive,” which is, in my opinion, a misnomer and not quite accurate.  For example, while a semi-automatic pistol may not eject a round completely, due to a light powder load, a revolver may not chamber a round completely, due to a manufacturing defect like a bur on the case mouth, OR allow the cylinder to close due to a high primer.  So, it’s important to inspect your ammo, to make sure that it will actually work, when you need it to.  In this same category, I would include the use of moonclips as a possible hindrance to good function in your wheelgun.  If the clips are slightly bent or deformed, they can prevent proper seating of the round in the chamber, and tie up the revolver.
7. STRAIN SCREW COMING LOOSE.  Some S&W revolvers have a screw at the front strap of the grip frame, that place tension on the revolver’s mainspring.  That screw is a certain length for a reason, and needs to be screwed into the grip frame to its depth limit.  These screws CAN back out, and lessen the tension on the mainspring, compromising the ignition reliability of your revolver.  Some grips cover the strain screw enough to prevent it from backing out, but in the, “stock,” configuration, that screw is open to the elements, and free to do as it pleases.  Be mindful of that screw, and if you see it marching out, put it back to its fully seated depth.

There are other issues that can happen with a revolver, but these are the common ones that I encounter in my own practice and life with revolvers.  Of course, some of these are S&W specific, but I honestly don’t have enough time with malfunctions in the Ruger and Colt guns to complain much about them.  The GP100’s and Service Sixes I own have literally been utterly reliable (but that’s another article entirely).  However, they don’t have the feel of a good Smith K frame.  Not knocking them, but there is just a palpable difference in the feel and handiness of the two makes of revolvers.

SUGGESTIONS FOR REVOLVER MALFUNCTIONS AND FINDING SUCCESS IN SELF-DEFENSE WHEELGUNNING

If you rely on a revolver for defense, you need to have a plan for what you are going to do once you run that cylinder through.  Statistically, you should have enough ammunition in the gun to handle what you will be faced with, but statistics don’t always adhere to reality.  If you do run the gun empty, OR have a showstopping malfunction, you will need a plan.  The best plan, if the fight is still on, is to go to a second gun.  If possible, it’s always good to have the capacity to escape from the immediate area.  Run through these scenarios in your mind’s eye, so that when you need them, you won’t have to spend valuable time trying to come up with an option…have the option ready.  As much as I love my revolvers, I really don’t want to have to stick somebody, eyeball to eyeball, with a Spyderco, because my revolver is empty or because the mechanism took a huge dump on me.  I DO carry speed strips or speedloaders to reload with, but the chances of actually getting to reload, in the civilian context, are slim.  However again, the statistics can only grant so much predictive power…nobody has a crystal ball and can tell the future.  So have a plan, and have an alternate plan, in case your primary plan fails, but also have a contingency plan, in case your alternate plan fails, and lastly, have an emergency plan in case ALL of the other plans fail.  A revolver as a primary (or even BUG) doesn’t require MORE planning to use than a semiauto, it just takes SOME planning.

ETA:  One of my mentors, the great Tom Givens, posted this on pistol-forum.com and it is too good not to share:

The old crap about revolvers being more reliable than autos arises from the ammunition that was available when autos first appeared in military and police service, circa 1900. Ammunition of that day had unstable primers that deteriorated quickly when exposed to gun oils, solvent vapors, and just ordinary exposure to weather while carrying the loaded gun and ammo on the belt. The primers of that day contained mercuric salts, which gather moisture from the air and cause corrosion. These “corrosive primers” made cleaning the gun the same day it was fired an absolute necessity. If the gun was not cleaned immediately the mercuric salt deposits in the barrel would gather moisture and cause rust overnight. Unfortunately, these mercuric salts in the primer gather moisture when ammunition is worn on the belt and often failed fire when needed. This is no longer an issue as these mercuric primers have not been used in the US since World War II. Modern primers contain lead styphnate, not mercuric compounds. Modern primers are far less susceptible to oils, solvents, and the weather. However, when auto pistols first became common the mercuric ammunition was all it was available and misfires were common. If a revolver misfires the user simply pulls the trigger again and a fresh round comes up for another try. If a cartridge in a semiautomatic pistol misfires the user must perform an immediate action drill to get the gun back in operation. With modern ammunition a properly maintained semiautomatic pistol is about as reliable as machine can be.

The revolver’s basic design makes it far more fragile, and far more susceptible to serious malfunctions that take too long to fix in a fight. If you will think about it, a revolver has five or six individual chambers, each of which has to line up precisely with the pistol barrel upon firing. A misalignment by just a few thousandths of an inch results in bullet shaving off the forcing cone, or the primer misaligned with the firing pin causing misfires. In order to time the action so that each chamber locks in place exactly in alignment with the barrel each time the trigger is pulled the action of the revolver has to be precisely timed and balanced. The inside of a double action revolver somewhat resembles the workings of a wind-up watch. Small delicate parts, small springs, and so forth require perfect fitting and no wear in order to maintain these extremely tight tolerances. Here are some of the basic malfunctions that occur with the double action revolver and what you might be able to do to fix in the field.
Failure to fire – you pull the trigger, nothing. With support hand palm, strike cylinder on left side to be sure it is closed fully. Pull trigger again. If no bang, transition to back up gun. This can because by a high primer jammed against the recoil shield, or a jumped bullet lodged against the forcing cone. In in either of these cases, your only viable option is a backup gun.
Failure to fire – you pull the trigger, get “click”. Immediately pull the trigger again. If it clicks twice it is empty, the ammo is dead, or the firing pin is broken. Speed load or transition to a backup gun. If you reload and it goes click, the firing pin is probably broken. If you’re still alive transition to your back up gun.
Cylinder won’t open – ejector rod may be backed out; high primer may be stuck; bullet may have jumped, ejector rod may be bent. Primer metal may have flowed into the firing pin hole in the frame, locking everything up. This is most common with Magnum ammunition. Transition to your backup gun.
Cylinder won’t turn – you pull the trigger but it won’t move and cylinder won’t turn. Crap under the extractor star has bound up the action. See first entry. Or, ejector rod is bent, or eject rod has come unscrewed. Transition to your backup gun. Titanium guns and lead bullets don’t mix – they recoil so sharply that bullets tend to jump forward under recoil and tie up the action. Transition to your backup gun.
Cylinder will not accept new ammo on reload – Dumb ass! You failed to eject the spent cases vigorously with the gun vertical and the spent case(s) got under the extractor rod. Transition to your backup gun. Later, if you survive, hold the extractor open and pry out the case.
Failure to fire – the Taurus or Smith & Wesson goofy internal lock has engaged spontaneously. Transition to your backup gun!
Failure to fire – the strain screw in the front strap of the grip has backed out due to the vibrations of recoil. If this screw backs up a couple of turns the firing pin strike will be too light to ignite cartridges. Periodically check this screw and make sure it is tight. Also, check your firing pin frequently if you have a hammer mounted firing pin as opposed to a frame mounted firing pin. The firing pins mounted on the hammer are subject to breakage.
As you can see, there are a number of mechanical reasons why your revolver may fail, and unfortunately, most of them require time and tools to fix. In a fight you will have neither.

Several years back, I took this radiograph on a patient of mine, and I shared it with James Yeager and a few friends in the training community.  As luck would have it, the picture and my short narrative, somehow came across Clint Smith’s desk.  He shared it through his channels, and before long, this image was all over the interwebs.

Maybe you saw it back then?  If you didn’t, let me refresh your memory!  This patient came to me, at my dental office, for two reasons (it bears mention at this point that I’m not your regular dentist that does whitening and teaches you how to brush…I mostly address abscesses, rotten teeth, and dental trauma in the Hispanic population of Middle Tennessee) FIRST:  he couldn’t open his mouth, and SECOND:  he was concerned that whenever he drank water, it came out his nose.  Hmm…well, neither of these things is normal, so as is the custom in my office, the patient’s blood pressure and pulse are taken, their medical history is reviewed, and any necessary radiographs are made.

Imagine my surprise when I inquired about the patient’s black eye and small abrasion/laceration beneath his right eye.  (In Spanish). “Oh, I got shot.”

“You WHAT?”  I exclaimed.

“I got shot in the face.  I was minding my own business when a narco hit me with his pistol then shot me.  I passed out.  I woke up, and decided I needed to get out of there before the narcos realized I was alive.  So I got on a few buses and came here, to Nashville.”

After the X-ray, and my clinical exam, it was easy to see what happened.  The bullet (a Federal 230 grain Hydrashok) entered the patient’s midface, at a downward angle, and traveled through his maxillary sinus, exiting through the maxillary tuberosity, shattering the first and second molars, and entering his mouth (depositing pieces of jacket along the way), then spiraled through his mouth, into the right mandible, and then fragmented, leaving a large hunk of the jacket entangled just above the substance of his right parotid gland, THEN the remaining core of the projectile went left, further tumbling through his mouth and buccal mucosa, coming to rest in front of the tissue of his left auditory meatus.

So his chief complaints of not being able to open his mouth made sense, since the bullet had effectively, “door chocked,” his jaw from fully opening, mostly due to soft tissue swelling as well as the mechanical presence of the bullet’s core.  Also, he had what we call an, “oral antral  communication,” meaning the wall between his sinuses in his nose and the space inside of his mouth, were one.  Hence, the water when he drinks, coming out his nose.

When this information got out, people said silly things like, “.45…so puny it’ll send the badguys to the dentist!”  And other dumb nonsense.  But think about this from a defensive gun use perspective (even though THE facts of this case may have been otherwise) where the bullet actually did it’s job!  It was delivered to a vital area, did a considerable amount of internal damage, fully deposited all of its energy in the target, and made the recipient lose consciousness, instantly, at least for a indeterminate amount of time (he estimated five minutes or longer).  From a civilian self defense perspective, if I was forced to use THAT round delivered to that location, I’d consider that effect, a success!  That would give me enough time to run away, call 911, or get to a secure (or more secure area).

Bottom line, handgun projectiles suck at stopping people.  But this one, DID, in this instance.  It stopped them quite effectively, so much so, that they left the damn country!  .45’s aren’t a death ray, but they CAN stop people from doing whatever it was they were doing!

If you’re a regular reader of my musings here, you already know that I am a Tom Givens believer. There is a simple reason for this…Tom’s material works.  His lectures are relevant to the Regular Guy Civilian; folks just like me (and probably you).  His live fire courses tell you everything you need to know, that is, what you are MOST likely to encounter on the street.  There is no secret squirrel night vision component, nor fast-rope shoot house class.  I’ve read all of the books Tom has produced over the past 35 years, and most of the articles he has written.  His material all has a common core of relevance, yet the work has evolved to adapt to the continuously fluid nature of the criminal  (and now terrorist) threat that regular citizens will indubitably encounter, at some point in their daily lives.

At the 2016 Rangemaster Polite Society Tactical Conference, Tom gave a classroom lecture covering low light tips and techniques.  One of the big points he made in the talk was for students to take the money that they would spend on night sights, and instead use that money on ammunition for practice (this idea of emphasizing true economy, is pervasive throughout Tom’s philosophy…in summation, “Spend your resources on the things you are most likely to encounter or need”).  Some smart mouth in the back is going to say, “But what about the zombie holocaust, national terrorist invasion, etc?”  The scenarios won’t change…just the participants!  If the world falls apart, people will still need to be on guard from the four chief types of interpersonal, “parking lot violence,” (AKA, “Street Crime”) like robbery, rape, road rage and respect (meaning you looked at someone wrong and now they will attempt to harm or kill you in retaliation so that they don’t lose face in front of their peer group).  And, as always, raiders coming into your home uninvited will always be raiders, regardless of their undead status or their mode of dress.  Thus, your civilian mission won’t change in the face of any global disaster!

Tom carries a Glock 35 with metal sights on it, and the front sight is painted with bright red/orange paint.  He does this for severals reasons, but the chief reason being that in the 60 plus defensive shootings his students have been involved in, the lighting (or lack of lighting) was a factor in the outcome in exactly ZERO cases.  Also, bright orange (or whatever color you prefer) sights are simply easier to see, and as we age, the contrasting color only helps more.  Tom attributes the false urgency for night sights on defensive guns to the often misquoted crime statistics that are summarized as, “MOST violent crimes occur at night.”  The statistics ACTUALLY show that violent crimes most often occur during the hours of darkness, which is 6 PM to 6 AM.  Just because it is 2 AM, it isn’t necessarily dark!  Tom said, “There have been times where I have seen my sights clearer at 3 AM outside of a well-lit gas station than I have at 3 PM on an overcast day.”

To visually illustrate and demonstrate  Tom’s point, I took a facsimile of Tom’s carry piece, a Glock 34 (I don’t own a 35), with metal Sevigny type sights on it, with the front sight painted red, and I took (just the slide) to various locations I frequent regularly, where there is less than optimal lighting, to evaluate if I could see my sights clearly enough to deliver gunfire precisely, at common defensive-gun-use distances.  The following pictorial demonstrates the effectiveness of painted, metal sights in less-than-ideal, yet commonly encountered lighting conditions.