Ask anyone who, back in the days of Yore, carried a revolver in some professional capacity, and they will tell you that the cognoscenti of the era often preferred the 3” revolver over the longer 4” or 6” barreled guns that were used in a patrol capacity, or the 1 7/8” or 2” guns that were used by plainclothes or off-duty officers. You get the benefit of more barrel to burn powder, which gives a higher muzzle velocity but less muzzle blast, and more sight radius, without a tremendous amount of bulk that the larger guns inherently possess.

Now, in the, “Revolver Renaissance,” there are more and more people and companies who are recognizing the utility and benefits of using a 3” barreled gun. Whether for everyday carry purposes, for a nightstand gun, or just plain fun, the 3” guns are useful.

For this essay, I decided to take three popular 3” revolvers that cover the gamut from modestly priced to exorbitantly priced, and shoot them with HIGH DESERT CARTRIDGE COMPANY jacketed wadcutters (my home base indoor range only allows jacketed or plated/coated bullets). I used, “THE TEST,” that was created by Ken Hackathorn years back and popularized about 15 years ago by Larry Vickers, who commented that he felt it was a good indicator of skill with a pistol. After I shot 3 iterations of THE TEST, I fired 3 iterations of Tom Givens’ OLD WEST CARD TEST (shot on regulation sized playing cards). Along the way here, I will tell you about these revolving pistols, and what they do and do not do well in my hands.

FIRST, THE COMPETITORS

PASS. The Manurhin MR73 in .357 Magnum (although this test was exclusively was exclusively .38 Special). If you have $3500 and are looking for a good time and adventure, I recommend international travel. But if you want to stay at home instead, Beretta USA is the importer for the MR73 now, and they will gladly sell you one. A point worth mentioning…you will see that the shot cluster of 5 rounds in the Tom Givens, “Card Trick,” (5 rounds, 5 seconds, 5 yards) are balled up at the top of the card. I adjusted the POI after the drills, to get it dialed for the .38 load. I will switch it back to the excellent 158 grain .357 Magnum XTP loading that HIGH DESERT CARTRIDGE COMPANY loads, for its next outing. I don’t carry it often, but mostly because like Tom Givens is fond of saying, “I don’t ride a horse to work or make calls on a telegraph either. Better technology exists.” But for fun, pure accuracy purposes, or competition, it works! It’s also cool to note that this gun was created as a souped up version of the S&W K frame to digest a steady helping of full bore 158 grain .357 Magnums and for the noble purpose of slaying terrorists, following the mayhem that took place at the Munich Olympics in 1972. The grips on this gun, “Trausch grips,” were designed by a GIGN counter terror operative (whose surname was Trausch), and were manufactured until his death in/around 2012. I have two other pairs that are on K frame revolvers of mine, and they are fantastic for fighting guns because they direct the recoil forces of the Magnum rounds into the hand effectively and dampen recoil, even with hot magnum rounds. Yes…they look interesting but trust and believe that their beauty is in the eye of the dude holding this thing. It is truly the Swiss Watch of revolvers!
PASS. The Colt King Cobra .357 Magnum. Again, only .38 Special for this essay. This isn’t to be confused with the Colt King Cobra of the previous century, which was a medium frame (V-frame) revolver on par with the Colt Trooper revolver. This version of the Colt King Cobra was released in 2019 as a reintroduction with the same name, but not as the same product. This was considered a, “reinterpretation,” by Colt. I happened up on this piece in the used case and thought it was interesting, because I had an email conversation with Tom Givens about the newer Colt revolvers (Tom is a long-time Colt revolver user) and his thoughts on them. The price was right and I had store credit! I removed the tacky Hogue Monogrips, which while feeling fine, were too grabby for concealment purposes, and I had a custom set of BADGER grips made for them from Goncalo Alves, my favorite wood species for handgun stocks. Some people love cocobolo, some love walnut, but I love Goncalo Alves. I blame my Uncle’s PD issued Model 19 that he used to keep on top of the refrigerator when my Aunt would babysit my brother and I. I would stare at that gun and I liked the look of the wood. I also like the appearance of well-oiled bowling alley lanes, which sometimes looks similar. This gun comes with an OEM brass bead, that is the middle-aged and old guys’ trick for a good front sight material that grabs the eye in any light and lets you know it’s there.
PASS. The Taurus 856 Executive. I first became aware of this gun at Chuck Haggard’s POCKET ROCKET class I took a few years back. Chuck had a copy that I believe Caleb Giddings (of Taurus USA) had sent him to evaluate. Besides the Colt Python-esque stocks that came on the revolver, I liked it. It shot a little low with anything that wasn’t in the 125-130 grain range, which isn’t what I keep on hand for .38’s. I have maintained a supply of Hornady Critical Defense 110 grain FTX, Federal 158 grain LSWCHP and 148 grain wadcutters from various manufacturers. Wadcutters used to show up around the start of competition season (Spring) and then they’d disappear, until smaller manufacturers like High Desert Cartridge Company, Georgia Arms and Buffalo Bore started making them widely available. I replaced the OEM stocks with these VZ GRIPS wrap around type that cover the backstrap. I have yet to find a VZ revolver grip that I don’t like. They work very well and the fit, regardless of vintage for my Smith guns, is fantastic. I ALSO replaced the front sight (which I mentioned shot low) with an XS brass front sight, that features a brass version of the same diameter of their fiber optic front sights. So you get the benefit of the large, gold bead. Of the three guns, this Taurus is the least expensive, but it still runs around $500 in today’s market.

THE TEST

So just to review, “THE TEST” is preferably shot cold. Meaning no warm-up. From ten yards, and from the TRUE low ready (the gun pointed in front of where the feet of the target would be) the goal is to shoot SIX rounds, in SIX seconds or less, and then score the target appropriately. “Proficient,” is considered 90% or better. The non-revolving pistol version is shot from ten yards as well, but TEN rounds are fired, and the par time is TEN seconds. Easy enough? Try it! Let me know how you fare!

FAIL. I blew the par time by 0.08 seconds. Just EEKED by on score at 90%.
FAIL. Blew the par time by 0.26 seconds BUT hit the points at 91.6%.
FAIL. Good on time, low on points…for only 86%.

THOUGHTS

These are all good guns. Shooting iron sights is tough…now that I am soundly in middle age (50 y/o) I have discovered that the preaching I have heard from Tom and others of, “SIGHTS YOU CAN SEE,” which I really used to take for granted, is a problem now. Three years ago I started to wear progressive corrective lenses. I had LASIK surgery 20 years ago, and since then I have had 20/10 distance vision, which I still have. But I cannot read or see print clearly on my phone inside about 3 feet without glasses. Pretty normal problems for middle aged people from what I understand talking to my peers. The problem with progressive lenses is that up close, unless I look WAY up, with my neck hyper-extended, through the bottom half of my glasses, the front sight is not clear. The target, is crystal clear though when my head is neutral. So, when Tom says, “Get the gun up at eye level, look at the bumpy things on the top of the pistol and press the trigger to deliver effective rounds on target.” So this still works…it just doesn’t work as well as the old days for me when the front sight was CRYSTAL clear. I can say that the gold bead DOES make a difference, as does the bright fluorescent red paint pen on serrated front sights. Everyone has a spectrum of eyesight conditions and you will have to find what works for you!

I blew THE TEST with the revolvers. With pistols, especially pistols with red dots, I can smoke it consistently shooting it clean or down a point or two in the 6-7 second range. With 6 seconds, time is tight!

HIGH DESERT CARTRIDGE COMPANY (HDCC)

I am consistently impressed with HDCC and Steve Shields, the owner. They are semi local to me in WA State, and I like to support local businesses when I can. I use a GARMIN Chronograph at the range to collect data and this is what I found, firing a five round string from each revolver:

Click on each table…

As you can see, in terms of velocities from each of the different revolvers, the numbers are similar. The recoil impulse in all three guns was very mild and tolerable. I fired a total of 100 rounds through the three guns in one session, and my hands still felt great afterwards. Ignition reliability was 100%, and the cases were nickel plated and ejected after firing with ease. The round I used is here and has a published velocity of 725 feet per second. I have more of this round on hand, and I like it!

Steve also makes a 148 grain poly coated SOLID base wadcutter that is slightly slower at 715 feet per second. I will get some of those next, and test them the same way, with THE TEST and the CARD TRICK.

FINAL THOUGHTS

IF I SHOT these same drills again tomorrow morning, I may pass all six of them. I find that as soon as I take my timer out of my bag, my performance is either awesome, or not quite! I DO notice that the more I use that timer though, the less that BEEP shocks me, and the more I react appropriately and in the right alignment to send my shots straight and true. If I sit down and shoot slowly, at a 3” circular paster, these rounds all shoot POA/POI out to 20 yards. That works!

Oh she’s a beut Clark! Manurhin MR73
I have a new found respect for the current vintage Colt products. All of the Colt revolvers of recent vintage I have used are smooth, feel very solid and work well. I have tested this King Cobra, the Cobra and the Viper. I like them all. Oh…the Badger grips, I opted for the, “remove palm swells,” and, “relieve for speed loader,” options. They cost a few bucks more, and although I don’t often use speed loaders for my .38/.357 small frames, I might in the future.
The Best Buy option…the Taurus 856 Executive!
This is the Barranti Leather holster (Direct Line CCR) I use for the King Cobra currently. The wait is not awful for custom leather, and the work is beautiful. The cylinder is held quite firmly and like the revolver holsters of the old days (that often had exposed trigger guards) folks tended to see the exposed trigger and freak out; not realizing that the cylinder is gripped so strongly that the cylinder can’t rotate, and thus the revolver won’t fire! Who would’ve thought?
The MR73’s current home, an OWB classic rig with a thumb break from AE Nelson. Before Safariland made the 6280 style, thumb deactivated bale that largely supplanted the thumb break in duty holsters, the thumb break WAS state of the art for a long time. The draw stroke requires that you take your firing grip whilst using your thumb as a wedge to unsnap the holster and then draw the revolver. It isn’t done as a, “establish grip, flick the thumb break AND THEN draw.” The breaking of the thumb break (oh that’s too many times to say, “thumb,” “break,” and, “thumbreak”!) is PART of the draw stroke, not a separate phase. One of my pet peeves was seeing my peers in uniform wearing thumb break rigs with the snap open, for, “quicker access.” If you bring a gun to the fight, it is, “everyone’s gun,” and if you don’t know how to defend it, someone COULD take it from you and remove that decision possibility from your choice tree, completely. Also, the thumb break keeps the gun in the holster, which means that running around, exiting a vehicle quickly, et cetera, means that your revolver will be where you left it last, when you need it.
This is the SIMPLY RUGGED El Dorado with Border Stamping for the Taurus 856. I simply, bucket style OWB hip holster. I HAVE worn this AIWB when I have had occasion to, while driving extensively. It’s relatively inexpensive and Rob Leahy and his crew do fantastic work.

THANK YOU FOR READING! Please, like, share on your social media feeds, and subscribe to my RSS feed here so you don’t miss any of my posts. Social media and even google itself does a fantastic job of down throttling pro-gun media sources, so we have to get the message out somehow! -Dr. House