Is a revolver less durable to drops and bangs while in the holster/pocket than the semi automatic? To me, it would seem that it is. I would imagine if you were to drop a revolver on its side and a semi auto on its side that the revolvers locking mechanism stands a much higher chance of failing and having the crane be bent. I could see a similar scenario occurring if you are carrying a revolver in your pocket and hit the cylinder against something, stressing the locking parts of the gun and bending at the crane. A semi automatic is basically two large pieces of material riding on rails, therefor seems more durable to these sorts of mishaps. Is this a valid observation?
 

In your imagination

it's a serious question

 

Yes... it is a real possibility!

I dropped a revolver on a linoleum floor from the height of about two feet.

It stopped working.

Revolvers are not as impervious as people imagine. The timing is easy to jack up.

Something as simple as a slightly bent ejection rod will lock it up.

A slightly high primer will lock up the cylinder.

An ejection rod that has been barely unthreaded can keep the cylinder from opening.

A jumped bullet can lock up the cylinder.

The list goes on.

That is what I thought.

 

I've had my ass chewed up for mentioning these short-comings in this forum.

Don't get me wrong, I really like revolvers and there is something about them that draws me in more than modern semi-auto's but I did have a feeling that I didn't want to overlook this particular weakness. Not necessarily a deal breaker but worth considering.

 

Everything has strengths and weaknesses.

I have a 442 that's been ankle carried for years. It's been knocked about pretty good and I'm a bit surprised it's still okay.

Garbage under the extractor star, build up in front of the cylinder, shooting magnums after shooting a lot of specials without thorough cleaning, leaving lube to coagulate in the action long term, loosening ejector rod, bent moon clips on guns that use them...they are certainly not infallible. Most factors that stop a revolver require remedial action, not a quick fix...but in general, a well taken care of revolver will never be an issue.

Bent ejector rods can happen. They can be straightened or replaced pretty easily, but can definitely put a gun out of action until it is. A gun with a damaged crane will probably have lived a long hard life.

With regards to timing most guns under normal use will last forever. Loads heavy enough to stretch frames and fast double action shooting will obviously accelerate wear.

The closest thing I've had to a revolver out of action was a gun with a reduced power rebound spring. I would short stroke the trigger on odd occasion and it took me a while to isolate the problem as it only happened in live fire. My springs stayed stock after that.

I agree with the strength and weakness statement and even going back to the 1930's when Rex applegate worked with the Shanghai police it was his belief the auto was more rugged than the revolver ( bear in mind he was comparing something as bullet proof as the box stock unmolested 1911 running ball ammo to the Colt revolvers of the day which were decidedly more delicate than s&w's )
And yes revolvers can malfunction and when they do tend to be totally out of a fight ( identifying and correcting a revolver malfunction takes a lot of time generally)
On the other hand with proper care I still carry and trust 50 year plus old revolvers routinely.
They do not typically have issues like autos with replace this spring or that at a certain round count and tend to last forever unless abused
I admit I am pretty much a revolver guy but will admit reliability for the most part with equally well maintained ( or not) autos is pretty much a dead heat.
Overall however in over 30 years of shooting I have experienced many more malfunctions/ failures in autos compared to revolvers.

Ammo quality and maintenance seem to trump any any real world reliability advantages that a Semi-auto has over the Revolver.  With proper maintenance and quality ammunition a modern reputable brand handgun (revolver or semi-auto) is so reliable as be a near non-issue in the selection criteria for most handgun applications.

That is true. A reliable pistol is as good as its magazines and ammunition, given it is adequately maintained.

Yes, revolvers can have problems.   Just keep an eye on the operation like you would with any handgun.

Dont flip the cylinder open/closed.   That will eventually cause problems.  

Probably the best of the bunch was the Ruger Security Six series.

This point is worth highlighting.

I enjoy shooting them as well. I have an Uberti, a S&W Model 13 and a .22. They are sexy and nostalgic. But if I need a portable weapon to defend myself and my family, I want a efficient killing tool not something that makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

I just don't think revolvers make ideal carry guns, considering today's modern threats, when compared with modern high capacity auto-loaders.

Very few revolver shooters can keep up with even moderately trained auto shooters, even doing basic drills.

Nothin's better than beating those lothsome bottom feeders with the noble round gun!

 

Not the original question, but a guy I work with dropped his Glock 17 on his tile floor, and it hit just right on the back corner of the slide and frame area where the slide rail was bent in and caused the weapon to bind up and malfunction.  Gun went back to Glock.  I don't know if the slide was fixed or if they replaced it, but dropping or banging around any gun can cause problems.

NO

TL:DR!

Can you simplify your argument a bit on why you think the OP is wrong.  I think your post went over my head...

I just have ask....how the HELL do you drop.a handgun?? Not when you're playing Call of Duty, but in real life....

My favorite characteristic of a semi are the magazines. Lose or damage one and you have a really sweet single shot defensive weapon!

I personally am a lot more concerned about bumping it while I am at work. They ride in my front pocket and the cylinder sticks out the furthest.

 

Of the few pistoleros I've known personally, most felt that revolvers were more "finicky" than autos.

That is, the internal mechanism was less hardy than the self-loaders, and could be problematic at inopportune times.

All of them owned and shot revolvers. All but 1 carried 1911's.

There's a reason that the only special tactics police unit to use revolvers is in France (starts with "cheese eating surrender monkeys" and ends with "fin").

I have equal numbers (about) of each. My revolvers have required more frequent attention, but to be fair, I've purchased autoloaders that wouldn't function (at all) when they were received from the vendor.

I still pick up a pistol over my revolver when there's a serious issue at hand. But I wouldn't hesitate a second if all I had was a wheelgun (except of course it was an Apache helicopter......)

G.

If that's a problem, then there's nothing to ask. You should carry a semi.

Seriously?  If you hit a revolver in your pocket hard enough to damage it, you probably won't be walking away from the site of the impact under your own power.
IMHO, handguns, either revolvers or semi-automatics are reliable to the point of not worrying about it if you maintain them properly.  Period.

When I hear of a revolver with a bent or tweaked crane I instantly think of somebody doing something stupid while loading or unloading when the cylinder is tilted out in the open position. .

Once the cylinder is correctly closed up everything locks together and makes a pretty strong package..

Either style gun can get sights knocked around if is really abused .

To damage any handgun to the point it will not function you are looking at a major car crash or falling out a two story window type of thing where the person involved likely is not going to be in any shape to fire the gun anyhow.


One could possibly make the argument that a revolver with fixed sights might be a bit toughfer but I have never heard of anyone really having issues with sights.

I suspect the OP might be overthinking his issue a bit.

My advice would be to select the firearm you shoot best with .

It wouldn't be the first time I over thought something.  I occasionally will bump the gun at work because my job is somewhat physical but obviously I am not expecting to put the gun through a scenario like you described.


 

The D/A Revolver definitely does have some reliability issues when subject to hard use or some of those things that "Just Happen" if that crane opens while bouncing down a rock slide (which it will) this is a problem, when thrown in the cargo compartment of a Bush Plane on top of a couple of dead animals it will always work its way to the bottom of the pile (same in a fishing skiff). If you use a D/A Revolver hard (which most people never will) it can be a very fragile weapon.

I got to disagree.  Bouncing down a rock slide or being thrown in a cargo hold is not hard use that is abuse.  I can see a revolver failing a bit more often when subjected to such abuse but would expect a semi-autos to fail to that abuse on occasion also.


When subject to hard use, not abuse, revolvers will run with any semi-auto.  I run my revolvers hard in USPSA/IDPA competition.  Several thousand rounds a year. They get open fast, ejectors slapped hard and closes fast and hard.  I shoot them fast in double action, and manage sub .2 sec splits on hoser stages.  My 625 and 610 each easily have over 10,000 rds on them and my 627 is approaching 5,000 rds and they where all bought used so who know what the total round counts are.  I know the 625 was used competitively before I bought it.  I have never had a revolver fail me in competition.  My semi-autos have not been as reliable.

Yeah, and so is the part directly following, .but in general, a well taken care of revolver will never be an issue.

This is the important part; the things that will shut down a revolver are not instantaneously most of the time, but usually the result of severe neglect. Ejector rods don't just unscrew one day, it takes time. Speaking of which TIMING does not go kaput overnight. Bullet jump? Bad ammo, never tested, shouldn't happen to professionally loaded ammunition. It would be like scorning the semiauto platform because, God forbid, the recoil spring wore out after a couple years. Crap platform obviously, right?

But something as simple as a high primer can lock up a revolver. I think there are more failure points with them.

What ever.

Something as simple as a high primer is something that should be simple to detect and therefor taken out of rotation, right? A bullet seated to far (or to little, trust me I reloaded) into the case can really mess up a semi too, I wouldn't call that a negative for an auto however. I carried semis for a while, don't think for a minute that I didn't inspect each and every cartridge I loaded into the magazine(s) that I planned on carrying inside the gun. That's the end users responsibility to maintaining a functional weapon, just like routine maintenance.

As for overall failure points who knows, but what I can tell you if we include every single little thing that could go wrong, no matter how unlikely, it would be endless for both platforms. Neither are bombproof but at contact distances I prefer a snub to a small semi.

A primer high enough to lock up a revolver will jam a semi-auto.  A slightly high primer will often fail to go off when stuck (in either action) as the primer seating itself cushions the impact.  The semi-auto must tap-rack-bang the revolver simply pulls the trigger again.

 

Unless you can come up with a definitive list of failures for both action types trying to say a revolver has more failure points is sort of pointless.

I see you're still in the fertilizer business.

If you hit something hard enough to damage your pocket-carried revolver, you're probably looking at a broken femur. I carry a revolver on a daily basis in a duty holster, and let's just say that it has been subjected to more "bumps" than any pocket-carried revolver ever will. I trust it with my life implicitly. None of my revolvers have ever failed me. I can't say that about all the semiautomatics that I have been issued in the past 40 years, but the M1911A1 comes the closest.

I was thrown by a horse once and landed on my holstered sidearm, a S&W Model 629. The .44 Magnum took less damage than I did. If you're using a proper pocket holster, "bumping" your pocket-carried revolver shouldn't be an issue. What kind of work do you do that you're worried about damaging a revolver? Are you a rodeo clown?

He only post's here when he see's the opportunity to lash out at what he doesn't like and to try and convert the heathens here to semi's. That is exactly why he get's chewed out for this and people here have long memories when it comes to poo stirring in tech.

My bad experiences have almost all been with semiautos. My first gun, a Taurus 83, was a disaster, but every single revolver I've had since, except for my Python then has been perfect.
They've all been Dan Wesson, Ruger, S&W, and Colt, so that's not a shock. Right now, all three I have are DWs, two are .357 and the other is a .44 Mag.
The Python's hand broke soon after I bought it. It was fixed and I soon sold it at a profit.

And GSL likes to ignore people when his lame arguments fail, kinda like sticking his head in the sand...

If you don't believe me, read his sig line... He's a chronic ignorer.

My semis have been more reliable then my revolvers but I agree that its abuse that knocks out revolvers. Not normal hard use.

If you're worried about bumping your revolver into a failure than you need to switch to smiths or rugers Sure an avalanche or a nuke could render them inoperable but for the most part they are almost as rugged as a glock

Why is this a common theme of disinformation here? Glocks are not infallible, there are other guns that are just as durable and some that are way more durable. I'd like to know how cracked polymer sights and frames along with MIM extractors are all of a sudden treated as adamantium because it's a glock? Physics trump's hype.

Calm down there. While i typically carry a glock Im no fanboy. I could have just said sig or Beretta and stood by my statement ime.

I consider my ruger redhawk a very rugged gun. I conceal it on occasion too but its had more reliability issues than any other gun Ive ever owned. Ived since fixed the reliability issues and its been good.

How are physics involved?

comparatively, revolvers are reliable. not durable

I would suggest that both revolvers and semi-automatics, in steel versions are both durable.

 
Look at the sheer number of revolvers and semi-automatics that were manufactured 100 years ago that are still functional today.

I've carried various handguns - both pistols and revolvers - for 29 years and I've never dropped one.   In that regard I don't really understand or agree with the OP's question.

If you are pocket carrying a revolver or a pistol and you're not using a decent pocket holster, you're a bit of a moron.  

If you're carrying any handgun in a manner that leaves it at risk of falling out of a pocket or holster you're a full on moron.

Your focus is in the wrong place.  For example last week I heard someone state "The first step is getting everyone out of the house <when it's on fire>".  Wrong.  The first step is preventing the fire in the first place, and the second step is putting out a small fire before it gets out of control.  The last step is getting people out of the house when all the preventative efforts have failed.

The same logic applies to firearms.   The focus should not be on finding the most drop proof handgun on the planet but rather on finding a handgun that you shoot effectively, and then ensuring you carry and handle it properly to prevent it from being damaged in the first place.

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In general, over the last 29 years, I've experienced far more reliability issues with pistols than revolvers.  

Pistol reliability requires the magazines, the ammunition and key parts of the pistol, such as the recoil spring and hammer spring to operate effectively as a system.   A worn or bent magazine feed lip will result in jams or failures to feed, a weak recoil spring will reduce the slide over run time and cause misfeeds. Many semi-autos are very particular about bullet point shape, seating depth and pressure of the load - change any one of those variables and reliability can go right out the window.   The end result is that I've never carried a pistol for self defense until I've a) broken it in, and b) put at least 200 rounds through it with 100% reliability, including every magazine I carry.

On the other hand, revolvers are comparatively non picky when it comes to ammunition.  You need to ensure that the bullets don't start moving forward under recoil and are low enough in pressure not to stick in the cylinders on ejection and that's pretty much it.  I've bought revolvers, loaded them with my self defense load fired a few cylinders to confirm functioning and point of aim, and carried them for self defense.   One of the few ammunition limitations I've noted are some rounds using slow colloidal ball powders that can leave fairly large particles of powder residue in the revolver.  It's not an issue on the first cylinder, but a grain of unburnt powder falling between the ejector and cylinder will prevent the cylinder from going back into the frame, and it's not all that quick to clear it.  

Accuracy in a pistol tends to come at the expense of reliability.  A snug slide to frame and barrel to slide fit is needed to get precise and consistent alignment of the barrel and sights from shot to shot, and that tends to compromise reliability, especially when things start getting dirty.   The same isn't true for a revolver - the sights are fixed in position relative to the barrel, and tighter fitted revolvers don't tend to be any less reliable.

I love arm chair commando talk, Sure you can always point out the failures of any weapon. But seriously those of us who have lived the life know...the sidearm is only a last resort if your rifle fails and you fight your way to get one. Since I'm a civilian now, I'm good with just having a revolver or either a 1911 UNTIL I get my rifle in hand. Since I don't have to go offensive in any imagined scenario, I can fight my way out into a defensive position and disengage. I guess my poorly worded statement is I love my revolvers and feel like they are just as viable for my intended needs. Oh and I don't just carry my revolver as the only weapon within my reach usually. I also carry my Spikes Hellbreaker in the vehicle too, just saying.

^^ theses two latest replies nailed it really good.

percieved...but only by some....<><...

percieved...but only by some....<><....