There are many factors involved in selecting either a pistol or revolver. It used to be the case that the only real choice for personal protection was the good old tried and true reliable revolver, but those days are long gone. In this article I’ll walk you through the steps to best select a firearm that will serve you the best. That said, in the end the firearm you chose is a very personal thing and while I might help you select the best firearm, you may well chose a lesser firearm because of cost, what your friends carry, or just because you like the look of one better than the “best” firearm for you. And that’s okay too because, again, it is a very personal choice. My guide is designed to help you find the best fit for you but the choice is always yours.
- We start by answering the question – “What do I intend to use the firearm for?” There may be several reasons, but we have to determine the primary reason for your purchase. Is it primarily for personal protection? Or is it primarily for “plinking” (shooting for fun), or for competition shooting?
- If for competition shooting you can stop here. Your best firearm is going to be a custom build firearm and you’ll need to spend some time with your gunsmith (me?) talking through the kind of competition you intend to participate in.
- If you are going for plinking or personal protection, continue to “2.”
- Now you need to decide upon a caliber. What is a caliber? It is the term used to identify the round of ammunition the firearm is capable of firing. Unfortunately, it would take another entire article to explain calibers! Rather than do so here I’ll simply list the most common calibers used for personal protection and plinking:
- “.22” – this round comes in several sub-calibers. There is .22-short, .22 Long Rifle, and .22-WMR. The length of the round gets longer as we move from .22-short to .22-WMR meaning there is more powder in the case and the bullet will travel faster with more energy. .22-short is seldom in use these days. .22-Long Rifle is frequently used for plinking and in some cases for personal protection. .22-WMR is sometimes used for personal protection, for target shooting, and for hunting “varmints” (e.g. – groundhogs, squirrels, prairie dogs, small pest animals). .22-Long Rifles is the round that is involved with most shootings and firearm related deaths, though it has very high velocity and has a small diameter. That means it more frequently than not passes right through the person being shot. Generally speaking, this is not the optimal round for personal protection. But it is absolutely the best for plinking because it is the cheapest round to shoot! With the exception of .25 caliber and 38 Super, all the other rounds listed below are good selections for personal protection and plinking.
- “.25 caliber” – this round was particularly popular for personal protection in the early 1900’s. They are still available in limited versions because it has basically been superseded by more capable rounds. The rounds are hard to find and usually more expensive than other rounds, so it isn’t a good candidate for personal protection or plinking. I wouldn’t recommend it because of the round’s expense and availability being problematic, and newer larger rounds are more capable in that the rounds discussed below have greater stopping power, and cheaper. If you inherited a .25 caliber, I’d not recommend using it for personal protection or plinking.
- “.380 caliber” – This round used to be considered too “light weight” to be considered for personal protection. However, those days are long gone. The energy and effectiveness of this round are approximately the same as the next round we’ll cover, .38 Special. Most .380 firearms come in the smallest physical form and are, therefore, the easiest to conceal and carry. As we’ll see in a few minutes this is a blessing and a curse.
- “.38 Special” – This round has been around “forever” and was used by both the military and police forces for many many years. You can still pick up used police revolvers in .38 Special in many firearm shops. Though few people purchase .38 Specials for personal protection it remains a perfectly valid option. Police replaced it with 9mm primarily because most 9mm pistols carry more rounds than a .38 Special revolver. And that may be a deciding factor for you. Or you may not want a revolver (and I’ve never seen a .38 Special pistol). If you aren’t interested in a revolver pass on .38 Special.
- “.357 Magnum” – This is a supped up .38 Special round. The case is longer, so it holds more power with the same bullet. Again, it is a great round that has lost favor primarily because you can’t get it in a pistol and because it is only available in a revolver, the number of rounds available are restricted to a maximum of six.
- “.38 Super” – Same bullet as .38 Special and .357 Magnum, but in a case that can be used by a semi-automatic pistol. This round primarily gained popularity for a while in the competition shooting market. Ammunition is difficult for find these days. It is a good personal protection round, if you can find the rounds.
- “9mm” – THE go-to personal protection round these days. It has more energy than .380 and pistols frequently are built to hold lots of rounds. Even the military shifted to 9mm though in my opinion it is not a good military round – don’t get me started! However, for personal protection it is adequate. Because it is ubiquitous the rounds are generally less expensive than others and comes in many configurations. And there are many pistols available in 9mm.
- “.40 S&W” – This is a round invented to be a medium between those who thought 9mm was too small and .45 ACP too large. When women became FBI agents and patrol officers it was discovered that many women had a hard time controlling and accurately firing .45 ACP. And at the time 9mm rounds were underpowered (no longer true). So .40 S&W was invented to bridge between the two rounds. It is available in many different pistols so is a viable option for personal protection though I’d not recommend it. If you want capacity, you want 9mm. If you want stopping power, you want one of the next two rounds!
- “.45 ACP” – This round was invented at the turn of the 20th century because of problems the military had with .38 rounds during the Philippine insurrection. Insurrectionists would get hopped up on a local plant based narcotic and violently attack our military. They would take multiple .38 rounds and keep coming so the military asked for a man-stopping round. The .45 ACP round is a big, slow, powerful round that does exactly what the military asked for – it will stop a man in his tracks even if high as a kite. It wasn’t until the 1980s our military decided to change from .45 ACP to 9mm with its lesser stopping power. Some of the reasons were that 9mm rounds are cheaper, because they are lighter in weight a soldier can carry more of them, Europeans have been using 9mm forever, thus our European allies already have them in abundance, and women were being introduced more and more into combat roles and 9mm is easier for a woman to handle than a .45 ACP – at least, that’s the feeling many have. 45 ACP is a GREAT defensive round as it remains a man-stopper!
- “10mm” – After an FBI shootout where criminals were wearing body armor, the FBI asked industry to develop a replacement for the .45 ACP that would penetrate body armor. The 10mm was the answer. Then the FBI decided it was too hard to shoot and after only a short issue-period went to 9mm. That 1mm difference is HUGE with regard to the energy imparted. There has recently been a resurgence of 10mm with many manufacturers offering 10mm pistols. Like .45 ACP this is a GREAT defensive round as it to is a man-stopper.
- Now that you know a bit about calibers we need to move to the next consideration; namely, are you using this for home defense or personal protection while outside the home? If you are using it primarily for home defense – STOP. You don’t need and don’t want a pistol or revolver. What you need is a shotgun that is setup for home defense. Why? Primarily because of “over-penetration”. “Over-penetration” is the term that describes what happens after the bullet hits the person you are shooting. While 10mm and .45ACP will “stop” inside a person’s body, all the others will usually not. Instead they will pass through the body of the assailant – and that is BAD because you don’t know what or who else will be in the bullet’s path. For instance, a 9mm round will pass through the body of the assailant and through numerous sheet-rock walls and typically stops when it hits something or someone else. You may fire at your assailant and hit them, but that bullet may well pass through him/her and hit your dog, cat, or worse yet, you spouse or child. And you can’t think in a straight line. If that bullet hits bone in the assailant, it can leave the body of the assailant at an angle to the direction of penetration. Shotguns have far less penetrating power and have tremendous stopping power. Too, accuracy isn’t as important as it is with a pistol or revolver! On the other hand, if you are using your firearm primarily for protection outside the home or both and can only afford one firearm, a pistol or revolver is what you need. We’ll assume you need a pistol or revolver.
- What’s the difference between a pistol and a revolver?
- A revolver is the second oldest form of handgun. If you’ve ever watched a Western movie you saw men and women handling revolvers. They gained their name from the fact there is a cylinder in the frame in which the rounds are pre-loaded, that rotates to align the next round to the barrel. When you cock the hammer (pull it back) the cylinder is rotated until a round automatically lines up with the barrel where it locks in place and then when you pull the trigger the hammer drops and fires the round. The cylinder “rotates;” hence, revolver. Revolvers come in two primary types – Single-Action and Double-Action. Single-Action revolvers are what they had in the old West portrayed in Westerns. If you decide on a revolver you probably want a Double-Action revolver. Single-Action revolvers require you to manually cock the firearm by pulling the hammer back until it latches prior to every shot being fired. Double-Action revolvers operate differently. The act of pulling the trigger cocks the hammer, rotates the cylinder, and fires the round, all with one pull. Every time you pull the trigger a round is fired.
- Revolvers
- Advantages of revolvers
- They are traditionally considered more reliable than pistols. That may have been true 100 years ago but not so today. This is an old wives-tale today.
- They are often physically easier to operate than pistols
- Disadvantages of revolvers
- Most defensive rounds worthy revolvers are limited to six or fewer round capacity prior to having to reload
- Reloading is time-consuming and generally not practical in a combat situation.
- If yours is a Double-Action you have the same potential problem with a long hard pull of at least the first round.
- It is bulkier than pistols making it harder to conceal.
- Pistols
- Advantages of pistols
- They often have a higher capacity than a revolver.
- They use “magazines” which hold the rounds. To reload, you drop out the expended magazine and insert a pre-loaded magazine making reloading very quick.
- They are thinner in profile than a revolver which makes them easier to conceal.
- They come in several different “flavors.”
- There are Double-Action pistols that operate like a Double-Action revolver but have all the other advantages of a pistol.
- There are Double/Single-Action pistols whose first round fires like a Double-Action revolver then subsequent rounds the pistol operates in semi-automatic mode, meaning the pistol loads and cocks itself, making the second and following shots trigger pull shorter and lighter than the first pull.
- And there are Semi-Automatic only pistols. The first round has to be manually put into the barrel typically but pulling the slide to the rear and releasing it and all subsequent shots are loaded and the firearm cocked automatically by the pistol using some of the energy of the fired round to load a new round and cock the firearm.
- Disadvantages of pistols
- Double-Action revolvers have a long, hard trigger pull that may be uncomfortable that can throw your shot “off.”
- “Racking the slide,” pulling the slide to the rear can be problematic for people who are older, some women, and anyone who only has one hand they can use including someone who has been injured in a firefight!
- Likewise, loading the magazine requires compressing a large spring and this can be problematic for folks, though there are loading devices available that mitigate this problem.
- Although there are a very few exceptions, should the round in the chamber misfire (fails to fire), you must manually rack the slide and eject the round to fire again.
- Next we need to set a budget. Budget considerations include:
- Do you intend to pass this firearm down to other generations? If you do be prepared to pay more for a premium firearm. Or are you more practically minded and consider your firearm primarily as a tool? A tool costs less than a collector’s item.
- Is “name-brand” important to you? In the firearm industry certain names cost more because of the name.
- How important is a warranty to you? Most firearms come with a one-year warranty though some manufacturers offer life-time warranties. Most of the new firearms I can get or have on hand come with a life-time warranty from my distributer above and beyond the manufacturer’s warranty.
- And we need to decide how you intend to carry your firearm. Will it be in a holster? On your belt, inside your waistband, outside your waistband, in a shoulder-rig, in your pocket, on your ankle, or in your purse, etc.
- Now we have some basic knowledge we can move into more specifics regarding what is going to be best for you. We can do that by answering more questions by coming to my firearm shop:
- We need to discuss all the above to determine what options are available to you.
- Not only that, but we need to fit your finger length to the size firearm in the type you have selected.
- Then we need to have you hold various size firearms – and yes, they come in different sizes, until we find one that fits your hand size. I have a large hand with medium fingers – a double-stack Glock is too large to fit my palm though the trigger fits my fingers. An M&P Bodyguard is too small both for my hand and for my finger length. Neither at good options for me; actually, for most people, though lots of people have purchased both! If the firearm doesn’t fit your hand it has two negative effects.
- First, if the grip is too large or too small you can’t get a proper grip on the firearm and your shots will be pushed off to one side or the other. And if the grip is too small you have the added problem in that firing the firearm is going to hurt your hand. That caused you to unconsciously anticipate the recoil and you will flinch at every shot – so quickly it can only be caught on a fast-frame video camera. If you are right-handed your shots will pretty consistently go low and to the left.
- Then if your finger is too long or too short you won’t be able to put the “meat” of your trigger finger centered on the trigger. And this will cause you to push your shots left or right depending on whether your finger is too long or too short. Oh, and that only USUALLY applies! For some Double-Action firearms you can’t use the “meat” of your finger! Now what are you going to do?
- Confused? THAT’s why you need to come see someone who is not only intimately familiar with firearms but also a firearm shooting instructor – and that’s me! I’m a “National Rifle Association” Certified “Pistol Instructor.”
- You might be thinking – hey, I can go to the pawn shop and do this. Good luck – many of my customers are people who have done exactly that and after purchasing and FIRING their firearm realized the “recommended” firearm “just for them” was not actually THE firearm they should have purchased! My goal is to get you the “right” firearm the first time – one that fits your hand, fits your trigger finger, that you can operate, and will serve your particular need!
- Best thing to do? Come see me - I’m NOT interested in selling you what I have on hand. I’m interested in selling exactly what you NEED and will BEST serve your purpose.
