Choosing a Revolver: What You Need to Know

Wheel-guns, six-shooters, big irons, whatever you want to call revolvers, there’s no denying the allure and appeal of the classic sidearm. Robust, reliable, and available in calibers ranging from anemic to bear-slaying, revolvers are incredibly versatile. But there’s a catch; With so many different revolvers available for many applications, it becomes challenging to pick the best one for you.

With that in mind, we’ve created a simple, handy guide to picking the perfect revolver for your needs. The guide will start out broad and narrow with each section until we arrive at your perfect revolver. So, with that in mind, let’s begin your journey towards the ideal wheel gun.

I have to state this, or something will grill me for it - guns aren’t toys. The term “range toy” refers to a firearm typically only taken to a shooting range for recreational use. Some typical examples include (mostly) novelty firearms like the .50 AE Desert Eagle,S&W 460XVR, and eccentric or antique firearms like the Luger or C96 Mauser Broomhandle. Yes, these guns can be used for more serious roles, but realistically, they aren’t terribly practical, and better, less expensive, more reliable options are available.

For serious use, I’m referring to guns that a shooter will either have their life (or the lives of others) depend on, or for hunting game. Something where the gun fails to function would be a disaster.

How do you decide which of these categories your hypothetical revolver falls into? Easy. Just think about why you want it, or any revolver for that matter. For me, I love WW2 guns, so I bought a Smith & Wesson Model 1917. It’s a six-shot .45 ACP revolver that is gigantic for the caliber. It’s not a practical concealed carry gun, it’s not a great hunting weapon as the caliber isn’t ethical to use on medium game past 15 yards.  I didn’t buy it to carry. I didn’t buy it to hunt, I bought it because it was used by US forces in WW2, and it’s fun to shoot. I place that revolver firmly in the range-roy category. 

The revolver that I’ve owned the longest is the complete opposite. It’s a Smith & Wesson 442. For the uninitiated, the 442 is a hammerless, aluminum-framed snub-nosed 38 special revolver. It is a point-blank, “belly gun” ideal for deep concealment or when forced into close-quarters fighting.

To be frank, the 442 is brutal to shoot. It kicks like a mule, the sights aren’t great, and the trigger pull is long and heavy. But it’s ideal for pocket carry and long-duration carry. It’s light enough that its weight virtually disappears once a shooter becomes accustomed to it. This is a serious-use-only gun. Only the most masocistic shooters will take a featherweight snub-nosed revolver to the range to shoot hundreds of rounds through. It will beat up your hands and wrists in no time.

If your ideal revolver falls into the range toy category, good news! You can stop reading and just buy whatever you want. It doesn’t need to fill a role, and as long as you’re OK with it being something that brings you joy, don’t worry about any practical uses. As for the rest of you, read on, we’ll continue to narrow down your revolver choice.

If you're still unclear on the differences between the two categories of guns, ask yourself these questions. 

• Do you want or need the gun?
• Is this revolver the best solution to my problem?
• Will my life ever depend on this gun?

There are more questions you can ask yourself, but these tend to separate wants from needs.

Deciding on a caliber heavily depends on what a shooter wants to use the revolver for. If they’re looking for a kit gun to shoot squirrels or snakes while on a hike, a .22LR makes a lot of sense. But if they’re carrying their wheel gun as a backup when hunting dangerous game, a .22LR handgun is a big mistake.

For hunting or defense against wild/dangerous game, shooters should generally pick the largest caliber they can comfortably use that has enough energy to punch through an animal’s hide and reach its vital organs. If you’re worried about wolves and coyotes, .357 Magnum is plenty of caliber to stop either, and a great .357 all-around gun is the Smith and Wesson 686 series.. 

Wild boars and bears are better dispatched with a heavier, harder-hitting round like the .44 Magnum. Knowing how much penetration is needed to reach vital organs is essential. Remember, animals are much tougher than humans - a round that would reliably stop a human aggressor can sometimes just anger an animal one. A great example is when I once had a 200-pound wild boar trying to get me out of a low tree stand while hunting deer in Texas.  I had my Winchester model 70 in 30-06 resting on my stand, and my older .45 ACP Colt Series 70 1911 on my hip. 

I decided to shoot the large pig in the head at five feet with the 1911 since the owner of the property had given us permission to dispatch any we found since they were causing tons of damage. I leveled my sights\ and fired a +p JHP round into the animal's forehead. The round deflected off its skull and did tissue damage that made the already angry animal furious

I fired two more shots with my sidearm, initially believing that I had simply pulled my shot, and had similarly negligible effects on the animal. Not wanting it to suffer any further, I reholstered and aimed my .30-06 rifle at the animal and finally killed it. Lesson learned: bring enough gun for all likely threats. 

But even caliber isn’t enough in these cases. Shooters should also pick a load tailored to their needs. Hunting rounds are ideal for both, with a possible hard-case lead round for the pigs and bears to ensure that a hit on bone is effective. 

If a shooter is buying a revolver to defend themselves against two-legged aggressors, then .38 special should be the bare minimum caliber they take. Personally, I like .38 special, but I’m not blind to its shortcomings. After all, a 9mm para round has roughly 50% more energy at the muzzle than a .38 Special. 

Personally, I recommend shooters buy a .357 Magnum and practice with .38 Special rounds to become more proficient. And if we’re talking about deep concealment, I only recommend a snub-nosed .357 Magnum if a shooter has enough time to commit to learning how to shoot it. Arguably, snub-nosed revolvers - especially double-action only (DAO) - are among the most challenging handguns to accurately shoot. 

Lastly, don’t bring too much caliber regarding self or home defense, not just because it will be harder to conceal and more difficult to control, but also because of overpenetration. Rounds like .454 Casull are incredible fight-stoppers since they deliver vastly more energy than even a .44 Magnum. But they don’t ever stop in a human being. A shooter is responsible for every bullet that leaves their gun’s muzzle. If you have to shoot an attacker, you don’t want the round to pass through them and into an innocent bystander. 

In general, shooters should not buy a single-action-only revolver for home or self-defense. Yes, skilled shooters can use guns like this effectively under pressure, but most cannot. If a shooter needs to draw their weapon and fire upon an attacker, they want the most spartan manual of arms possible. 

With both double/single and double-action-only revolvers, a shooter simply needs to align their sights and pull the trigger to fire the weapon. SAO guns need a shooter to cock the hammer back first. This isn’t just more time spent in imminent danger; it’s also much more challenging when adrenaline is pumping through your veins. 

This is because fine motor skills are dramatically diminished when a shooter’s heart is racing (it’s also the reason defensive instructors teach students to whole-hand rack a slide on an auto-loader rather than use the slide release). It would be very easy to accidentally half-cock the hammer or to cock the hammer enough that it falls and detonates a round before a shooter’s sights are aligned during an altercation. This is doubly true if your hands are wet with sweat.

Despite its “Six-Shooter” nickname, many revolvers hold more (and sometimes fewer) than six rounds in the cylinder. A revolver's capacity is determined by two main factors: caliber and use. Caliber is relatively straightforward; If a revolver is chambered in a massive cartridge like .45-70 Gov, it’s very difficult to fit six rounds in a cylinder without making the entire gun enormous. That’s why .22LR revolvers often hold ten rounds in their cylinder, while full-sized .357 Magnum and .38 Special revolvers hold six.

The other determining factor is use. If a revolver is made for concealed carry, the engineers behind the design try to make the gun as small as possible. Guns like my personal S&W J-frame 442 only hold five rounds in a cylinder, making the gun smaller overall. 

Alternatively, tactical revolvers like the S&W TRR8 are made to be open-carried and used by SWAT teams in conjunction with a ballistic shield. As such, they bumped up the capacity to eight rounds in a cylinder since concealability isn’t a concern.

Ultimately, choosing a revolver boils down to determining the needs of a shooter before even beginning their search. Narrowing down the perfect wheel-gun isn’t a complicated process, but one that can get confusing when a shooter confuses needs for wants or tries to shoehorn a gun into a role it’s ill-suited for.