OK, we have kicked this around several times, but after a conversation with a Concealed Carry Instructor who is a 26 year LEO and combat veteran I have new prospective of concealed carry weapons.
Many tout the automatic pistol, after all John Browning’s invention and the development on the 1911 influenced a lot of us in out opinion of both defensive and offensive weapons. After all it was an effective instrument in WW I, WW II, Korea and even Viet Nam .
The 1911 influence over most of us was such that we all assumed it is the perfect weapon. I think we kind of extend this to modern day automatics too. While of ample power, the 1911 had many drawbacks that are common with most automatics weapons. One problem, the 1911 comes up short when magazine capacity is considered. They are fairly reliable, but still have many problems that limit their capability as a defensive weapon.
Think about the ways an automatic can malfunction and you will see what I mean. The pistol relies on the resistance you give it by keeping your wrist stiff as the slide cycles back and ejects the spent case and load another round into the cylinder. If you limp wrist it, you can end up with a stovepipe malfunction. Most often it is in-experienced shooters that have this problem, but it can happen to anyone when shooting under stress. Let’s say you are surprised by an attacker and get a poor grip when you draw, or you are in a position not common when you fire. As the gun cycles after firing the fresh round jams the one being expended and the gun jams. It is easy to clear this malfunction but the time it takes in a SHTF situation may mean the difference between life and death.
How about a failure to feed, you didn’t jam the magazine completely in and no round was fed into the chamber, or maybe you had a weak magazine spring or bent feed lip. Again, an easy thing to correct with the old “tap-rack-bang,” but you are out of action and at the mercy of the attacker as you attempt to correct the problem.
Last, there is the dreaded double feed malfunction, where the spent round refused to expend and the gun tries to cycle a live round into the chamber. To clear this malfunction, it is a five step process of locking back the slide, extracting the magazine, cycling the slide to clear the chamber, inserting the magazine and again cycling the slide to insert a fresh round into the chamber. Would you have time to do that in a gun fight?
Now I ask you, if you aren’t concerned with ammo capacity and you are choosing a handgun based on reliability, isn’t the revolver your best choice? No doubt in most hands it takes slightly longer to reload a revolver than it does and automatic, but when it comes to reliability, accuracy and trigger pull I would choose the revolver over an automatic for a less experienced shooter or a lady that may not know how to clear a gun in a SHTF situation.
I expect to get a lot argument over some of these comments, but I am convinced that for every malfunction of a revolver, there are at least a thousand malfunctions of an automatic. This is coming from some one that believes the Sig is the best weapon on the market and his weapon of choice for carry.
After my conversation with the instructor I now understand why my ole Grandpa used to say, “Son the cheapest insurance you can but is Smith and Wesson.” His carry gun was a S&W Hand ejector, first model of the 1896 in a .32 Long Colt, it still functions as good today as it did when he carried it.
