Concealed Carry of Firearms - Revolver or Pistol?

If you are considering a sidarm for self-defense one of the important considerations will be whether a revolver or semi-automatic pistol will work best for you. Neither is perfect and they each have their supporters and detractors. I carry a pistol most of the time but do occasionally carry a revolver . I’ll cover the pros and cons of each in this article and help you start to narrow your choices.

• Easy to operate.
• Relatively safe due to the long, heavy trigger pull required.
• Reliable.
• Easy to clean and maintain.
• Available in more powerful calibers than a pistol.
• Not finicky about bullet shape.

• More difficult to shoot accurately due to the long heavy trigger pull.
• They’re wider and bulkier which requires more effort to conceal effectively.
• Generally carry fewer rounds than a pistol.
• Slower to reload than a pistol.
• If a malfunction does occur, it’s usually very difficult and time consuming to clear it and get it back into operation. It may even require a visit to a gunsmith.

Easier to shoot accurately due to the shorter, lighter trigger pull. (Generally this is true. A friend let me shoot his striker-fired pistol that had such a heavy, stiff trigger pull that I felt a blister forming on my trigger finger after shooting one full magazine.)

• Thinner and therefore easier to conceal.
• Generally carries more rounds.
• Quick and easy to reload.
• Malfunctions are usually easy and quick to clear.

• More complex to operate.
• Racking the slide requires an amount of hand strength that some people don’t have.
• Magazines can be difficult to load. There are accessories however to make this easier.
• More difficult to clean.
• Uses less powerful calibers.
• Some may not reliably feed certain bullet shapes such as semi-wadcutters or hollowpoints.
• Requires more maintenance; mainly recoil and magazine springs, and lubrication. All guns need proper lube but a revolver will operate without oil better than will a pistol.
• Requires more attention to operate safely due to the short and usually light trigger pull compared to a double action trigger pull.
• Some semi-autos don’t have a manual safety and that requires extra attention to avoid a negligent discharge.
• Some have a manual safety but that requires extra attention to ensure that it’s being used when required.

Excuse me while I digress. I feel that now is a good time to talk about reliability. I intentionally left reliability out of the pistol pros and cons. Semi-auto pistols still carry the stigma that they are not as reliable as revolvers; and at one time this was true. A good quality, well designed pistol of today however is extremely reliable. The pistol that is now my primary carry has a couple thousand rounds through it of factory loads and hand loads, and has zero malfunctions. With a quality semi-auto pistol, the difference in reliability between it and a revolver is about nil. Try to find a cop that carries a revolver. They’re few and far between.

It’s important to recognize that any mechanical device can fail. If you believe that it can’t fail, you won’t know what to do when it does because you haven’t prepared for it. I’ve talked to people that swear by revolvers because they claim that revolvers do not malfunction. That’s not true, they can fail, they do fail, and they have failed. And like I stated above, a malfunction in a revolver is usually not something you can fix by yourself, under pressure, and in a hurry. This is where backup guns enter into the equation regardless of whether your primary carry is a revolver or pistol.

In addition, both pistols and revolvers can be disabled intentionally or unintentionally by an attacker. If someone grabs the cylinder of a revolver, it cannot be fired unless the hammer was cocked beforehand. If someone grabs the slide of a pistol and moves it backwards slightly, which is called “out of battery”, it will not fire.

The pros and cons are a start but they don’t tell the whole story. Let’s go a little further. Some other considerations are:

• What is your budget? I would trust a cheap revolver more than I’d trust a cheap pistol.
• Will this sidearm be for concealed carry, car carry, or home defense only? For home defense or car carry a revolver is fine as concealability is not a factor.
• How do you plan to carry your sidearm gun? Ankle or pocket carry, purse, inside or outside the waistband holster, shoulder holster, etc. Men generally have more options in this area due to the differences in men’s and women’s attire.
• Your hand size and strength. Can you easily reach the trigger and controls? Are you able to rack the slide and remove and insert magazines easily? Are you able to load the magazine? Revolvers require very little effort and strength to load and unload.
• How much time, effort, and money are you willing to put into training? If your answer is, “Not much.”, then a revolver is probably the better choice due to its simplicity.
• How much will you be able to practice? Again, if your answer is, “Not much.”, then a revolver is probably the better choice due to its simplicity.

Well I hope that gives you some things to consider. If you're having trouble deciding, don't worry, that's normal and we all go through it. Consider your daily habits and attire when trying to decide and you stand a better chance of making the right decision the first time.

And if you don't make the proper purchase the first time don't worry. We all go through that too. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries before you find "the one". My XD-40 was my second attempt at a sidarm and it turned out to be "The One".