Dismayed by revolver quality generally, with very few exceptions

[gaijin]

Why? Revolvers are uniquely suited to high degrees of precision for a handgun, and are well suited to handgun hunting. In fact, I’d bet the first optic you saw on a handgun would have been a scoped revolver, back in the day. GIGN even had a scoped Manhurin. I’d say banging steel or murdering feral swine at ~100 yds with unmodified post-40 eyeballs is well within the fun factor of a nicely made .357.

It’s a reversible modification on most revolvers that have adjustable rear sights, such as SP-101, GP100, Blackhawk, Redhawk, and J-Frames on up through the S&W line. I also wish someone would make a plate for a Kimber K6.

Nostalgia isn’t always the way you remember it….when I was a kid, lots of Boomer-gen hunters owned scoped Smiths, and it was normal.

Yes. I believe it was a scope on a Colt Python.
And I had early Burris 2X scopes on a couple of K frame, Davis PPC guns.
Optics inarguably make taking the mechanical precision available from a wheel gun much more effortless or efficient.
I was referring to the “sin” of putting optics on such a classy wheel gun, in jest.

[1168]

Yes. I believe it was a scope on a Colt Python.
And I had early Burris 2X scopes on a couple of K frame, Davis PPC guns.
Optics inarguably make taking the mechanical precision available from a wheel gun much more effortless or efficient.
I was referring to the “sin” of putting optics on such a classy wheel gun, in jest.

I figured you were at least half joking, but it’s still a good discussion that I think gets overlooked by nostalgic purists that may read this later. And yeah, it’s a rather classy gun. I’d not buy a valuable collector’s piece to screw with, but a current one that anyone could pick up at PSA (if they can get the attention of the counter dude), sure why not. It’ll look like ass after a while, anyway.

[kirkland]

If you want a revolver you can beat like a rented mule, you'll probably need a Ruger. I'm saying this as somebody with 80+ revolvers, and I have shot a couple out of time.

About 15 years ago, I wanted to get better with my G19 carry gun. So I got a fairly new Smith 686-5, and shot it in classes. I would be that weird guy with a belt full of speedloaders at the end of the line, and everyone else shooting Glock 19's and 17's. These were two-day classes where we would shoot 700-1000 rounds. I put 13,000 rounds through that pistol in 9 months, all double-action.

S&W sent me a call tag when I explained what I had done, as they wanted to see it. They kept it for a month, and rebuilt it. It runs like a champ again.

My new "forvever" gun is a 3" GP-100 in .38 Special. It runs likes a scalded dog, and has a great trigger courtesy of a friend.

And that advice served me well. If you want to get good with a striker-fired gun, shoot a DA revolver for a year. Wayne Dobbs taught me that, and it worked well for me.

Those old L frames are tough as hell. I have an old 586 that I've simply abused the hell out of. It was already beat up when I got it with who knows how many rounds through it. It's my woods revolver.

[Colt Carson]

I have a 38 S&W J frame (2.5"), a 357 Ruger Blackhawk (6.5") and a 357 Ruger GP100 (6"). No problems with any of them and 100% reliable. The only internal modifications are to the GP100… hammer shims and one step lighter on the trigger return spring and hammer spring. This brought the DA trigger pull to just over 9# and the SA trigger pull to just over 3#. This gun is such a pleasure to shoot that I only shoot it in DA now. Running through 8" steel plates at 25-30 yards is easy. With the full lug barrel and Altamont grip, magnum loads are comfortable to shoot.