I picked up a new blued 4" Ruger GP100 in .357 yesterday for a decent price . Was actually happy to find it. Looks like pretty slim pickings these days as far as revolvers go- particularly stainless and particularly Smith and Wesson.
Did I miss something. Is there a production issue? Is it all in my head?
I just think there isn’t the demand for revolvers out there, what with the proliferation of the semi auto. I mean go to your average gun store, what do you see a lot of? Semi auto pistols, whether they be Glocks, M&Ps, Sigs, and lots of 1911s. Some revolvers, but not many. I remember a few years back I got my dad a Ruger GP100 and it took me about four months to source the model I wanted at a price that wasn’t extortion.
Service size revolvers are not popular at the moment and I don’t know when they will be, if ever, again. My LGS has cases of semi-autos and quite a few very small 5 shot revolvers. But only 3-4 medium frame revolvers.
The S&W internal lock didn’t help any with popularity…
+1 for lack of demand. Other than hunting pistols and air frames for CCW, revolvers are becoming as phased out as muzzleloaders. You can’t make a rational argument for buying one over a modern semi-automatic.
I guess what I was more getting at is why can’t I find certain revolvers? All the arguments about them being anachronistic certainly make sense, but I don’t see that as being an issue that will eventually cause them to go away entirely.
They’re fun. They’re cool. They represent a different, albeit less efficient way to put lead downrange. Someone must be buying them.
Baby Boomers with disposable income and internet access drive the market for cool old stuff. A bunch of 65-year-old empty nesters who paid off their mortgages went out and bought up all of the guitars, motorcycles, and cars that they dreamed of having as kids.
In the gun world, they started by snapping up Colt Single Actions and Winchester lever guns 15-20 years ago. Then they got into the various vintage Colt DA guns, then military 1911’s, then anything from WWII, then anything from WWI. Now they’re soaking up K-, L-, and N-frame Smiths. They’ll probably start on Viet Nam-era stuff next.
Check out the S&W forums–almost everyone over there is eligible for Social Security.
Okie John
When the WunderNine took off in the late '80’s, there were still NEW revolvers (companies, lines, calibers, etc.) coming to market in droves. I think the old timers from that era just got older though - and in many cases, have transferred to the Church Triumphant - such that a previously steady market segment (I’m pushing 50 myself) has been “hooked” on semi-autos for 30 years now.
The current crop of LATE Boomers/OLDER Gen X’ers haven’t reached the point of arthritis and general orneriness YET, to demand MORE revolvers. And like all business cycles, it’s cyclical.
Very interesting analysis. Makes me feel kind of old to be jonesing for unnecessary revolvers when I can’t see using them in most realistic situations- besides the range or on cans.
I have a Smith 1.875 inch .357 with a five round capacity that I could imagine carrying in some situations, although a subcompact nine would give you double the capacity for 6 or 7 more ounces of weight.
Someone must be. When they go up for sale, it isn’t for long; unless its at silly prices, well usually.
I rarely see someone else at the range using a double action revolver though. Perhaps its difficult to find appropriate ammunition. Food for the semi-autos is once again common in stores. Revolver fodder is not so easy to find.
Yeah, pistols seem to be the norm. My range kind of sucks no matter what youre shooting. corrugated tin roof makes it louder than most indoor ranges. I took a standard (not vented or ported) .357 six inch once and basically cleared it off firing magnum rounds. That ain’t right!
For most people a mid sized autoloader seems to make more sense. I think a rational argument can be made that a 6-8 shot .357 magnum double action is a better home defense gun that a 15-17 shot safteyless autoloader with ultra-light trigger and heavy slide. But I will lose that argument in the court of public opinion. People like capacity (rational) and like tacticoolery (less rational).
I suspect ultra-light revolvers will go nowhere. They just make more sense (safe) for pocket carry and purse carry than an autoloader unless it too is a heavy double action, which is pretty rare these days. Combat/duty revolvers, their day is done. Sad but true.
"Combat/duty revolvers, their day is done. Sad but true. "
I like revolvers, I have a few. But I think you are right. But are you right because a good combat/duty revolver just can’t do the job [along with the shooter] or because popularity/coolness has passed them by?
I’d dispute that. I pretty much fit the exact demographic you refer to and I and most of my acquaintances of a similar age are scaling back, not acquiring. Refining perhaps, but overall thinning the herd if you will. That’s anecdotal and no doubt your opinion is based upon hard data. I can only offer my limited observation.
Supply and demand. No supply due to no demand.
When the wonder nines came out, revolvers were still popular due to a mix of old thinking and some truisms.
Old thinking was along the lines of “a semi-auto is unreliable and is prone to fail/jam when you need it most” or “inaccurate” Understand back then, that the majority of gun buyers were older and had a mindset based on the experiences of the past that did not keep up with the evolution of the modern semi-auto. Also, semi-autos back then were thought to only be reliable feeding FMJ ball ammo.
Some of the “truisms” had to do with the projectile effectiveness of the day. No one was going to argue a 9mm was as effective as a .357.
Now as those older folks with the older ideas have passed… and newer generations that are buying now have different paradigms, as said before, the day of the duty revolver is dead. Pretty much the real market for revolvers are small ccw or large revolvers geared toward hunting or other specialty shooting. When one considers how much more expensive and heavy the revolver is compared to a pistol, along with the other advantages of capacity and etc, well, there you go.
All that said, the sweetest shooting handgun ever for me was an old Colt Python.
Never owned one but I fired one once. Fit my hand perfectly and the bluing looked about a foot deep. Elegant.
The only revolver I’ve ever shot was a .38 special BUG carried by an off-duty San Francisco SWAT cop. That was an unpleasant experience and cured me of ever wanting to buy a revolver…
Good cheap semi-autos - the epitome of a disruptive technology hitting primetime, and the revolvers had to retreat upmarket. S&W failboated part of that with the locks, so the high end revolver market wound up being collectors more so than shooters (along with LE departments moving to semi-autos). At this point skilled trainers on revolvers are less common than skilled shooters who are used to semi-auto handguns.
Between the G43 and M&P Shield, I agree with GregBell that anybody who actually shoots the things is going to prefer the single stack baby-9’s to an airweight .380… I thought something was wrong with me because I was so amazed at how snappy the 642’s are with a usable social load, my little Shields shoot better than I can run something so diminutive with my hand size, so I can’t really complain… considering that the semi-auto is cheaper, more accurate, and holds more rounds my answer is pretty much right there.
That was very diplomatic.
I’m in the same demographic as you and I’m also scaling back, but I definitely see older guys stocking up on this kind of stuff. That said, I’m not citing hard data, just subjective impression based on eyeballing gun shop inventory for the last 20-odd years. The same thing is happening with vintage Martin, Gibson, and Fender guitars–again, not based on hard data, but on me eyeballing inventory levels for a couple of decades.
Okie John
I enjoy revolvers a lot and take at least one to the range on a weekly basis. I am also a member on the Smith & Wesson forum and more active over there than here and have watched revolver prices skyrocket in the past five to ten years.
S&W revolvers have appreciated in price to a point that younger shooters will have a hard time to justify the price for one. The current plastic semi-autos offer a lot of utility value and fire power in a market that is shifting away from service and target handguns to carry guns.
Even though I am in my mid-fifties I still pursue my little collection of oddball revolvers.
