Revolver or 9mm, which is the best choice for
you? Which is more reliable? Which is superior? To understand these
questions first we have to understand the differences between the two weapons.
Ask anyone who's ever been in a firefight and they'll tell you that anytime your
weapon is not actively ready to be fired, it's as useless as a brick. As firearms were developed,
militaries quickly ran into the problem of reloading- dead time during which the
weapon was completely useless to its operator except as a club. Reloading was often a long,
complicated affair that had to be carefully executed, or otherwise the weapon wouldn't fire,
or at worst, seriously damage itself and potentially kill its operator.
One of the first practical solutions to the dead time problem was to introduce multi-barreled
weapons, which could all be prepared for firing in advance. These first weapons would allow a use to
fire two or more barrels before having to take cover to undertake a long, complicated reload.
However, the addition of multiple barrels often made weapons even harder to use accurately-
already a challenging proposition until the development of rifling. Nonetheless, designs
continued with weapons being created from Europe to Asia that included revolving barrels around a
central axis. The first design we would begin to recognize as a modern revolver would come in 1548,
a three-barreled matchlock pistol from Venice. The Chinese would create their own 'revolver'
type weapon with a five-barreled musket revolver spear in the late 16th century.
In Germany however, the idea came to gun manufacturers to reduce the weight and complexity
of the weapon by making one simple switch- instead of having multiple revolving barrels,
simply make a multi-chambered cylinder pre-loaded with ammunition that would revolve in place,
lining up with the weapon's single barrel every time it was ready to fire.
This would be the birth of the true revolver, and was revolutionary, allowing for fast,
accurate fire and making for a much less cumbersome weapon. Despite their superior
firepower though, these weapons remained out of most troop's hands, with only wealthy individuals
or elite troops being equipped with them due to the complexity and high cost of manufacturing.
In 1836 American inventor Samuel Colt revolutionized the world of firearms
with his invention of the infamous Colt revolver. While on a sea voyage,
Colt observed sailors using the ship's capstan- a large wheel-like device used to assist sailors in
hauling heavy ropes and cables- and the ratchet and pawl mechanism which was attached to it.
The ratchet allowed the sailors to turn the capstan in one direction, then would fall into
place behind a notch so that if the sailors let go of the capstan, the heavy weight of
the rope or cable wouldn't unwind and turn the capstan backwards, undoing all their hard work.
Samuel Colt got an idea to use a similar device to provide a way for a cylinder to
be rotated automatically by simply cocking the gun's hammer. Prior to this, the cylinder on
a firearm had to be manually rotated, which dramatically slowed rate of fire and forced
a shooter to reacquire their sight picture and proper shooting form. With Colt's revolver, a
shooter could retain their form and reattain their sight picture much faster, as the weapon remained
in general line of sight and all that was needed to prepare it for further firing was the thumb.
Colt's revolver instantly became world famous, with his company setting up machining shops
in the US and England. To this day Colt firearms produced 200 years ago remain as
dependable as on the day they were manufactured. The first revolvers used percussion caps and were
muzzleloaders, with the user pouring black powder into each individual chamber, ramming
a bullet down on top of it, and then placing a percussion cap at the rear of the chamber.
While still a very lengthy, complicated reload process was required to fully ready the weapon
for firing, it allowed several shots at a time, a vast improvement over previous versions. Even
more importantly however was the fact that because the bullets were loaded into the firing cylinder,
and not through the barrel, the barrel could be rifled. In traditional smoothbore weapons
the barrel was not rifled so as to allow a soldier to shove the tight-fitting bullet down the barrel
faster and more easily- it allowed for more expedient reloading, but ultimately led to
terrible accuracy. Revolvers however solved this problem, as the bullet did not have to
be forced down the rifled barrel, and instead was loaded into the rear of it automatically.
Revolvers would get their day in the sun during the American Civil War,
when they were used to devastating effect on the battlefield on both sides of the
conflict. However, by the end of the war a new revolution was already brewing,
building off Samuel Colt's revolver to produce the first truly modern ammunition.
In 1854 French inventor Eugene Lefaucheux developed the Lefaucheux Model 1854,
a revolver which used metallic cartridges instead of traditional loose powder and ball ammunition.
While metallic cartridges had been around since the early 1800s, the Lefauchex 1854 was the
first firearm to utilize a refined version of the cartridge, and make it popular. The adaption of
a metallic cartridge over powder and ball led to even greater accuracy, fewer malfunctions,
and exponentially faster reloads. By carrying the powder necessary for ignition inside its
own cartridge along with the bullet, metallic cartridges allowed for extremely fast reloads.
Revolvers remained largely single-action affairs until the Europeans began building double-action
weapons in the late 19th century. A double-action weapon allowed the user to both cock the hammer
and fire the weapon with a single trigger pull, while a single-action weapon still required
manual cocking of the hammer before firing of the weapon. Traditionally, firefights are games of
inches and seconds, and double-action weapons quickly became preferable to single-action.
Being left behind by European manufacturers, in 1889 Colt introduced the Model 1889,
the first modern double-action revolver. The 1889 featured a swing-out cylinder as opposed
to a top-break or side-loading cylinder. While top-break cylinders allowed for the
ejection of all empty shells simultaneously, and exposed all chambers for fast reloading,
it also necessitated the gun's frame being hinged into two halves, weakening it.
Over repeated firings the stress the weapon endured would end up warping the frame given
its weakness and negatively affecting accuracy. Side-loading cylinders avoided this problem,
but forced the user to eject and reload one single chamber at a time. The swing-out cylinder however
took the best features from both designs to produce a winner still used to this day.
As the revolver was being refined, the roots for what would become the semi-automatic pistol were
being laid down. In 1883, Hiram Maxim introduced a recoil-powered machine gun, made possible by
metallic cartridges. Before this machine guns were powered by manual energy, with the infamous Gatlin
gun requiring a hand crank to load a round for fire, work the firing mechanism, extract the spent
cartridge, and load a new one in. Maxim's weapon harnessed the recoil energy of the firing itself
to achieve the same process, making firing faster and requiring fewer crew to operate.
Maxim immediately brought this idea to the world of handguns, but due to the smaller
amounts of energy involved, the weapons never proved practical and were prone to malfunction.
Soon though gun manufacturers turned to harnessing the energy of the explosive gases involved in the
firing process, resulting in the world's first semi-automatic pistol, the Salvator Dormus. This
weapon harnessed the rapidly expanding gases from the burning propellant to reload the weapon with
a fresh round as it fired. The effect was nearly instantaneous, as new semi-automatic
pistols offered even faster rates of fire than revolvers. The real revolution however was in
the fact that semi-automatic pistols were not limited in their capacity by the number
of cylinders they could accommodate, but rather by the practical size of the magazine attached to it.
This allowed semi-automatic weapons to double or even triple their capacity versus the revolver.
Early pistols however were prone to misfires and stoppages,
given that they were mechanically more complex pieces of machinery
than the relatively simple revolver. It wouldn't be until almost the 20th century
that pistols would become commercially successful, with Hugo Borchardt's C-93,
which utilized a 7.65mm cartridge. Despite being the first truly mechanically reliable pistol,
the weapon was very large and bulky, making it impractical for battlefield use- however,
some saw use after modification with a screw-on wooden stock, turning them into pistol carbines.
In 1896, Paul Mauser introduced the C96 Mauser, which would become the first commercially
successful pistol to be used in a wide capacity at war. With a magazine holding up to 20 rounds
and a 7.63 cartridge, the Mauser was used extensively in the South Africa War of 1899-1902.
In 1896, American gunsmith John Browning would find success working with the Belgian
firm of Fabrique Nationale. His Browning M1900 featured the first use of a slide,
but it was his Colt M1911 that would see his name become legend,
with the development of a weapon still used by many modern militaries today.
It wouldn't be until World War II that the pistol would begin to overtake the revolver
in popularity however. While revolvers were still being issued en-masse, militaries
around the world were starting to prefer the greater capacity and firing rate of the pistol,
with Germany designing the Walther P38, a double-action pistol that could be carried loaded
and ready to fire without the risk of accidental discharge. As handguns increased in popularity,
revolvers themselves were changed so that both weapons could use the same cartridges.
Today, nearly every military and police department
in the world has made semi-automatic pistols standards over revolvers.
So which is better?
The question is a nuanced one, and personal preference as well as expected use all play
a part. Revolvers are generally heavier than pistols, which can make them more
exhausting to carry for battlefield troops already loaded down with nearly a hundred
pounds of armor, ammunition, equipment, and batteries- if you've never been there,
believe us, but every pound counts. However, the added mass makes the weapon more stable,
and helps to absorb the recoil which can help minimize loss of sight picture when firing. A
pistol by comparison is far more lightweight, often made with lightweight alloys and even
some plastic parts. This makes the weapon more prone to being 'bucked' when firing,
but also makes it much more comfortable to carry for long amounts of time.
Revolvers typically feature a much heavier trigger pull than pistols, which can make
them more difficult to use for weaker or less-trained individuals. A pistol's light
trigger pull can be much more comfortable for most individuals, and helps to increase accuracy.
Where the revolver shines however is in ease of use. Operating a revolver is as simple as
opening the cylinder, loading ammunition, closing the cylinder, and squeezing the trigger. Pistols
have the added complexity of racking a slide after loading a magazine in, a step that can be lethal
for a shooter in a high-stress situation who may, in the panic of a firefight, forget to do it if
they are not already carrying the weapon with a round chambered. It may seem like a silly mistake,
but high-stress, lethal situations can make momentary dummies out of even the
most well-trained individual. A revolver's ability to be immediately fired can also be an advantage,
with most pistols not being carried “cocked and loaded” for safety's sake.
Revolvers however are outgunned- pun intended- in two key areas. The first is capacity- a revolver
is typically limited to six or seven rounds, with most pistols giving the option of at least
fifteen. This means a pistol user has over twice the firing capacity of a revolver user before
needing a reload, which even if your only firearms experience is playing Call of Duty, is a fact that
even the most novice shooter can immediately appreciate. Revolvers are also keenly outmatched
when it comes to the reload. Reloading a revolver requires an individual to completely disengage
their target, and turn their full attention to the act of reloading. While speed-loaders exist to
circumvent the issue of manually reloading each chamber, a user is still forced to turn their
attention almost fully to the act of reloading. A pistol on the other hand features extremely quick
and easy reloading, with experienced shooters learning to reload on the fly while never
taking their eyes off their target- an absolutely life-saving advantage the revolver can't match.
Pistols are more complex machines than revolvers, and this can leave
them vulnerable to misfires or stoppages, but with well-manufactured modern firearms,
the rate of incidence between the two types of weapons is nearly negligible.