Firearm Forums - Arms Locker banner

Semi-Automatic Pistol vs. Single Action Revolver - Speed Test

433 views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  Kpdpipes 
#1 ·
  • Like
Reactions: BigEd
#3 ·
I'm average at best, on a good day.

we were at an indoor range and I was shooting my S&W 25-5 in .45 (long) Colt. I was deliberately slow firing, evidently one of the range guys thought I was doing it wrong and wanted to do a drill with me. he ran the target out to 15 yds. he said when the target started moving towards me, I should raise the pistol and try to shoot it before it got all the way to me. I put all five rounds center mass, no problem. He turned to me and said - I guess you know what you're doing, have a good day. He left me alone after that.

It wasn't a very difficult drill, I guess you could panic under stress or something. He must have mistaken my slow deliberate fire earlier with a lack of skill or something. I was simply working on muscle memory and training for a good sight picture. I also was not adjusting my point of aim after each shot, something too many people do in my not so humble opinion.

Precision first, accuracy later. if you can put all the rounds to the same spot, moving the spot becomes easy. If you're moving your point of aim to 'fix' a bad shot, you have no idea of what you are doing and will chase your tail all day wasting ammo.

like I said, on a good day I'm average with a pistol - this is my fault, as I don't shoot them often enough anymore.

Revolvers are every bit as deadly as any other hand gun out there - anyone claiming any differently are fools.

Misses don't count, only hits do. Missing quickly with a semi-automatic doesn't do you any favors. First hits count the most.

Now, Semi-autos hold more ammo, are faster (usually) to reload, and you can often fire more rounds in the same amount of time - at least a mere mortal like me can. But that doesn't make revolvers any less deadly. You just have greater margins of error with a semi.

But skill and accuracy trumps everything else. Right now, I have to work on both. :cool:
 
#4 ·
...I also was not adjusting my point of aim after each shot, something too many people do in my not so humble opinion.

Precision first, accuracy later. if you can put all the rounds to the same spot, moving the spot becomes easy. If you're moving your point of aim to 'fix' a bad shot, you have no idea of what you are doing and will chase your tail all day wasting ammo.
I used to be bad about that. I didn't have any actual training for the first 25+ years I was shooting pistols; just what I picked up on my own and from watching others at competitions, and ended up reinforcing some bad habits instead of shedding them. I had a vocal coach one time say, "Practice doesn't make perfect; practice makes permanent. If you practice imperfections, you're making your imperfections permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect."

I eventually learned my lesson, but not nearly as quickly as I should have.

...Revolvers are every bit as deadly as any other hand gun out there - anyone claiming any differently are fools.
+1. I love the claims like a .460 rowland being a wonderpistol, but that a same-diameter bullet from a revolver loaded to the same power is shrugged off by small animals. Neither the bullet nor the target know anything about the launcher. If we hit a game animal or an enemy combatant with a 200-220 grain .45-caliber bullet traveling at 1200-1300 fps, what makes a person think that it makes any difference whether that bullet came from a .45Colt, a .45 super, a .460 rowland or even from a muzzle-loader..? Because any one of those platforms will do that very thing.

...Misses don't count, only hits do. Missing quickly with a semi-automatic doesn't do you any favors. First hits count the most.

...But skill and accuracy trumps everything else.
(y) You would think that would be an obvious thing, but a lot of folks don't seem to get it; or maybe they just won't admit it.
 
#5 ·
Didn't some self proclaimed gun guru back in the early days of the internet come up with the term "missing fast enough to win"? I seem to vaguely remember that.
It does sound like a person that chokes under competition pressure thinks that their misses will be offset by whatever blinding speed they claim or fantasize about.
However in real life shooting incident that could possibly get you killed. And more likely than possible.
 
#6 ·
"missing fast enough to win"?
I ran a 3 gun match about 17-18 years ago where the final segment of a stage was 12 bowling pins at 100 yds. This competitor took to the prone after he grabbed his rifle, fired 12 rounds down range an declared he was out of ammo. Even with his 12 misses he took fastest time over those that actually aimed and engaged the targets. He actually won the match also. Next match there was a 200 second penalty for running out of ammo! At the end of the run after showing the RO that your guns were clear you had to show him at least 1 rd of ammo.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigEd
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top