Defensive Revolver Fundamentals, 2nd Edition: Protecting Your Life with the All-American Firearm

By Grant Cunningham and Massad Ayoob

Everything you need to know about using a revolver for self-defense.

 

In this new and thoroughly updated guide to self defense with the original defensive firearm, the revolver, Grant Cunningham covers every aspect of owning and shooting the venerable wheelgun.

While sleek semi-auto pistols get the majority of coverage in firearms publications these days, the traditional, easy-to-use and always-reliable revolver is more popular than ever among new gun owners and experienced shooters alike.

Defensive Revolver Fundamentals, 2nd Edition, covers valuable topics that apply to all defensive firearms as well those unique to revolvers. The author makes the case for why the revolver holds some advantages over other types of firearms, and then delves into the considerations that go with concealed carry of revolvers.

Training for real-world self-defense situations, reloading under stress, and shooting drills to improve confidence and accuracy provide are just a few of the topics that help revolver shooters with their proficiency.

This is more than a “gun hardware” book. Cunningham also addresses the realities of the mental aspects of being prepared for a defensive encounter. Understanding how one’s body naturally reacts to a surprise attack, along with new information on avoiding decisional mistakes are invaluable for citizens who carry concealed. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gun Digest Books
• Release date: Jun 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781951115739

Grant Cunningham

Grant Cunningham is a renowned self-defense author, teacher, and internationally known gunsmith (retired). He's the author of The Gun Digest Book of the Revolver, Shooter's Guide to Handguns, Defensive Pistol Fundamentals, and Handgun Training: Practice Drills for Defensive Shooting, and has written articles on shooting, self-defense, training and teaching for many magazines, shooting websites and his blog at grantcunningham.com.

Book preview

Introduction

THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO

WHAT WE TRAIN FOR AND WHY

Those who have chosen to arm themselves, whether in their home or legally on the street, face the prospect that someday, somewhere, they may have to shoot someone in justifiable self-defense.

That’s what this book is about.

As violence expert Rory Miller points out¹, defensive fights are idiosyncratic; no two are alike. A lethal force incident is undoubtedly the pinnacle of all defensive encounters. Still, reason suggests a hierarchy of severity, a scale of danger, which informs our response to it.

For instance, it’s possible to get into a shooting situation knowing that you may have to shoot ahead of time. The loudmouth who accosts you in the parking lot over a disputed space may escalate his actions from simple shouting to an assault with a deadly weapon. You may start with a conciliatory, concessionary posture while simultaneously planning your response should things get worse. In this case, you have some indication ahead of time that you might need to employ your firearm, giving you time to work out the details in your mind. We’re not talking about a lot of time, mind you, but enough to prepare for what might come and be proactive in your readiness to engage your attacker.

This kind of incident — the anticipated fight, or ‘social violence’ — is the easiest kind of incident (if any deadly force situation can be called ‘easy’) to prepare for and is the kind of incident many defensive shooting courses prepare their students to face. It lends itself to assembly-line training and choreographed drills.

The problem is that it also is the least common deadly force encounter that we’re likely to face. Rory Miller contends that attacks happen closer, faster, more suddenly and with more power than most people can understand.²

The best database of private sector self-defense shootings that I know of has been compiled by Tom Givens³, the founder of Rangemaster in Memphis, Tennessee. Tom has had more students involved in verified defensive shootings than anyone else, and he’s taken pains to document every one of them, nearly 70, as I write this second edition.

His work is unusual because the victims he interviews have trained with him previously. Tom is a superb instructor, and it’s safe to assume that his students are more aware and prepared for violence than the average person on the street. Yet they still became victims; the difference between them and the untrained victims common to the rest of Memphis is that Tom’s students were able to fight back and win in all but three cases. And in those three cases, the victims were not armed when they were attacked!

The target shooter’s stance, with artificial alignment and positioning, does not often happen (if it ever does) in a reactive-style defensive shooting.

What might come as an eye-opener to many people is that his students were almost always surprised by their attackers. There wasn’t an overly extended eye contact period where the attacker and their prey were sizing each other up or a protracted testosterone-fueled dance of one-upmanship. The defenders were living their lives and minding their own business one moment, and in the next moment, faced a life-or-death decision. That is how attacks happen, both to Tom’s students and us. Note that I didn’t use the word fight. That word implies a certain level of voluntary participation by both parties. I use the word attack specifically because that’s what happens: one person attacks another, who is forced to escape, defend or capitulate.

Rory Miller contends that attacks happen closer, faster, more suddenly and with more power than most people can understand.

This book is about choosing to defend yourself from a surprise criminal attack. It’s about that very short period, measured in seconds, when you find your life in imminent danger, and lethal force is the correct and necessary response. It’s also the most challenging incident to prepare for and is too rarely discussed in CCW (Carrying a Concealed Weapon) or defensive shooting courses.

Imagine: you’re putting fuel into your vehicle one moment, and the next instant, you suddenly need to shoot someone. The surprise attack is the worst-case scenario we’ll consider throughout this book. We focus on this because the skills necessary to go from zero expectation of lethal force to shooting a second or two later are very different from those needed when you can see the attack coming and can get ready. In its truest sense, this is reactive shooting, and too many trainers routinely ignore it.

WITHOUT WARNING: SKILLS ON DEMAND

If you knew that you were going to need to shoot someone in the next 15 seconds, your brain would have time to decide what it was going to do, which neurons it would fire, and what order to accomplish the task.⁴ Your brain prepares itself.

Your brain and body respond in natural and predictable ways, and those responses — happening as they do without cognitive thought⁵ — will be your first indication that something is wrong. The effectiveness of your response has much to do with how quickly and efficiently you convert those instinctive reactions into effective responses, which is something that you do not need to do when you have an early warning. On the other hand, if you’re attacked without warning or expectation, your brain doesn’t have that time to get ready, to pre-tense muscles and get the body into a learned fighting stance.

Skills applicable for those instances when you have preparation time — getting into the correct stance, holding the gun just so, and finding the perfect sight picture — usually go right out the window when the threat has suddenly appeared in your face. Now you don’t have your preferred shooting stance or the proper grasp on the gun and perhaps can’t even see your sights clearly. What good are those finely honed target-shooting skills when you can’t employ them because the situation has exceeded their utility?

On the other hand, if you practice skills that apply to the surprise attack, skills that work when you don’t have time to get yourself ready, you’ll be prepared to deal with the worst-case scenario. What’s more, those skills will also serve you well in the kind of incident where you do have a little time to see the attack coming and think about your response.

Response to a predatory attack looks nothing like the target shooting or competition stance. That’s because our minds and bodies have evolved reactions to deal with sudden, lethal threats.

THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO

So, this book deals with the worst-case scenario: the unexpected criminal attack. We’ll look at how the mind/body combination reacts to these kinds of events, how to work with those natural reactions and how to train to move from instinctive reactions to learned responses.

We’ll be limiting this book’s scope to the kind of attacks that occur beyond arms’ reach. First, because most attacks happen beyond that distance⁶, and second, the skills needed inside that range are different; they’re more dependent on actions other than immediately shooting. Those within arm’s reach skills are still essential, and I recommend that you take a class in dealing with them. Even so, in most cases, when you’re likely to need to employ your revolver, you’ll be farther away.

Readers of my first book, The Gun Digest Book of the Revolver, will notice many similarities. The first section of this book deals with the hardware: shooting it, carrying it, reloading it and manipulating it. The book you’re now reading, though, is more focused on revolver handling from the defensive point of view. Every aspect of handling the revolver has been evaluated not for how well it works in a shooting contest but for how well it’s likely to work when your hands are shaking and sweating because someone is trying to harm you. I’m interested in the most easily learned, error-resistant methods to protect my life and the lives of my students, and that’s what you’ll find here.

The author teaching a class.

The first section, then, is concerned with operating the revolver. The second section deals with using the revolver to protect your life or the lives of your loved ones.

In nearly a decade since I wrote the first edition of this book, I’ve changed what I teach — simply because we have better information than we did then. Through my own research and others, I’ve gotten a better idea of the needed skills. I’ve also grown as a teacher and have found more straightforward, more accessible ways of accomplishing the necessary tasks.

What you’ll see in this book, then, is what I feel to be the best information available and the best way to make use of it, which exists now. It’s different from a decade ago and will undoubtedly be different a decade in the future because our knowledge changes over time. I hope this book reflects that reality.

Like the first edition, this updated book takes a hard, reality-based stance on training. We can’t ignore or discount what our mind and body do when attacked, so we need to train skills that don’t run counter to those reactions. That’s part of the reality.

Just as before — and as strange as this may sound — such a hard-nosed focus on reality leads us to respect the revolver. We know that revolvers save lives every day and have for about a hundred and fifty years, so any shooting instruction that doesn’t work for a revolver is not based on reality.

One thing hasn’t changed much in the last decade: the revolver is still relegated to beginning-level students in most shooting schools. Some schools supply guns to their newest pupils, and the revolver is often what they issue. As the students advance, they’re allowed (and usually encouraged) to ‘move up to’ an autoloading pistol, thus establishing the notion that only ‘beginners’ use revolvers. After all, the instructor is wearing a custom autoloading pistol — not a lowly revolver.

We know that revolvers save lives every day and have for about a hundred and fifty years, so any shooting instruction that doesn’t work for a revolver is not based on reality.

It’s not unusual to find the more advanced courses reinforcing that attitude and passively discouraging their students from bringing their revolvers. The intimation is that the revolver will have trouble keeping up with the rest of the students. Some are blatant; particular instructors and schools forbid revolvers in anything but beginning classes.

Those who aren’t quite so bigoted often patronize the revolver-equipped students by making their courses ‘revolver neutral’: artificially limiting rounds in a string of fire or requiring that owners of high-capacity autoloaders fill their magazines only partway. The revolver shooter rightly feels that they’re holding the rest of the class back, which is an embarrassing position to be in. It’s also unrealistic training for the autoloader owners, so everyone loses.

ADDITIONAL POINTS TO REMEMBER

An escalating incident takes time, has an aspect of mutual agreement.

Living your life leaves you open to many distractions that an attacker can exploit.

Data show most defensive shootings occur between 3 and 5 yards or beyond arm’s reach.

Most defensive shootings happen outside arm’s reach; closer, and you’ll need a different range of skills.

In most shooting schools, advanced students are encouraged to use autoloading pistols. The author does not agree with or understand that point of view.

The more astute reader will see the intellectual discord: we have a century and a half of history that clearly shows the revolver to be a satisfactory defensive tool in most regards, yet the average defensive shooting school would have us believe that it’s useful only for the least skilled. Something’s wrong with that point of view.

The objective historical evidence says the revolver is a proven defensive tool. To artificially penalize its use in a class devoted to using defensive tools seems untenable to me. If the revolver works in the real world — and it’s obvious that it does — then it should also work in training. If it doesn’t, then the training doesn’t reflect reality.

One thing has changed since the first edition, however. It acknowledges that the revolver is still an efficient and effective choice, putting it through the same curriculum as the autoloader. Yes, the revolver has its limitations; I’ve never shied away from acknowledging that the revolver shooter needs to be aware of those limitations, accept them and train accordingly. All handguns are compromises, and the revolver is hardly an exception. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t practical or is unsuited for self-defense. We know better.

Any course that focuses on realistic training reflecting the circumstances under which you’ll use a handgun will show why the revolver still has value. I’ll go further: I submit to you that any training that doesn’t reflect reality is less likely to be of value when you must shoot in self-defense. In the following pages, I’ll do my very best to focus on reality, not on my own personal prejudices.

SECTION ONE:

REVOLVER OPERATION

1

SAFETY, FIRST AND ALWAYS

Firearms are dangerous things. That’s why we use them to protect ourselves and our loved ones. It’s precisely because of the danger they pose that they make good tools to stop bad people from doing bad things to good people. That is if they’re used properly.

If misused, they can endanger their owner or other innocent people. They can injure, maim or kill others. That’s not what we as conscientious, competent, law-abiding gun owners desire and why we approach all handling of firearms with safety first and foremost in our minds.

Guns always pose the same amount of danger, but the risk (the chance of that danger affecting us) varies. We reduce risk with safety rules and procedures. Those rules and procedures ensure that the benefit of handling or using the gun outweighs the risk.

For instance, shooting a revolver makes an extremely loud sound and poses a very real danger to your hearing. You reduce the chances of that happening (your risk) by wearing quality hearing protection. By doing so, you’ll reduce the risk well below the benefit you’ll get from shooting the gun, whether that benefit is simply recreational or preparation for saving your life.

The benefit of any drill you do or any class you take must outweigh the risk involved.

The gap between the barrel and cylinder in a revolver can allow gases and debris to escape, and poses a potential for injury of shooter or bystanders.

Whether I’m teaching a class or simply handling a gun, I reduce the risk to myself and the people around me by following and enforcing these easy-to-remember rules:

Always keep the muzzle pointed in a generally safe direction.

(A generally safe direction is one where should the gun inadvertently discharge, it will not hurt you or anyone else. This varies depending on the environment and requires that you always think about the safe direction.)

Always keep your trigger finger outside the triggerguard until you are in the act of firing.

(The preferred place is straight along the frame above the trigger.)

Always remember that you are in control of a device that, if used negligently or irresponsibly, can injure or kill.

Firearms are dangerous things. That’s why we use them to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

(This means that you must always think about what your target is, where your bullets will land and all the other things that could result in your gun causing human suffering.)

Safety is your most important responsibility. Reduce your risk and help those around you reduce theirs by teaching these rules. Think about what you’re doing and why whenever you pick up a gun.

SAFETY GEAR

The safety rules apply anytime you handle a firearm — in your home, at a gun show or at the range. Whenever your hand touches a firearm, those rules need to be followed.

Other safety practices apply when you’re shooting. Firing a revolver (or any other gun) presents hazards that need to be mitigated to maintain a safe environment. These hazards apply to vision and hearing.

EYE PROTECTION

To function, the revolver needs space between the cylinder and barrel’s forcing cone. This space allows the cylinder to rotate smoothly without scraping the barrel. This gap is small — measured in thousandths of an inch — but it’s sufficient to allow the cylinder to spin.

Unfortunately, it’s big enough to allow some of the combustion gases, which propel the bullet down the barrel, to escape. Along with those gases often come some combustion by-products, such as carbon particles and pieces of still-burning gun powder. These are expelled from the gap at extreme velocity, and it’s not unusual for them to strike the shooter or close bystanders. Should any of that material be propelled into an eye, damage can result.

For this reason, you should always wear safety glasses when you shoot — especially when you shoot a revolver. Proper safety glasses should completely cover your eyes and should have side panels to prevent material from making its way around the edges of the glasses. It should go without saying that they need to be impact-rated.

Many people — me included — have impact-rated prescription eyeglasses. Unfortunately, they’re not sufficient protection when shooting. Not only are they not as large as actual safety glasses, but they also don’t have the necessary side panels.

Some years ago, I regularly wore my impact-rated eyeglasses instead of actual safety glasses, especially when I was teaching outside of my home state. Not packing separate glasses gave me one less thing to worry about. On one occasion teaching in Texas, I stood next to a student when he fired. Some material ejected from the cylinder gap and lodged in my right eye. I flushed it out and determined that no severe damage had occurred, but it was a wake-up call for me. These days, whenever I travel to teach, I go to the nearest big-box home improvement store and buy a proper pair of safety glasses to go over my prescription lenses.

ADDITIONAL POINTS TO REMEMBER

We reduce the risk of ear damage by wearing hearing protection to safely train or practice.

Be sure of your target and what’s beyond.

If you buy a used revolver, have a competent gunsmith check the cylinder timing and gap. Excess play here can cause stuff to shoot out to the sides and back at you, creating a dangerous situation for yourself and those around you.

Everyone needs good eye and ear protection gear while around any shooting. This young lady came prepared!

Your eyes are too important to risk. Wear safety glasses whenever you shoot or are around someone who is shooting.

EAR PROTECTION

Firing any gun, even the diminutive .22 caliber, makes an immense amount of noise. That noise can degrade your hearing over time. Hearing loss is cumulative, and it is untreatable. I speak from hard experience.

When I was a kid in the 1960s and ‘70s, no one used hearing protection when shooting. I routinely fired guns without it and was around a lot of gunfire. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s that I started wearing hearing protection regularly, but the damage had already been done. Today, with significant hearing impairment in my right ear, I wish someone had told me to wear hearing protection.

While many people tout the benefits of earplugs — and they’re better than nothing — I still recommend the best earmuffs you can afford. Even cheap ones provide more sound reduction than the best plugs, and high-quality ones are a revelation in quiet.

I strongly recommend electronic muffs for a shooting class or a competitive event. These have microphones on the outside, connected to speakers in the earcups. They allow you to hear conversations and commands, but when a loud noise hits the microphones, the circuitry shuts off for a fraction of a second, preventing damage. The best ones are so good that you scarcely notice you’re wearing them; everything sounds perfectly natural, except your ears are protected from damage.

Of course, hearing protection needs to be worn whenever you’re around gunfire, regardless of who is shooting.

MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS PROTECTED

If you’re taking someone out shooting or to watch a shooting match, they need the same