Five years ago today, a man who had become a brother to me, passed away.
His contribution to the training community was unique, and even years down the road no one has been able to take his place. My other brothers by choice – Craig Douglas, Chris Fry, Larry Lindenman, and Paul Sharp – and myself decided we were not going to let his work disappear. I had a bit more time than they did so I started gathering every bit of information William had put out and to find a place to put it. Rob Pincus generously and without any conditions offered to host the tribute page for free so everyone would be able to still learn from the amazing things William taught. I am forever in Rob’s debt for doing that. He did not have to, but being a good friend himself of William’s, he knew it had to be done. Rob also put up on the page two entire DVDs of William lecturing that he had been selling. He could have continued making money off of them, but instead acted for the greater good and the memory of his friend.
I spent weeks skimming the web, and everyone who had done an article, podcast, or interview with William gave their blessing to use those materials, and some people went out of their way to dig up links to give me. I can’t even name them all know, but I think I thanked them on the tribute page, and I’m even more grateful to them five years later.
I hope everyone goes to the following link and bookmarks it so William’s work lives on.
I could not do anything to keep William here, but I will be damned if I let his memory fade.
Over the past couple of decades revolver shooting has basically fallen out of favor with most in the mainstream self-preservation-oriented gun community. Since the mid-90s the polymer Striker Fired 9mm pistol has reigned supreme and most everyone who have started shooting after that has most likely had little to no experience with revolvers.
The problem arises when people newer to the community begin to comment on things they don’t have much firsthand experience with. Just as if someone who has only driven automatic transmission cars would be at a great loss if they suddenly were confronted with the manual transmission vehicle, so too is someone who only understands semi-auto pistols trying to wrap their head around the handling and operations of a wheel gun. When your entire training, experience, and knowledge of revolvers comes from a single half-day in a single training class, you really need to keep your thoughts to yourself about the efficacy of wheelguns. You quite literally don’t know what you don’t know.
Too often people try to talk about the pros and cons of revolvers without really knowing what those pros and cons actually are, and the nuanced understanding that only comes from a depth and breadth of experience and knowledge.
A shining example of how little knowledge these people possess is their criticism they throw towards revolvers as firearms that are harder to shoot than a typical polymer Wondernine. That is actually not completely the case. There are ways to make revolvers easy to shoot with very little time, effort or money. Quite possibly the single biggest advantage to making a revolver easier to shoot, and one in which it is totally superior to all semi-auto pistols, is that in the grips.
Many modern pistols have minor tweaks that can be made to the grip. For example, a lot of them come with interchangeable back straps and a very tiny few of them come with interchangeable grip panels. However even with that there is a very, very finite level of adjustability that the end user can do. Any more that’s needed to really fit the hand requires major work at the level of an experienced gunsmith which then requires a lot of time away from the owner, a great deal of money, and the inordinate hassle in sending it off.
Revolvers on the other hand can be easily adjusted to fit anyone’s hand, and that adjustment can be done by the end user essentially using a screwdriver and a few minutes worth of work. The revolver never has to be sent away, nor do they require a long period of time for the gunsmith to do the work.Most major revolvers have a huge aftermarket with an incredible number of options in which nearly any revolver can be made to fit anyone’s hand or for their particular context. Grip manufacturers like Hogue, Pachymar, Altamont, Badger, Etc. offer wood, G10, or rubber grips and almost any possible configuration that an end user could want. And all of them can be installed with a screwdriver and less than 5 minutes worth of work. Furthermore, unless you desire a particularly rare wood almost all grips are under $100 with most of them being under $50.
None of that is true for any semi-auto pistol on the market today. I as the end user can configure my revolver to fit me exactly how I need it in nearly the blink of an eye. So the next time you hear someone comment online or in an article how revolvers are tough to shoot, understand that they most likely have a limited knowledge base, probably don’t know the nuances of running or carrying a revolver, and are probably not the people to talk to about wheel guns. Instead take an extra minute or two to find the true subject matter experts like Wayne Dobbs, Chuck Haggard, Tom Givens and a small handful of others. Get their thoughts on running a revolver and follow their suggestions. And ignore the YouTube Influencers who have zero time in understanding the subject.
