It cannot be argued by anyone that one of the strongest features a revolver has going for it is the simplicity of its manual of operations. Here is the almost 100% totality of it for any modern double action revolver made in the last 70 years : 

1. Press release on side of frame and open cylinder
2. Put ammo in any open holes in cylinder
3. Close cylinder 
4. Fire
5. Repeat any time there is a click instead of a bang

That is it. That takes care of administrative loading, unloading for cleaning or storage, reloading under stress, or taking care of almost all stoppages. The only stoppage of fire these actions won’t fix for the most part are catastrophic mechanical failure or total ammo failure, either of which will put any modern semi-auto pistol out of action just as hard and for about as long. 

For the person new to firearms, or the person who understands and accepts the need for a gun for self-defense but is not going to go down the rabbit hole of the typical gun hobbyist, this is an extremely powerful plus in the wheelgun’s favor.

Some people will argue that the operations of a semi-auto pistol, while more complex than any DA revolver, is no more complex than many daily actions almost all of us will have to do in a modern information society. And that argument would be correct. Trying to write an email with multiple attachments, downloading a file from somewhere online and making sure it goes to the correct spot on your computer, or setting up a new tablet or e-book reader can involve more difficult and complex actions than running a Glock. 

Here is the fatal flaw in that logic train though: those other things that are more complex? We CHOOSE to devote the metal parking space and the effort to create the space. It is a conscious decision that we make wherein we know that it is worth the extra work to do so, and that we will gain much from it. So it is worthwhile. The person who looks at the gun as a necessary item, but does not want to become a dedicated hobbyist/enthusiast is not going to make that same decision. 

Now, I can hear all the gun community people. Who have made a concentrated decision to focus an inordinate amount of their time, life, money, and focus will say that if you don’t copy them, then you are not serious about self-preservation. 

This sounds awesome, and makes us feel super cool about our choice to go down the gun rabbit hole. It is also self-serving and massively hypocritical. 

Don’t agree with me? Let me present this logically. Anyone who is not a professional gunbearer is far more likely, on a huge order of magnitude, to face many more pressing needs than shooting in self-defense. You are massively more likely to need some kind of medical intervention like CPR, stop the bleed, using an AED machine, or knowing what to do in a drowning situation. Right now, be honest. How many of you can operate an AED machine without fail, cold, on demand? I know how few, because I have asked people. Do you know all the likely signs of a stroke? And how to react if you do recognize it in a loved one? Again, I know most gun people do not because I will ask in person such as at Conferences. 

And for those who will ignore this and bleat endlessly about how people should take their safety into their own hands, let me ask this. When was the last time you practiced using a fire extinguisher? Again, like medical, you are so much more likely to need to use a fire extinguisher than you will burn some bad guy down with your wonderblaster. 

Darryl Bolke from American Fighting Revolver, the noted instructor and the person who more than any other single person has driven the renewed interest in running a revolver for self-defense has made this point brilliantly about how we pay no attention to fire extinguishers. Who daily checks firefighter Facebook pages? Who constantly posts on Firefighter discussion forums? Who subscribes to multiple firefighter gear sites and buys the latest cool stuff? How many people post videos online showing the fire extinguisher Bill Drill times? 

We all know the answer to that with people in the gun community. ZERO. And yet, I can show with numbers and facts that those things are more useful than a subsecond draw. So please don’t trot out the tired line that if you don’t shoot 500 rounds a week, and stay up on the latest gun gear, and have thousands of hours of “gun school” that you are not serious about self-preservation. The majority of gunowners will treat their firearm the exact same way all gun people treat their fire extinguisher – as potentially life saving equipment that we want at hand but are not going to make their lives revolve around it. And there is nothing wrong with that. AS long as they have a basic handle on safety and use, they are on our side and should be celebrated as such. Not insulted. 

Revolvers are a godsend to the average Earth person – it allows them the ability to defend themselves without forcing them to go to abnormal lengths to do so. And isn’t that what is most important? The more people buying guns, having them for self-protection, and supporting our right to self-defense, the better. And if wheelguns make that more palatable, then it is a win for everyone. 

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.

I am going to begin a multi-part series about the positives of using revolvers for self-preservation in the EveryDay Carry role. 

To start with, it WILL NOT be how revolvers are better than semi-autos! Firearms for Self-defense is not a zero-sum game. Just because I will point out areas and features that revolvers have that make them eminently useful for EDC, does not mean that semi-autos suck. Hopefully, the readers of my blog have a higher level of critical thinking than is exhibited by too many in the gun community and everyone will understand that I am just pointing out some unique things that may be nice for some people’s contexts. It does not mean at any time that I am saying everyone must slavishly copy me and carry like I do. Make informed and thoughtful choices and see what works best for you in your life. All I am doing is giving more information that many people have never heard of that may be helpful. This series in no way will ever say that revolvers trump semi-autos. Unlike far too many “YouTube Influencers”, I am more mature than that. 

Secondly, it won’t be all at once. If other things come up that I want to write or make videos about – such as my attempt to make every Wednesday book recommendation day. Once they are all done, I will collect them all together and make it easy to review down the road, but please bear with me as I go. There is a lot of nuance to cover and it does not lend itself to quick bites. 

Third, there are two separate roles for revolvers, and this needs to be understood before we get rolling. There is the standard EDC carry where any duty size gun can be used, and then there is the deeper carry where concealment must be maximized. This is the place where the snub revolver fits in. So let’s remember to keep the two areas apart in our heads as you read the series. 

I am hoping I can get the first part out on Friday. I hope you all tune in.

Those of us who teach Integrated H2H and weapons are used to certain tropes that keep getting trotted out to try to diminish or dismiss what we do.

Probably the dumbest is ”if you are rolling around on the ground grappling then things have gone wrong!” This is said in a way to suggest you don’t need grappling or that those of us who teach it are somehow teaching to always voluntarily go to the ground! Which, as anyone who has trained with us can tell you is as far away from the truth as possible.

But more importantly in regards to that moronic quote cited above is that it expresses the idea that grappling is always a choice. The reality is quite different. You know what is a far bigger indication that things have gone wrong? That you are fighting for your life in the first place! Regardless of on the ground, standing up, or at extended ranges, it sucks. And thinking that you can’t control being assaulted, but you can control where it goes is the height of stupidity.

Just think and don’t pass on idiot cliches.

Sadly, far too many people in the gun training community – especially instructors with less than 10 years of experience – tend to not know history. It is too bad, because there is so much to learn and do many ways to not waste time repeating old mistakes if we only took a bit of time to see what came before.

A case in point is Louis Awerbuck’s seminal book “More Tactical Reality”. It is the sequel to an earlier book of his, and this one is made up of a number of his columns that appeared it SWAT magazine. Most of the chapters in the book were published before 2002 and there are tons of exaplmes of him thinking ahead of the standard group think in the training community back then. Take a look at some of these samples:

Do yourself a favor and go find a copy. You can thank me later. I give the book 8 .45acp rounds (out of 10) as a rating.

Some of you out there may have noticed a great deal of lagging on my part for keeping this blog up to date. I have to plead guilty. 

In some small part it is due to opening my own BJJ Academy and making sure it is running well. Which it is, and is giving me great joy in being to spend at least six, and sometimes seven days a week on the mats teaching and training as my full time vocation. 

A large part is due to a family medical situation that has been going on for the past nine months and has turned me into a full time caregiver/housekeeper/laundry man/cook/everything else person, and that has been far more important than blogging. 

But it is also due in some measure to the fact that I am somewhat tired of social media and all the negatives that go along with that. I have gone weeks without looking at Facebook or Instagram, or looking at comments on my posts here, and my sanity and blood pressure is much better during those periods. It is extremely nice to not have to hear about how prominent YouTubers are talking crap behind my back (because they don’t have the testicals to do it to my face even though I am very easy to find), and how others on social media have an infantile need to attack others. There were days I even managed to avoid the national news media, and strangely enough, I did not suffer any ill effects! 

However, as my caregiver needs are becoming less demanding, I will get back to wading back into the occasional sewer waters of social media and I will try to get back to a regular posting schedule. I am going to shoot for a minimum of two a week, but don’t hold me to that! That is just a starting target. 

Thanks to everyone for still wanting to hear my blatherings. 

I am pumped to head back to the PNW. I have been teaching up there since around 2009 and there is a great group of students who are truly focused on working hard. It is also a great place to get your initiation into the world of the entangled fight without being thrown into Fight Club. We will be inside a great BJJ academy so we are free from any incliment weather no matter what, so this is a perfect place and time to to take the plunge into the H2H in a Weapon Based Environment world, or if you have trained before. Come join us!

Contrary to popular belief, many empty-handed fights and those involving weapons end up entangled, either standing or on the ground. No amount of pontificating or self-proclaimed “expert” posturing will change this simple fact. If you ignore this reality, you may very well find yourself in a situation you cannot handle with disastrous consequences.

This course is designed to give the layman a realistic and functional set of concepts, techniques, methodologies, training drills and experiences that will prepare them for a worst-case grappling scenario. All techniques and concepts are high percentile applications which span a wide spectrum of confrontations.

Training consists of presentation, drilling and Force-On-Force evolutions providing attendees with immediate feedback regarding the efficacy of the skills learned, all delivered in a professional, ego free manner.

The goal of this course is not to create a “ground fighter” or grappler. The objective is to provide attendees who have limited training time and resources with solid ground survival and escape fundamentals geared toward the increasingly violent weapon-based environments they may live, work and/or travel within. And all techniques/concepts are from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, and Boxing and are combat proven over the past 80 years by thousands and thousands of practitioners, including the U.S. Army.

These methods are for everyone regardless of physical condition – young, old, male, female, athlete or not – You DO NOT have to be a professional fighter to perform at a functional level. This will be a class about physical training, but it is NOT boot camp. Participants may go at the pace that is comfortable for them, while trying to push the envelope of their own individual performance.

Requirements: loose, comfortable but durable clothes, mouthpiece, cup, notebook, and an open mind. Boxing or MMA gloves are strongly encouraged but are not mandatory. Blue Guns and matched holsters, and training knives are a good idea, but there will be loaners available.

Surviving/defending/escaping the bottom

Getting back to your feet / staying upright

Defending against strikes on the ground or clinch

Denying the attacker weapon access – understanding technique, positional hierarchy, and timing

Proper role of “dirty tactics”

Multiple opponents

Essential training principles, methods, and drills

Underlying concepts and mindset for the clinch in a self-defense context

Dealing with the sucker punch/ambush

Fundamentals of the clinch

Controlling the entanglement

Disengaging and making distance for escape, weapons access or orientation reset

Performance coaching and troubleshooting

Structuring and balancing your training for a real world lifestyle

Use the code “DEPOSIT” to sign up for 50% (you can the balance the week of the class).

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/immediate-action-combatives-seminar-lacey-wa-may-17-19-2024-tickets-859120882687?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1WcAXiIUf0Z8oKFQ5Vj0M_F2oBFscxQztPcPnTBn8dLz5AeEjURUiXJMU_aem_AU4f8dOpM74C-mHfVSuklb1jRoh07qv1Qi-863ZxLcVrFAB-CKyB3DQkEBFD1dprodWC7TDSNEBp6AcT–_XMLGZ

In the previous part of this series where we discuss the role physical fitness plays in self-defense, we looked at how common it is that fights last more than a couple of seconds, and that thinking you will be fine in a violent encounter without the ability to walk across a parking lot without having a heart attack may lead to bad outcomes

Today, we will look at the single best reason to have a modicum of physical fitness for self defense. Take a look at the following picture:

It is a snapshot of a recent incident where LE had to interact with someone who was hostile. I couldn’t find a good video of the incident (you can find it on the IG page of BJJ black belt Tom Deblass), but the pic works. The suspect is telling the cops to come at him. One of the cops says “he has cauliflower ears. I’m not getting close”. 

For those outside the grappling world, cauliflower ears are a condition where your ears have been so badly mangled that they have been compressed in on itself. It generally stems from a lot of heavy duty grappling against big and tough people. You earn cauliflower ears the hard way. For those who know, they are a mark that the person with them probably can fight, and fight really well. 

So the cops recognized the sign, and rather than blindly wade in and most likely get beaten up, they all kept their distance and were ready to use ranged weapons like a Taser or a gun rather than go hands on with this dude. 

What does that have to do with our subject concept today? Everything. The fight with the suspect and cops did not happen because the cops understood the signal and made a choice to go in a different route. Criminals do the same thing. 

There have been many, many studies on this, and all the data supports each other. When incarcerated criminals are given random pictures of people walking on the street, and ask which of those they would victimize, it is essentially 100% accurate in what any of the criminals choose. By seeing someone, they instantly know who would be a good victim (i.e. an easy mark) vs who would not be. If you look like prey, you will be treated as prey. 

The SINGLE BEST WAY TO SURVIVE A VIOLENT CRIMINAL ASSAULT is that you don’t get into one. Period. There is no argument to be made against that. You win every fight you don’t get in. So if we can avoid the situation entirely, it does not matter how good a fighter we are, how good a shooter, what kind of gear we have on. All of that is superfluous if we never get picked as a victim by any bad guy anywhere.

And the SINGLE BEST WAY TO GET DESELECTED AS A VICTIM BY ANY BAD GUY IS TO NOT LOOK LIKE A VICTIM. Again, simple and elementary to understand this. Don’t look like an easy victim and most bad guys will find someone else to victimize. We all understand this. We make quick slice snapshots of people we meet every day, and we make those calculations constantly – “man, that guy looks tough”, or “wow, that guy looks like if someone sneezed he would be knocked over”. Why would criminals, who do this all the time because it is their chosen vocation, not be making the same decisions? All of us know that that fat guy, moving down the sidewalk really slowly and wheezing does not scare anyone. Why would he scare off a violent criminal actor who most likely has already experienced massive violence in his life? The VCA will not only NOT be scared, he will be encouraged to go after that guy, because he knows it is an easy pick. 

And again, it is simple to understand who looks more like prey. Can anyone argue that someone morbidly obese, who is waddling down the street because they are so physically out of shape, and their feet have rotated outward (one of the most common effects of poor physical condition and something that bad guys will look for), is going to be deselected because a bad guy is worried?

NOT

ON

YOUR

LIFE

 And it may very well be your life. So choose wisely. If you are not willing to do a bit of work and make yourself look less like a victim, then you better be hoping that luck follows you around, because that is the only way you are going to come out okay. 

Choose wisely in how you conduct yourself, how you live your life, and most importantly, who you listen to. Because if someone is telling you it’s okay to look like a victim, they do not have your best interest at heart, and they are only caring about their own internal rationalization to support their personal sloth and laziness.