Whenever we talk about concealment of a firearm, It almost always involves straight numbers. For example, Gun X is so many inches tall, so many inches thick, the barrel is so many inches long. And we tend to compare guns by stacking them on top of each other while saying “look! they’re the same” or “look how much one is less than the other”.

This makes sense on a very surface level. It’s easy to wrap our head around simple mathematical numbers.We look at an overall footprint and break it down by height, width, length.This is easy to understand and it’s an easy way to compare different things. And it certainly is much easier to write about! Concrete numbers Are always simpler and easier to grasp.

The problem with concealment is that there are other factors than the straight numbers that we must take into account. We start to move away from math and into the much more difficult and complex (and hated!) world of geometry.

This is why comparing semi auto pistols and revolvers with straight math Is very disingenuous.Their construction and shapes are different from the other, And these different shapes interact with the human body differently. 

Here is the simplest way to understand this. All semi-autos are built around hard right angles (slide to frame). Try to think of any semi-auto pistol that has even been built that could conceivably be concealed on an everyday basis that does not fit into this paradigm. It is not possible. For the action to work, it has to have that hard angle. 

The problem is that outside of the shoulder joint, there are no hard right angles on the human body. Remember the old children’s toy where you put different shapes into different cutouts? That is what it is like to match a hard right angle object to the roundness of someone’s anatomy. That match, like the child’s toy, is far more likely to stick out because the two geometric patterns do not mesh. 

Contrast that with the lines of a revolver. With any wheelgun that has a three inch barrel or less, there are almost no long right angles. They are made up of nothing but general curves (with minimal straight lines or edges that have little impact on concealment). And geometry says curves match curves. 

In other words, if you take a revolver and a semi-auto that have the same overall dimensions, the revolver is going to have an edge in concealment. It is going to be easier to match the round of the wheelgun to the round of the human body, especially when the body is in movement. 

To be very clear, this may very well be in specific instances only a slight difference between a pistol and a similar size revolver, but it WILL be there. Geometry does not lie. 

By the way, this is one of the biggest misconceptions in the gun world about concealment. People love to take still photos of themselves in front of a mirror to show how well their gun is concealed. This is only a tiny part of it. It is easy to make sure the folds and lines of your clothes are in the right place when there is no motion and you can stand up tall. Moving, in any way, immediately changes everything. I once had lunch with a YouTube “influencer” and who is one of those who love to take the mirror pics. He had no idea that as he sat there eating his salad, the butt of his pistol was poking up and away from his body and his shirt protruded out almost an inch. He never even knew. I could not say anything because we were surrounded at every table by people who were too close, and he did not pick up my eye and head movement signals. He was no doubt convinced he had perfect concealment when the truth was he was close to shouting to the world he was carrying. The hard 45 degree angle of the rear butt could not match the curve of his torso. He would have been far better served by having a curved revolver stock. 

Those who have not taken the time to even try to understand the world of the wheelgun will never realize this. That is why when they speak about such matters, smart people don’t listen.