Gun Digest Book of the Revolver, by Grant Cunningham

While most of you know I chose a Glock for my daily carry gun and am a long-time devotee to the first handgun I ever shot, the 1911 pistol, the first handgun I owned was a revolver. For several years that big S&W 686 was my only handgun and it saw use as a daily carry piece, a competition piece and pretty much everything else you would want a handgun for. Most of the rounds it has sent down range have been in competition some even against a national award winning, accordion playing competitor. I got beat soundly by him, but I learned a lot from him so it was a fair trade.

After 29 years of owning, modifying and shooting revolvers one would think they would know all there is to know about revolvers. They would also be woefully wrong. I picked up Mr. Cunningham’s book after The_Missus  decided a revolver was right for her, so long as it wasn’t an airweight J Frame (more on that later). I knew from reading Mr. Cunningham’s blog he was very knowledgeable on revolvers so I figured if there was anything new for me to learn it was likely in his books (I’ll cover the second one after I finish it I promise).

The book did not disappoint one bit. While there were no earth shattering revelations for me, there was still much to learn. From proper fit to reloading and malfunction clearing there was a lot of information I hadn’t seen before. One of the malfunctions Mr. Cunningham mentions is debris under the extractor star. Which is one I learned really early and wish I have known about his technique for clearing it. Yes revolvers are boringly reliable, but pay attention to the malfunction drills. When your revolver has a problem, you are in a heap of trouble if you can’t fix it quickly.

Whether you are new to the world of revolvers or an old hand, the Gun Digest Book of the Revolver will be a valuable resource to your library. There are many today who will say the Revolver is obsolete, yet just this year at the SHOT show we saw the introduction of several new revolvers from Smith and Wesson and Ruger. The revolver is a part of American history and while semi-automatic pistols are all the rage today there are still tasks that only a revolver can do.