Let us know how your legal situations turn out when you explain why you engaged perpetrator(s) at 100 yards. At 30 yards, 90 feet, courts deem a rational person is far enough away to remove themself to a safe area, away from any PERCEIVED threat Most courts recognize 20-30 feet as the max threat limit for a person to engage deadly force against a life endangering threat. Then there's the collateral injury, death to innocent bystanders and damage to property.
I can make a shot at 100 yards with a j frame. This says nothing of my intent to do so unnecessarily. Fort Hood showed the need for long range ability. You make no account for a bad actor armed with a rifle or one of these 5.7's or AR "pistols". What case law do you have to support your hypothesis about innocent bystanders, over penetration, and property damage?
There are small frame revolvers well suited for people with small hands: ie S&W Lady Smith, S&W Model DA 36, Ruger LCR, etc., etc.
Suited to people with small hands or just marketed toward them? What exactly is a S&W Model DA 36? I couldn't find it in the catalog. The Lady Smith is no more polished or tuned internally than any other production model. I thought perhaps you'd name a rim fire model like the 43C and say it has a nicer trigger which is not possible due to the increased spring tension required to reliably ignite rimfire cartridges. You may get a tad nicer trigger pull on the 340PD due to the titanium cylinder, but beyond that these guns need professional gunsmithing to be smooth and reliable for a user requiring a lighter trigger in them. Nothing like that is coming from the factory. Not even performance center guns.
Speedloaders make reloading double action revolvers quick and easy. Since in most normal situations 1 to 3 rounds would be sufficient to repell home invader(s), would be assailant(s).
What kind of speed loaders do you recommend? HKS? Safariland Comp 1? SL Variant? Jet Loaders? Dade Machine?
That first one was a joke. Reloading a snub nose revolver quick and easy? No sir. Five second reload is neither quick nor easy. The short ejector rod in the j frame sized snubbies makes reliable extraction and reloading difficult unless the gun is swap hand reloaded with a very vertical orientation and a sharp strike to the rod. This minimizes the chance for partial extraction and catching a spent shell under the extractor star. Don't forget to ensure grip compatibility with the speed loaders. The most reliable setup is a moon clip for the first cylinder for certain extraction and realizing with either safariland or so variant speed loaders.
In a j frame 1-3 rounds is 20-60% of your available ammunition.
This is true of any firearm. Revolvers are less likely to have a problem.
Sand and dirt affect a revolver much more that a semiautomatic and the latter is much easier for the novice user to maintain. Look into the late Louis Awerbuck and his opinion on revolver reliability.
If a person doesn't have required dexterity and hand strength to handle a revolver they are more likely not able to work the slide on an automatic. A revolver is much easier to use than an automatic.
If a person can be taught to load and fire a revolver using speed loaders, they can be taught to load and fire a striker based semiautomatic pistol more effectively given the same training time. No matter what you do, you're not going to wrong accuracy out of a snubnose with a new or undedicated user. The trigger pull, the short sight radius and the grips which are minimal for the purpose of concealment all equate to lackluster marksmanship.
LOL. It's called Personal Defense as in repelling simple home invader(s), assailant(s); Not going on the Offense taking on a mob, chasing down heavily armed gangs.
You have forgotten the late Lt. Dwain Williams, a retired Chicago Firefighter who was killed in a carjacking after his j frame let him down against multiple assailants. His ammunition supply dwindling and in the verge of being surrounded he pressed the attack and was mortally wounded by a fleeing assailant. I don't get to choose my adventure completely. The bad guy(s) also get a say sometimes.
I'm a revolver guy and I'm pretty good with one. I've competed in idpa, USPSA, icore, and sass. I've carried them, hunted with them and trained with them a lot. It's great equipment, but it's suboptimal for my own self defense and just plain wrong for beginner self defense and it's dead wrong as a default for women. My wife is not particularly capable with handguns and she has competed with semiautomatics and revolvers. It's easier for her to use her Glock 26 than a snubnose or a single action. Cold hard facts. She's more effective under pressure with the semiautomatic. I want her to have the best chance at surviving not some oversold false sense of security failing her in time of need.
