The tale has lost nothing in its telling. Tom Horn was just 15, Billy not much older when they met in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Tom had teethed on pistols in Missouri; the Kid had five notches on his Colt. They didn’t like each other. A shooting match ensued. Airborne bottles were doomed. Soon both lads had punched aces from playing cards and split them edgeways. Then Billy ushered Tom to the privacy of the Baca Corral and stuck 12 matches on a rail. “You first,” he said. “Light a match. I’ll go next. Like that.” 

Wise beyond his years, Tom pulled two matches. “Let’s shoot five,” he smiled. “When I’m done, we’ll each have a bullet left.” 

From 30 feet, Tom lit two matches. Billy ignited one, clipped two. More certain than that sequel: each youth would “live by the gun” and die as a result. 

A more credible report on frontier accuracy came three months later, October 26, 1881, when the Earps and Doc Holliday met the Clanton gang at Tombstone’s OK Corral. All had prepared for a dust-up. But after 30 shots at ranges averaging 6 feet, only three men of the eight lay dead!

Revolvers have since given better account. As Smith & Wesson cut the ribbon on a spanking-new manufacturing plant in Maryville, Tennessee last fall, crack pistol shot Jerry Miculek set an NRA speed-shooting record at the event. Firing a 9mm revolver from 7 yards, he toppled six steel plates with as many bullets in an eye-popping 1.88 seconds! The shots came so fast, they blurred into thunder, flattening the plates like a row of dominoes.

But how are revolvers faring in a market now seemingly dominated by striker-fired autoloaders?

“Demand for both single-action (SA) and double-action (DA) revolvers remains strong,” Ruger’s Mark Gurney assures me. “We sell all we can make. Of course, retail prices affect volume; and revolvers are priced higher than modern autos, because they cost more to make. That’s partly due to materials and processes. There’s also more hand-work invested in a revolver. The availability and costs of skilled labor influence revolver production more directly than they do the assembly of autoloading pistols.” Over the last decade, factories industry-wide have endured shrinking pools of talented machinists and finishers.

Manufacturing costs also impact marketing. The use of polymers and alloys, and the relative ease of machining reciprocating actions give autoloaders an edge in chasing advertising dollars. When margins for autos are higher, sales more promising and retail pipelines quicker to fill, marketing teams have pretty clear direction.

Engineering too has blessed the auto. The old assumption that self-loading mechanisms are more trouble-prone than revolvers has crumbled, as new autos across a range of brands have proven sunrise-reliable. While the striker-fired pistol (hammerless, with a spring-loaded firing pin) dates to the 1890s, the debut of H&K’s Volkspistole VP/70 in 1970 earned it fresh attention. The Glock 17 adopted by Austria’s army in 1983 inspired a parade of Glocks that have since endeared lightweight striker-fired autos to law enforcement (LE) agencies and civilians, as well as to military units world-wide.

 

Starting Single

Still, revolvers continue to sell. I’m assured Ruger is again building them at full throttle, also that dealers are getting them promptly. It’s true at gun-shops in the Pacific Northwest, where I live. “The only Ruger we sometimes wait for is the Redhawk,” says my local dealer. That doesn’t surprise Mark Gurney, who tells me this big-bore DA is one of the most expensive and time-consuming handguns to make.

But Ruger didn’t enter the handgun market with a DA .44 Magnum. 

“We can start with a pistol that’s cheap to make,” Bill Ruger told Alex Sturm, who in 1949 staked the young entrepreneur $50,000 in his cheeky bid to manufacture firearms. The .22 auto Ruger brought to market was unique. Instead of an assemblage of closely machined parts, it was built with sheet steel, the mechanism housed in a shell of stampings. But it had a Luger-like feel, pointed well and functioned reliably. At $37.50, this “Standard Pistol” sold to the walls. Ruger promptly tackled another handgun project.

Colt had discontinued its Single Action Army in 1940. But the six-gun’s appeal remained. After WWII, television brought romantic visions of the Old West into U.S. households. Lawmen and brigands alike slapped leather to fan bullets through white smoke. Mesmerized, a generation of gun-buyers grew up craving Colts. Bill Ruger’s aim: tap that demand with a better revolver and sell it for less. 

His Single-Six .22, faithful in profile and feel to the SAA but with coil springs, appeared in 1953. It retailed at $63.25. Other .22 Long Rifle versions followed, also cylinders in .17 HMR and .22 WMR. The Single-Six was the first of many Ruger firearms with investment-cast parts. This “lost-wax” process reduces the time and tooling needed to shape components and is now used by other manufacturers.

Ruger’s first centerfire SA, the .357 Blackhawk appeared in 1955. The next year a .44 Magnum Super Blackhawk joined it, with square-backed guard and unfluted cylinder.

The Vaquero, with a Colt profile and Blackhawk innards, arrived in 1993, bored to .357, .44-40, .44 Magnum and .45 Colt. The Cowboy Action faithful rejoiced. In 2019 the rimfire Wrangler arrived, so affordable it competed with imported SAs. 

“Ruger’s quality is there,” Mark Gurney assures me. “But the Wrangler is Cerakoted instead of blued, so it is less costly to polish and finish. Customers like the savings as well as the gun!”

Recently, at a retail counter whose glass case was full of Wranglers, I wondered aloud how long they’d stay. “Most are already sold,” was the reply. “They’re awaiting pick-up. We’ve ordered more.”  

The legions sweet on Colt’s 150-year-old SAA include many blackpowder buffs. Mike Harvey is one. After building a muzzle-loading rifle from scratch and, with wife Mary Lou, opening a Houston gun shop, Harvey bought Allen Firearms. To grow his business with cartridge firearms, he visited Brescia, in Italy’s “gun valley.” There he engaged Aldo Uberti to reproduce the Colt SAA in every detail save proof marks, but using modern steels. Fit, finish and function had to match the original. 

So began Cimarron Firearms. Over nearly 40 years, Cimarron has worked with Uberti and other quality-conscious shops to revive dozens of historically significant frontier arms, from the 1847 Walker and the 1851 Navy carried by Wild Bill Hickock to the DA Lightning and Thunderer, and Bisley SAAs. 

“Generally speaking,” Gurney observed, “SA revolvers have become wants.” 

He has something there. The most economical centerfire handgun for the nightstand or pocket carry is a small auto. Sure, a Cowboy Action competitor needs a revolver. Or two. An Alaskan guide who brings a .44 Magnum into the alders might consider it a tool of the trade. But for most handgun tasks, a less costly autoloader will work as well.

Going Double

Utilitarian DAs, including imports, fill a perceived need for security. Buyers so inspired snap up medium-frame imports by Taurus, which comprise a big chunk of the revolver market. In 2021 the U.S. accounted for nearly 80% of Taurus sales.

Second-hand service revolvers are also in demand. “Used S&Ws in .38 Special sell right away,” says my local dealer. “We show revolvers like that to first-time buyers who want a handgun that’s easy to use without a lot of study or practice. Many are women. We emphasize that all they have to do is pull the trigger. No need to yank a slide or sort the safety from the slide stop and magazine release.”

For a couple of decades, beginning in 1973, Ruger shifted focus to DAs. The mid-size Speed Six, Security Six and Police Service Six were up-staged by the GP-100 in 1985. Its stronger frame and lock-up easily handle the full-power .357 loads that, with luck, upend surly bears ignoring loud yells and frantic arm gestures. The Redhawk, in .357, .41 and .44 Magnum, and .45 Colt, appeared about then, also with a “triple locking” cylinder. On its heels came the Super Redhawk with an extended frame. 

Powerful revolvers boast the eye appeal of 4WD diesel pickups. Both are expensive and for many uses impractical. Small- and medium-frame revolvers like Ruger’s SP-101, announced in 1989, are easy to handle and carry, suit bedroom and backpack and don’t kick hard. One retailer observed, though, that “even a .38 can seem violent to someone new to firearms. For the recoil-shy, I suggest a .22 revolver. The .22 LR is no stopping round, but a hit with a .22 is better than a miss with anything else.”

Ruger’s LCR (lightweight compact revolver) arrived in 2009, with DA-only mechanism, stainless cylinder. At 13 ½ ounces with alloy and polymer components this .38 is much lighter than an SP-101. It soon came in .357 Magnum, then in .22, .22 WMR, 9mm and .327 Federal, with 1.8- and 3-inch barrels. A response to the warm welcome given Ruger’s .380 LCP auto? Likely the LCR was already being tested at the LCP’s 2008 debut. A .22 version of that diminutive nylon-frame pistol (11 ounces, 2.8-inch barrel) came in 2016. Its more compliant, lock-open slide was retained on the double-stack .380 LCP Max in ‘21.

The LCP is much more budget-friendly than the LCR. Current starting prices: $259 and $739.

Not everyone can fire such small handguns accurately or comfortably. Customer requests brought back the small (but not sub-compact) SP-101 after it faded. The latest version has what a Ruger engineer calls a centerfire trigger pull. He tells me pulls on rimfire revolvers are often heavier, “to ensure ignition with necessary tolerances in headspace and firing pin protrusion.” The 10-shot .22 GP-100 also has a “DA trigger pull.” With twice the capacity and a fraction of the recoil and blast of a .357, it excels not just for personal protection but as an understudy revolver for medium- and big-bore DAs.

Civilian Demand

Still, autoloaders out-sell revolvers in the self-defense market. Vince Perreault, director of brand marketing at Smith & Wesson, notes that the company has added many compact autos to complement the M&P M2.0 so popular with law officers for duty carry.

“About 93% of S&W revenue comes from civilian sales so we’re ever alert to trends from consumers in that sector,” he says. “We’ve seen growing demand for polymer-frame handguns, and for magazines that hold more cartridges than revolvers and traditional autos. We provide those with accessories and options for custom work. Our job is not to tell customers what to want, but to make excellent firearms they want. That said, we point out the benefits of each firearm. We think it’s our responsibility to advise customers — say, to tell them how revolvers might serve their needs for personal protection or sport shooting.”

Perreault adds that many S&W customers are revolver enthusiasts, and demand for DAs remains strong. “Our traditional models are most popular in chrome-moly steel with our high-gloss blued finish, but they require a high degree of polishing in skilled hands. Stainless models or versions are usually the most readily available.” 

While S&W offers revolvers in a wide range of chamberings, Perreault says the most popular are predictable classics: .38 Special/.357 and .44 Magnum. “But we’ve had enthusiastic response to the .32 H&R revolver we developed last spring with Lipsey’s, a S&W distributor. And there’s always plenty of buzz around our big stainless X-Frame revolvers in .460 and .500 S&W.” Having used both afield to take deer, I’m hardly surprised at that. A sharp-shooting colleague dropped a buck at 200 yards with his .500. No other commercial revolver cartridges can match the performance of this pair!

“Wow factor aside, guns for everyday carry are S&W’s top sellers,” says Perreault. “Even when specialty cartridges and custom revolvers grab headlines.” 

S&W’s Performance Center does a thriving business in specially tuned revolvers with distinctive profiles and features. Ruger offers a selection of “Distributor Specials” – factory runs of revolvers with non-standard components and/or finishes. Each is produced to order for a specific Ruger distributor, most notably Talo and Lipsey’s. They commit to a specific quantity; Ruger produces that number. Retailers can order a Distributor Special from the distributor until the supply of that handgun is exhausted. To my eye, the most appealing revolvers on Ruger’s current roster are Distributor Specials — which now outnumber standard factory offerings over several revolver models.  While autoloading pistols have gained market share, and striker-fired autos are sleeker, lighter and simpler than their hammer-equipped forebearers, gun-shops that routinely carry popular revolvers will profit from them. After all, how many shooters do you know who spend more on what they want than on what they need?