Ian, aka ‘Gun Jesus‘, has a neat little video about the Medusa revolver.

Basically, the idea was to have a revolver that would shoot, essentially, any straightwall case cartridge, rimmed or rimless, that fired a bullet around 9mm…9×19, .38 Special, .357 Mag., .380 ACP, 9×21, .38 Colt, etc. It would be a ‘survivors’ gun since you could scrounge ammo from just about anywhere.

It wasnt an original idea. It was supposed to be the Colt Survivor but Colt let it languish and it never went anywhere. (But prototypes do turn up.) The story, as I rad it, was that ATF tol Colt that if they made this thing they wouuld have to give it very distinctive rifling so that bullets could be identified as having been shot outta the thing since it could, in theory, fire dozens of different cartridges.

Anyway, about ten years ago Taurus decided they’d got on the bandwagon and announced the Taurus Triad…a more modest caliber selection: 9mm/38/357. It was pure vaporware and although it was cataloged I never found one.

Ruger made their single-action Blackhawk convertibles in 9/357 but required a cylinder change. It’s only as of late that they have made something of a comeback with their new .45 Redhawk that fires .45 ACP/.45 Colt. However, I still want a revolver that shoots 9mm/38/357 interchangeably.

Taurus just announced that they are bringing out a DA revolver that, with a spare cylinder, will allow you to shoot the 9mm/38 cartridges but only time will tell if they actually make the bloody things.

I rather like the idea of a DA revolver that can digest three of the most common cartridges found in this country. But, is it practical? Ehhhh…..not sure. But on paper it seems like a good idea.

If you can divorce yourself from nostalgia, sentimentality, and a desire to appear ‘old-school’, it’s hard to argue that for most cases of defense against things with two legs, the automatic pistol has nudged the revolver into a distant second place. That isn’t to say that people still don’t carry revolvers for defense against people (and this is an important distinction I’ll touch on later), but rather that objectively the auto trumps the revolver for self-defense in most ways.

The revolver’s strength? Cartridge selection, simplicity of use. It’s drawbacks? Everything else. For defense against more-than-two-legged things (think claws and teeth) revolvers have the advantage of being able to throw out stuff that generates a buttload of ft/lbs. that most automatics can’t. (Yes, you can carry a Desert Eagle or a Wildey in the woods and be just as well heeled as any .44 Mag toter, but you’re doing it at a sizable weight/size disadvantage.)

Having said that, there are still days I tuck a revolver into my pocket, or sli\ip one into a belt holster, when I go about my day. But I always make sure to carry spare ammo.

The NYPD (Motto: “Ahright, Shows Over, Shows over..let’s go.”) used to, believe it or not, issue revolvers to it’s troops right up until the 1990’s. And as if that wasn’t archaic enough, they had you carry your reloads in what were called ‘dump pouches’. These were little leather boxes on your belt that held six cartridges. The opening flap was on the bottom of the box. You’d pop the flap and the cartridges would fall into your palm where you would then reload your revolver one round at a time. In 1986. Sonny Crockett had a 10mm auto but NYPD cops were still loading like they were in Mayberry.

Why didn’t they NYPD issue speedloaders? Good question. Inertia and training seems to be the answer. My cursory research shows that it came down to these reasons: too complicated, too fragile, we’ve always done it this way.

And then, one day, a cop got into a bullet party with a bad guy and while reloading his revolver the cop caught a round in his melon. The subsequent outrage pushed the NYPD into allowing the use of speedloaders. (Honestly, I’d be surprised if there weren’t a whole bunch of guys already carrying them in their pockets or on their belts when they thought no one was looking.)

Brand of choice? HKS. For the most part, thats the big name in speedloaders although there have always been smaller shops making specialty ones. After HKS the next biggest name is Safariland. Once you get past the speedloaders, your next option for loading your revolver faster is two load by twosies rather than onesies – the Speed Strip. When Bianchi brought these things out, back in the days of aviator sunglasses and porn ‘staches, their advertising said that they would be offered in other calibers as well. That never happened. Fast forward a few decades and another outfit picked up the slack to give us Speed Strips (under a different name to, no doubt, avoid trademark issues) in other calibers.

When I’m carrying a revolver for protection against the two-legged, it’s usually a .38 or .357. (A J-frame or K-frame of some brand.) My personal preference is the Speed Strip if I’m just tossing the snubbie in my pocket as I walk out the the door. The Speed Strips lay flat in a pocket and are handy to use. While a tad slower than a speedloader, they are still light years ahead of the old dump pouch.

When I carry the larger framed guns (K-frame, like a Model 10 or Security Six) I carry a couple speedloaders. I used to carry the HKS speedloaders and they work fine. They’re quite reliable, well made, and can usually be found at gun shows for $10 or less for each one. The speedloader has a knob at the back that needs to be turned to release the cartridges. Drop the speedloader into the cylinder, grip the cylinder to keep it from turning, twist the knob on the back of the speedloader, discard speedloader, close gun. Shoot, rinse, repeat.

I kinda prefer the Safariland Comp I & II speedloaders. Instead of a knob to twist, the speedloader releases its cartridges when the cylinder pin contacts the release on the speedloader, Basically, you drop the speedloader into the cylinder, shove it home, and the cartridges automagically release into the cylinder. It’s not that the twist motion of the HKS speedloader is a big deal, but I find the Comp I speedloader to be wonderfully compact since it doesnt have a big knob protruding from the back.

My next revolver is going to be one of the new 8-shot Ruger Redhawks. Fortunately 8-shot speed strips exist for it, and I’ve no doubt that speedloaders will follow.

But, getting back to the first two paragraphs, my G17 without a spare magazine carries as much ammo as my GP100 with two speedloaders. So..there’s that. On the the other hand, my N-frame drops heavier and faster lead than the Glock does, which is why I carry the G17 in town and the N-frame in the boonies. (Although at some point I’ll go full Nugent and get a Glock 10mm as my woods gun.)

Well this is just absolutely fascinating:

You’ve heard the old saying “everything old is new again”. Well, that applies to the tried and true Remington 870 shotgun. The 870 is probably the most popular police shotgun ever. Remington has given the 870 a facelift with several new magazine fed models which would serve just about any shotgunners needs.

There have been various aftermarket attempts to make the 870 (and the Mossberg 500) into mag-fed firearms. Those attempts have met with mixed results and the fact that you may not have even heard of those conversions should tell you how widely accepted they’ve been.*

And then the Russkies came out with the 12-ga AK-pattern guns and all of a sudden everyone started taking another look at the mag-fed pellet-heaver. Problem is, even if you get past the fact that there are ALOT of variations in shotgun shells that make a one-size-fits-all method of semi-auto functioning a challenge, the shotgun shell itself is a challenge.

Ask anyone who owns a Vepr or Saiga or other mag-fed shotty and they’ll tell you that one of the problems is that the plastic shotgun shells, when under the pressure of several others in the magazine, or pushed up against a closed bolt, will start to deform. That nice round profile becomes oblong or squared on one side and feeding issues arise. Sure, the easy solution around that is to store the gun with bolt open on a loaded mag, or switch to brass shotgun shells (which is what the military did way back when.)

If Remington drops this conversion into their 1100 platform I’d be very curious to see how it works. Is it something I’d buy? Well…no. For my needs, I just don’t see it. Pumpguns have two things going for them: a) ability to use funky ammo like rubber buck, blanks, slugs, flares, etc. and b) sheer brutality. I cannot think of many occasions where a mag-fed shotgun is going to be a better choice than my mag-fed rifle…more power, more range, more capacity, more compact ammo, etc.

However…sometimes you want to send a message or make a statement and when it’s time to go to the matresses the shotgun gives your message that bold, heavy underlining.

No doubt, if these things take off, MagPul will wind up being everyone’s mag choice, and someone will come out with a drum. But, for me, a regular 870 with an extended tube will probably serve for most of my post-apocalypse needs. (Although I’m seriously jonesing to get my hands on Mossberg’s 930-series tactical autoloader to try out.)

Anyway, I hope Remington manages to crank these things out with better quality than..well..pretty much anything theyve cranked out lately.

* = Yes, there have been a few factory-made mag-feds in the last few decades (The Franchi, Atchison, Daewoo, and a few others spring to mind.)

Go to try one of these today:
Impressions? Well…I had been pretty curious to try one. After getting the chance to try it, my enthusiasm has gone from “I need five of these” to “Eh..two will be plenty.”

Now, before you say anything, yes I have seen all the YouTube videos about the ‘proper’ way to shoot this thing. That said, it is still wildly impractical for anything beyond ‘narrow hallway’ venues. Would I feel comfortable with one in the house at 2am? Maybe. But unless you think spending $390 for a gun that, in my opinion, is best used at distances where you can do target identification using the Braille system, I think there are better options.

Recoil? Well, obviously, yes, there’s recoil. The furniture is too slick for my tastes. The forend, especially, was prone to sliding right out of my hand. A Hogue or Pachmyer ‘rubbery’ forend would be my choice. The strap on the forend helped, but my hand still slid around a bunch.

Throw a ‘wrist brace’ on there and I’d be much more pleased. Honestly, I’m not thinking of many circumstances where I would not be better served with a handgun or a carbine. Like a lot of niche guns, nine times out of 10 it isn’t the right tool for the job. But that tenth time….

However, it has a ‘cool’ factor, is fun to play with, and someday they’ll probably legislate it into NFA badness, so I might get one just for the sake of that. As a primary weapon, I cant see any circumstance where it would shine over a handgun or M4. But, as a ‘specialty’ kind of thing it might be useful. Either way, interesting to play with, and I’ll probably get one, but unless it has a stock on it i’m going to relegate it to ‘range toy’. YMMV.

As an autoloader, however, I might be a little more inclined to think that it has a tactical niche.