Gun Digest – August 2019

(^6) | GunDigest the magazine AUGUST 2019 gundigest.com
FIRST SHOT // LUKE HARTLE
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W
hat is it about
a revolver that
infatuates peo-
ple? New shoot-
ers, experienced
shooters, young
shooters, old shooters ... there’s an
undeniable “something” that stirs
an almost romantic attraction to
the big irons (and the small irons,
too, of course).
I ask this question rhetorically,
because it’s diffi cult for me to de-
scribe that gravitational pull that
attracts me to revolvers. But I also
ask it literally. If you share the pas-
sion and can put those feelings into
words, I really want to know (Gun-
[email protected]).
Anyway, I temporarily ditched the
family the other day, slipped out the
back door and headed to the range
early in the morning, when I knew
it would be quiet. I packed nothing
but a hand-picked selection of re-
volvers—no polymer, no magazines.
I started with the LCR in .327 Fed-
eral Mag., slow-rolling the fi rst cou-
ple of shot strings just to listen to the
report from each shot as it echoed
and faded. When the range is quiet,
there’s a weird intimacy with each
shot that’s otherwise lost in the au-
dible pollution, and there’s nothing
like being alone on the range to get
intimate with the trigger staging of a
specifi c carry revolver.
“Marge,” a Taurus .44 Rem. Mag.,
got the second nod. My wife refers
to her as “the other woman” in our
relationship. In fact, she named
the big iron (I can’t even say the
phrase, “big iron,” without an old
Marty Robbins tune getting stuck
in my head). Marge and I hooked
up more than 15 years ago, and
she’s been by my side for each step
in the bear woods ever since: She’s
a highly attractive life insurance
policy, if you will. I must admit
that I do also like pulling her out
at a busy range: If her looks don’t
cause people to stop and stare, her
singing does.
I iced the romantic revolver ses-
sion with my grandpa’s old S&W
Model 15 K-Frame .38 Special Com-
bat Masterpiece (in my April 2019
editorial, I wrote about the detour
this gun took before it found my
hands). Straight out of the holster,
I shot what might be the tightest
handgun group I’ve ever delivered.
However, that took a back seat to
the way I feel every time I wrap my
fi ngers around that gun—it’s like
getting to hold Grandpa’s hand one
more time.
Just like that range session, this
issue is dedicated to the revolver
... and to those who feel that inex-
plicable attraction to them. From
Max Prasac’s article about Magnum
Research’s custom .460 S&W to Joe
Arterburn’s “dance” with one of El-
mer Keith’s personal wheelguns, let
this issue remind you of one of the
primary reasons we own fi rearms:
Sometimes, a gun is much more
than just a gun.
So, here’s to the revolver—that
pinnacle of elegance and power.
Endless Love