Gun Digest Book of the Revolver

62 Pages·2011·0.65 MB·English

by  Grant Cunningham

®
GunDigest Book of the
REVOLVER
Grant Cunningham
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DEDICATION
I
n memory of my Father, who could do just about anything he set his mind
to.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” ~ Sir
Isaac Newton
arly in the process of writing this book I realized that I’m not half
E
the genius I thought I was. Everyone I’ve come into contact with
over my lifetime shaped who I am and how I look at the world,
and were I to be honest with myself I’d simply say “thanks, everybody!”
and get on with it. There are some, however, who have been particularly
important.
I note that most authors thank their spouses last. I can’t do that,
because my wife Chris has been the most important person in my life for
over twenty-five years. She puts up with my sometimes moody attitudes,
never thinks my crazy ideas are as crazy as they probably are, and never
fails to serve as my rock when everything around me is crashing into the
sea. I love her more than life itself, and without her there would be no
me. I hope our next quarter century together is as good as the last.
To Massad Ayoob goes thanks for my initial entree into “the business.”
It was Mas who first noted my small talent and exposed it to the world.
Were it not for him I’d probably still be working in corporate
management. Mas has always been a professional, even when our
opinions were not in complete synchronization. That alone is reason
enough to thank him.
Gila Hayes, author and teacher par excellence, co-founder of Firearms
Academy of Seattle, showed me the need to consider the student first:
what’s best for them, what they truly need. Gila is also responsible for
introducing me to the editor of her book, who in turn championed this
project at the publisher. I suppose you could say that this whole thing is
her fault!
Rob Pincus impressed upon me that it is the message which is
important, that I have an obligation to tell the truth, that I should
question with integrity, and most importantly that what I have to say is
valuable. My ability to articulate how shooting should be done took a
dramatic leap forward because of our association. Sapere Aude, indeed.
C.E. ‘Ed’ Harris, engineer and formerly of Sturm, Ruger Company, is
the guy I go to for extensive technical information. Ed carries in his head
the most amazing amount of data, detail and trivia, and thankfully he
lets me siphon some of it off now and again.
My editor, Corrina Peterson, deserves great thanks for wading through
my prose and making the necessary changes to get it through the
publication gauntlet. She also weathered my email requests for advice,
from which I’ve determined that ‘editor’ is not one of the jobs I would
have any patience to perform. I’m glad someone can do it, as long as I
don’t have to.
Special thanks to the folks at LaserLyte, Crimson Trace and Tucker
Gunleather for supplying some of the products featured in this book.
FInally, my best friend Georges Rahbani is one of the most patient and
professional firearms instructors that I’ve known. It was he who got me
to teach, who convinced me to write my first article, and who first
suggested that I needed to write a book – long before I even had a topic
about which to write. We make fun of each other, pull jokes on each
other, question each other’s parentage, but at the end of the day there’s
a lot of respect and admiration. (Same to you, buddy!)
Grant Cunningham
February 2011
®
GunDigest Book of the
REVOLVER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Special Offers
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE: Why the Revolver?
CHAPTER TWO: The Perfect Fit
CHAPTER THREE: Calibers and Ammunition
CHAPTER FOUR: Sights and Sighting
CHAPTER FIVE: Mastering the Double Action Trigger
CHAPTER SIX: Putting it all Together Shooting Accurately in Double Action
CHAPTER SEVEN: Reloading the Revolver
CHAPTER EIGHT: Emergency Malfunction Clearing
CHAPTER NINE: One-Hand Reloading
CHAPTER TEN: Maintenance
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Customization and Modification
CHAPTER TWELVE: Carrying the Revolver
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Special Issues of the Snubnose
APPENDIX A: Cleaning and Maintenance Kit
APPENDIX B: “Ed’s Red” Bore Cleaner
APPENDIX C: Sources
FOREWORD
“The west wasn’t won with a jammed-up gun.”
hen Grant Cunningham speaks of revolvers, one should listen.
W
On the whimsical side, he’s the founder of the Revolver
Liberation Alliance, whose mottoes are “The west wasn’t won
with a jammed-up gun” and “The world isn’t flat, why should your gun
be?”
On the serious side, Grant is an experienced instructor and one of the
finest revolversmiths in the country. He can craft you a royal Ruger or a
dandy Dan Wesson. My friend Herman Gunter, III regularly wins
Enhanced Service Revolver matches with a Model 625 S&W .45 revolver
that Grant tuned for him, one of several Cunningham guns in the Gunter
family. And Grant is perhaps the only full-time pistolsmith today
specializing in turning the Colt Python revolver into the exquisite, super-
light-pull-with-totally-reliable-ignition treasure that was made famous in
the latter 20th Century by Reeves Jungkind, Jerry Moran, and the late,
great Fred Sadowsky.
He doesn’t just fix ‘em, he can race ‘em right into the winner’s circle.
I’ve seen Grant shoot perfect 300 out of 300 qualification scores on
demand with his tuned six-shooters. Whether it’s a Colt or a Dan Wesson
doesn’t matter; his skills transfer between them, as yours will if you take
his advice to heart.
This book belongs on a sadly short shelf of double action revolver
volumes written by people who actually know how to shoot them. It
joins the work of Ed Lovette and Michael DeBethancourt in
contemporary times, and Bill Jordan, Bob Nichols, Charlie Askins, Elmer
Keith, J. H. Fitzgerald, and Ed McGivern before them as Rosetta Stones
that unlock the secrets of operating double action revolvers swiftly and
accurately.
Not every shooter is mirror-image to one another in techniques or
beliefs; if we were, marksmanship would be a giant mutual admiration
society with no need for good books like this one to convey new ideas
and test old ideas for verification. Grant and I speedload revolvers a
little differently, for instance. But looking at his chapter on revolver
advantages, and his tutorial on how to run a double action trigger, or his
explanation of the rationale of the double action only revolver, all I can
say is, “You can take Grant’s advice to the bank.”
Enjoy the book. Like a Star Wars light saber, the revolver is seen by
some as an elegant weapon more suited for another time. They’re wrong.
It’s a very functional one, very serviceable in the here and now, and
that’s why so many folks still use them. Grant Cunningham has done an
excellent job of explaining why.
Massad Ayoob
March 2011
Massad Ayoob has served for over 30 years as both handgun editor of Guns magazine and law
enforcement editor of American Handgunner. His books include Gun Digest Book of Concealed
Carry, In the Gravest Extreme, The Truth About Self-Protection, and Gun Digest Book of Combat
Handgunnery. Director of Lethal Force Institute for 29 years, he now teaches through Massad
Ayoob Group LLC, and has won several state and regional handgun championships with double
action revolvers.