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Has anyone shot revolvers that come from the factory with two cylinders so you can swap between shooting 9mm and .357 magnum? E.g. I know you can buy Ruger Blackhawks that are designed so you can fire .357 magnum in one cylinder, or swap the cylinder and fire 9mm with moon clips.

How's the accuracy? Is it dead-on in either caliber, or does it go to shit when you're shooting 9mm Luger?

I'm kicking around buying an additional 9mm revolver for target shooting and am curious if it'd be worth the option to swap calibers. E.g. if I want to carry .357 mag sometime (hiking in bear country maybe?). If the accuracy stays great, fantastic. If the novelty factor makes it inaccurate, I dont think it'd be worth it.

Has anyone shot revolvers that come from the factory with two cylinders so you can swap between shooting 9mm and .357 magnum? E.g. I know you can buy Ruger Blackhawks that are designed so you can fire .357 magnum in one cylinder, or swap the cylinder and fire 9mm with moon clips. How's the accuracy? Is it dead-on in either caliber, or does it go to shit when you're shooting 9mm Luger? I'm kicking around buying an additional 9mm revolver for target shooting and am curious if it'd be worth the option to swap calibers. E.g. if I want to carry .357 mag sometime (hiking in bear country maybe?). If the accuracy stays great, fantastic. If the novelty factor makes it inaccurate, I dont think it'd be worth it.

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[–] • 0 pt

9mm and .38 special .357 are almost the same exact diameter. Just differnt case lengths.

[–] • 1 pt

Yep, in theory it "should" work. I'm just curious how well it works in practice. Unfortunately it's hard to test unless you've owned one and swapped cylinders back and forth to see if it's still reliable and accurate.

Most of the time if I'm curious about a gun I'll go rent one to try it out, but this is the kind of thing you can't test with a rented gun.

[–] • 0 pt

I would guess having a swappable cylinder effect accuracy compared to a none removable cylinder. However it's probably not much to notice. Why 9mm? 38 Special isnt that much more. Get a 357 and just shoo the cheaper 38.

[–] • 2 pts

Why 9mm?

Efficiency. I have lost in a tragic boating accident several other 9mm handguns. If I want to visit the range on a whim, I can just grab my range bag and be confident that there are a couple hundred rounds of 9mm FMJ in it for plinking.

If I buy a non-swappable .357 Mag, I'll need to start keeping .38 Special on hand for just that gun. Also, .38 Special ammo is twice the cost of 9mm so it's more ammo to store and more money.

Additionally, if the SHTF, I'd rather have guns that use the ammo I have cases of than be some tacticool idiot with 15 guns that are a single box of ammo away from being a paperweight.

[–] • 0 pt

Accuracy for what? Are you doing competition shooting? Self defense? Plinking?

Most self defense shootings are 7 yards or less.

[–] • 1 pt

Casual plinking.

[–] • 0 pt

I doubt you'll notice any accuracy deficiencies so long as your barrel is four inches or longer. Suggest consideration of six inches or more for >= .357. Barrel length is fairly important for revolvers anyways. Not only does it improve velocity, but cylinder alignment is never perfect. Longer barrels provide more influence to correct any wobble imparted by misalignment.

Never place your hand or person directly adjacent to a cylinder while firing. The combination of high velocity gases and shrapnel from alignment shaving can be quite nasty.

Random video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h96YwwLoaCk

I grew up shooting .44 mag since around age 6-7 out of my father's red hawk. Cylinder gap is no joke. Obviously risk increases with power of cartridge.

[–] • 1 pt

Thanks for the tip. I have quite a bit of caution about hand-in-front-of-cylinder from shooting black powder revolvers where you can get chainfires if you inadequately block the chambers in Crisco, but I wasn't aware you could get a different flavor of bad times from modern revolvers. It makes sense though.