I had some time to kill at the local giant fish n' hunt store and did some window shopping over at the pistol counter. Everything was of course about $100 too expensive, but they had some good wares in stock. One of those was a Ruger Blackhawk in .357...and 9mm. It's big, shiny and bad ass gun, one that leaves you trying to come up with a reason why you MUST have it. My mind went racing for a reason, beyond mere gun-lust and range fun...why would you want this gun for TEOTWAWKI?
The Ruger Blackhawk is well known for its robustness and ruggedness...two qualities that are important for surviving the end of the world for sure. It can fire three kinds of very common pistol ammunition (.38spc, .357 and 9mm with the conversion cylinder), which gives you a huge range of possibilities....38 shot shells, .38 black powder loads, cheap 9mm FMJs, to fullhouse .357 magnum loads. It is a single action revolver, which means malfunctions should be very rare. It is heavy, which means that it will soak up recoil comparatively well and function as a good melon-cracker in a pinch. Accuracy is supposed to be excellent. It's also, I think, a very attractive looking gun...especially dressed up with some after market grips.
The three kinds of ammunition and overall ruggedness/reliability of the Blackhawk make it very attractive in a deep TEOTWAWKI/Mad Max scenario, where you would be scrounging/scavenging for ammo and using a variety of reloads. If you were unlikely to need more than 6 rounds from your sidearm or were unable to own semi autos, it could be a pretty compelling choice.
Of course, you can't predict how many rounds you'll need, and the Blackhawk's loading gate makes for some slow reloads. Good luck reloading it thing in a hurry. You'd want a back-up gun to go to at that point (actually, you'd want to use a rifle or shotgun in the first place). It's also a brick to carry around at over 40 ounces...not exactly an ultralight when you're hiking across the wastelands.
Anyways, your survival dollars would generally be best spent elsewhere, but it's an interesting idea for a very deep post-apocalypse scenario. Hell, you'd certainly have some serious style, walking around the post-apocalyptic world with a fine leather gunbelt and a Blackhawk hanging from your hip. Get yourself some some serious samurai/cowboy fighting skills and then you'd be set.
