Last year I took a S&W Triple Lock to the yearly “Shootists Holiday.” I had hopes that one of their history-savvy members could tell me the background of the custom-altered, after-market fixed sights that had been professionally executed on the revolver.  

After asking about a dozen attendees who, like me, knew of no gunsmith famous for that type of work, Darryl Bolke approached my show-and-tell display. For those of you who don’t know him, Darryl can be intimidating. My wife said that he reminds her of Zeus and his voice can resonate like the thunder of God; Darryl is not easily ignored.  He’s basically the man that Chuck Norris hopes to become.  I knew that he and his “American Fighting Revolver” partner, Bryan Eastridge, are the torchbearers in the revolver-revival that’s making deep inroads into the shooting world, so I asked if he knew who might have worked on my revolver.  After a brief examination he said, “Pachmayr.”  He then started scrolling through the photos stored on his cell phone where he had a Pachmayr catalog from the late 1930’s or early 40’s.  He swiped through a few pages and showed me the catalog listing for sight options which contained a picture of a Triple Lock with the alteration that looked EXACTLY like mine!  I was impressed enough that by the end of the day I had persuaded him and Bryan to conduct a revolver class on my Wyoming range, while simultaneously being persuaded by Darryl to give him a “right of first refusal” to buy my Triple Lock if I ever sell it!  Win/Win!  

Above, Bryan Eastridge covered the marksmanship segment of the class; below, Darryl Bolke ran the gun handling segment of the class.

My half of that Win/Win occurred recently when we hosted a class of 22 students for a two-day immersion into revolvers; wheelguns-in-general on the first day and snub-nosed revolvers on day two.

Those of us born on the front end of the Baby Boom generally started our hand gunning journey shooting revolvers.  However, “The Modern Technique of the Pistol” and the development of IPSC and its many offshoots diverted our journey into the world of the 1911.  Now, approaching my dotage, all of my LEO and military friends are retired and there’s a renaissance supporting Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  Many of us are re-discovering just how fun shooting revolvers in “practical” scenarios was (and still is)!

Attempting to describe a shooting class by agenda points is like a literary sedative, so I’ll hit some of the high points of what turned out to be a wonderful class.

Darryl presented a thought-provoking discussion on “thinking triggers” versus “shooting triggers.”  In competitive shooting, most of your thinking is accomplished prior to the action; you know in advance that you’re going to shoot.  In a defensive altercation whether you’re going to shoot depends on your last second assessment of the threat; the first shot is an irrevocable commitment.  The 12 lb., long stroke of the double action revolver’s trigger gives added time for thinking and assessing. It’s not as conducive to marksmanship as the 4 lb. short stroke of a single action.  A double action revolver is a “thinking trigger” for every shot, your “splits” may be greater but so is your ability to assess when and if to start shooting and when to stop shooting.

Darryl then presented a unique perspective on handgun ammunition capacity that didn’t center on theoretical probability or the FBI Uniform Crime Report statistical averages.  He christens high-capacity handguns as “getting INTO trouble guns” and 5 or 6 shot revolvers as “getting OUT of trouble guns.” His logic is that if you’re carrying a 5 shot J-frame with one extra speed strip, you’re more apt to avoid a potential negative scenario than if you’re carrying a 15 round semi-auto and a spare magazine. The silver lining that goes with the cloud of having less ammunition is an enhanced sense of avoidance which may be as or more effective than extra bullets.

While different in personality, Darryl and Bryan have a yin yang relationship that provides a seamless transition in their delivery.  Darryl’s focus is on gun handling and manipulation while Bryan’s emphasis is directed to marksmanship. They interact in each other’s segments but deliver a consistent message.  Over the years I’ve seen numerous tandem instructor teams but none that know and complement each other as these two.

Bryan covers the sights on Michael Bane’s revolver to show him that a smooth trigger pull is as important as a good sight picture.

Bryan, a former Army Airborne soldier and retired Oklahoma City Police Officer is the son of a well-known and highly regarded officer from the same department.  He’s also an NRA distinguished PPC competitor - he’s basically an ambulatory Ransom Rest.  Coaching and training marksmanship requires greater diagnostic skill than coaching and training gun handling or mindset demands.  Bryan, although a relatively young man, possesses the diagnostic skill of a coach far older than he.  On day two we did a fade back drill on steel targets with snub-guns.  At about 30 yards I had problems that I couldn’t self-diagnose.  I had my finger buried in the trigger guard up to my distal joint, far more finger on the trigger than when shooting an autoloader.  Bryan was 4 feet off to my right where he had no view of my finger placement but he told me to put even more finger on the trigger.  I buried it about half way to my middle joint (farther than I’ve ever attempted before) and immediately centered the next two shots on the target -- good coaching and superb diagnosis on Bryan’s part.

Above, a pocket pistol allows you to have your hand on the pistol grip while talking to people, pumping gas or just casually standing around. Below, keeping your trigger finger on the outside of the holster while still in the pocket allows you to withdraw the revolver without pulling the holster out of the pocket with the gun.

Our concluding range session was devoted to manipulating the handgun from a pocket carry.  The consequences of poor gun handling while drawing quickly from the front pocket are severe; not unlike walking on a cleared path through a minefield, the margins for error are narrow.  It was conducted with numbered steps slowly with an empty gun -- numerous times --under close supervision.  When we transitioned from dry fire to live fire, there was a notable sphincter tightening for the first 5 or 6 draws, but the maneuver became more comfortable with practice.  I may be wrong, but I’m guessing that a large percentage of all of the concealed-carried guns in America are carried in a front pants-pocket.  I’m also guessing that very few of those carriers have had training or spend time practicing drawing from the pocket.  My greatest fear has never been shooting myself while drawing, but having the pocket holster come out of my pocket with the handgun and having to shake or shoot it off the revolver.  Darryl addressed this by having us use our trigger finger to keep the holster in place while starting to lift the gun upward prior to starting the actual draw stroke.  It works. 

In close quarters, bringing the gun to near the line of sight, and then pushing straight out toward the target while pulling the trigger can be accomplished easily within one second, as demonstrated by Darryl.

Darryl was an undercover Vice Officer on the Ontario, CA Police Department, a police equipment store owner and a private investigator.  Due to their backgrounds, they are both martial polymaths.  As such they were invited by Jason Cloessner, the Product Development Manager and marketing savant of the firearms distributor, Lipsey’s to consultant on the design of the Smith & Wesson Ultimate Carry J-framed revolvers. 

According to Bryan, “Lipsey’s brought us in to finalize the stocks and sights and confirm the guns were regulated with available ammunition and to test the accuracy. The idea was Jason’s; we just helped them carry it across the goal line.”  Darryl said that in their early conversations he pushed hard for a .32 H&R Magnum and since Jason was already a fan of that cartridge, the Model 432 and 632 came to fruition.  Bryan and Darryl both claim that the .32 H&R Magnum has better external and terminal ballistics out of the 1.88” barrels of the UC guns than any of the .38 special rounds.  The .32 gives the added advantage of making the 432’s and 632’s six shot revolvers versus five shots for the .38 Special.  

If Gun Digest’s “Cartridges of the World” married the “Hodgdon Reloading Manual,” their sons would be Darryl and Bryan.  The class was sprinkled with references to available defensive ammo from .22 rimfire to .44 Special.  Bullet weights, primer hardness, velocity and availability of most major producers as well as many of the boutique manufacturers are neatly cataloged in their minds and readily accessed. The breadth and depth of their collective knowledge of the ammunition market is impressive.

They’re two of the more in-demand coaches in the current tactical training arena.  In addition to maintaining their American Fighting Revolver website, they do podcasts and are guests on other trainers’ podcasts.  They will be key instructors in the “Revolver Fest” being held October 11-13 in South Carolina (revolverfest.com for details), also the “Pat Rogers Memorial Revolver Round-up” held November 22-24 at Gunsite and Darryl will be instructing at “The Thunderstick Summit” September 26-28 in Las Vegas (vangcomp.com for details).

Revolvers played a large role in my early days of hand gunning and thanks to Darryl and Bryan, they’ll play a larger role in my life as I go “back to the future.”  

— Greg Moats