This year I had the immense good fortune to attend Revolver Fest 2025! I got to spend some time with Mike for the first time in a long time, shoot some new and interesting wheelguns, and take some top-flight classes. Here is our Revolver Fest 2025 After Action Review!
Revolver Fest 2025
Revolver Fest can be thought of as a slightly scaled-up, East Coast version of the Revolver Roundup. I would absolutely love to attend the Revolver Roundup! The instructors are top-notch, the range facilities are amazing, and manufacturers support the event. It is also held at Gunsite, so you get the full Gunsite experience to go with it.
Unfortunately, travel to the west coast is cost-prohibitive for some of us right-coasters, in both time and dollars spent. Getting to Phoenix is easy enough, but then you need a rental car to get to Gunsite, and all the other attendant travel costs. And traveling each way costs about a full day, which runs up the bill further for me, with boarding for my German Shepherd Dog. This can quickly triple or quadruple the cost of a training event, and outstrip a deputy’s meager budget.
The minds behind the Roundup knew this and wanted to make a Roundup-like experience more accessible to more folks. After a trial run last year with the Sawmill Snub Roundup showed there was enough interest, planning began for Revolver Fest, and here we are!
Revolver Fest 2025 was held at the Clinton House Plantation in Clinton, S.C. I was heretofore unfamiliar with the Clinton House, but it is an incredible range complex catering to shooters of all stripes, including long-range marksmen and upland shotgunners. They provided eight pistol bays and a large shed for the Revolver Fest 2025 festivities.
The three-day event began with a Demo Day, an opportunity for manufacturers to show off their new and noteworthy revolvers. The next two days were filled with classes. Let’s dive in!
Saturday: Demo Day
Just driving to the Clinton house was a nostalgic experience for me. When I was a kid, my long-passed great aunt and uncle, Junior and Lillian retired in Clinton from their home in South Florida. They were some of the most avid outdoorspeople I’ve ever met. There house was full of deer heads, turkey tails, bear claws, alligator teeth, and sponges cut off the coast of the Florida home where they spent their youth. In my early teens my grandfather and I made an annual trip to their home so I could hunt with them. The smell of the pines and red earth brought back some powerful memories.
The Clinton House was convenient, being just a couple miles off the interstate. I arrived, got checked in, and started looking around. There were several bays representing Colt, Diamondback, Lipsey’s, Ruger, Smith & Wesson, and Taurus. Of course I made my way to Diamondback’s bay first, where my old friend Mike Wood was holding court with a bunch of RevolverGuy fans! It was great to catch up with Mike – I think every time we’ve seen each other it has been in a different state!
Let’s quickly go over each booth, in alphabetical order:
Colt
Colt brought out a decent assortment of wheelguns. Their most popular offering was the 3-inch Python, which everyone (including me) wanted to shoot. Also on display was the King Cobra, Grizzly, Viper, and the .22 King Cobra. The rimfire revolver was another very popular gun that saw a lot of action.
Diamondback
Diamondback surprised me. New entrants to the revolver market, their SDR (Self Defense Revolver) models were both aesthetically pleasing and intelligently designed. Borrowing some elements from a variety of other popular revolvers (J-frame grips, a cut-down cylinder à la the LCR, and a Kimber-esque cylinder latch), these guns impressed me. With 2″ and 3″ offerings in .357 Magnum, and a 2″ 9mm Luger, you can expect to see these guns getting some coverage in these pages soon.
Lipsey’s
The biggest selection of revolvers at Revolver Fest 2025 was on the table of the event’s title sponsor, Lipsey’s. These included guns from Ruger and S&W. I had the good fortune to put a few cylinders through the Lipsey’s Exclusive .327 Fed Mag SP101. The size, weight, and potency of this revolver make me think it would be an ideal trail and camp companion. Also on the table were several variations of Smith’s Ultimate Carry Revolver and Mountain Guns. I opted not to shoot these since I have T&E samples of each, with reviews coming soon.
Ruger
There wasn’t a whole lot on the Ruger table that we haven’t seen before. The one revolver that interested me the most was the 10mm GP100. I know, I know… But I’m a sucker for an off-the-wall chambering. I just can’t help myself! This TALO Exclusive variant was in the Wiley Clapp format with a Novak-style rear and a 3-inch tube. True to Ruger form the gun shot well and looked sharp, too.
Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson didn’t show up with anything all that interesting. I shot a 3-inch, Performance Center Carry Comp Model 19, which was neat, but a variation on an old theme. Smith also brought out their .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum 1854 rifles. I somewhat regret not shooting them, but I did handle them and they looked sharp. Frankly, Smith seemed a tad tone-deaf to the nature of the event; also on their table was a Bodyguard 2.0, a Shield X, and an AR. I get it: get your products in front of customers any way you can, but also, read the room, Smith!
Taurus
There was a little bit of everything on the Taurus table from leverguns to ported, big-bore hunting hand-cannons. Most interesting to me were the Executive Grade 856 and the Model 66 Combat. The Model 66 Combat is a medium-frame, 7-shot, 3-inch revolver (sadly, it is stuck with the trench-style rear sight). The action on this gun was absolutely phenomenal, though I wish they’d given it a better sighting setup.
Safety Brief
Demo day concluded with a big all-hands welcome and safety brief. All of the instructors were introduced, and we were cut loose until the following morning.
Class Days: Sunday & Monday
Demo day was certainly a draw, but the real attraction were the training sessions. An event like Revolver Fest 2025 is a great way to train with a number of well-known, in-demand instructors, all in one place. The lineup of instructors at Revolver Fest 2025 was truly impressive. They were, in alphabetical order:
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- Darryl Bolke of American Fighting Revolver teaching Pocket Carry
- Bruce Cartwright of SAC Tactical teaching Revolver Diagnostics
- Wayne Dobbs of Palisade Training Group teaching Skills and Drills
- Justin Dyal of Dialed In Training teaching Double Action Skills
- Bryan Eastridge of American Fighting Revolver teaching One-Handed Shooting
- Greg Ellifritz of Active Response Training teaching Retention Shooting
- Caleb Giddings of Taurus Manufacturing teaching Performance Shooting
- Lew Gosnell of Gunsite teaching Single Action Shooting
- Chuck Haggard of Agile Training & Consulting teaching Ballistic Performance
- And last, but certainly not least, RevolverGuy’s own Mike Wood teaching Holster Skills
It is not often you’ll see a group of instructors like that in one place. The years of institutional knowledge and experience among this group are hard to calculate, but they are easily in the triple digits.
Shooters attending Revolver Fest 2025 had the opportunity to attend four different sessions. These were broken into Sunday AM, Sunday PM, Monday AM, and Monday PM. Unfortunately this didn’t allow shooting with all the instructors, but it did allow a good sampling!
Session 1: Revolver Fundamentals
Sunday morning began with Revolver Fundamentals for all shooters, though with different instructors. This gave each student a solid foundation on safety, trigger control, sight alignment, loading/unloading, and drawing from the holster. This also gave instructors a quick look at students to see if anyone would require any extra attention.
I chose Mike Wood’s Fundamentals class. Mike began with a safety brief, as I would expect. It was detailed, in depth, and worked well in conjunction with the rest of the class. Three hours flew by as we covered grip, sights, and trigger. We worked ball and dummy, drawing from the holster, and finally firing a couple of rounds in a string. The class concluded with the Hardwired Tactical Super Snubby test, an excellent test of wheelgun skill!
At one point, fellow student Nick Rukavina looked over at me and said, “you know, no one approaches this in a more cerebral manner than Mike.” I couldn’t agree more! Before I knew it, the morning session was over and it was time to move on.
Though I didn’t attend it, Mike’s other three sessions were called Holster Skills. I think Mike undersold it with the title; this wasn’t an advanced class on how to draw the gun or wear the holster or anything of the sort. This class covered much more and could have been labeled with all sorts of better (no offense, Mike!) descriptors like, “decision making,” “cognitive,” “target discrimination,” etc. Maybe Mike will describe it to you guys, but if I return next year, this class will be at the top of my list.
After a 90-minute lunch break we started back at 13:30.
Session Two: Retention Shooting
I chose Greg Ellifritz’s Retention Shooting for the afternoon class. I really wanted to use Revolver Fest as a way to get a bit of training with some new instructors. I have trained with Greg several times before, including just a few weeks ago. His Retention Shooting class seemed especially relevant to my new job, so I signed up.
At least 20 people showed up to a class with a registration of 16! Greg rolled with the punches and we made it work. No surprise, but Greg’s class was fantastic. As – I imagine – with most of these classes, there was far to little time to delve into the finer points. The beauty of Revolver Fest – multiple, short sessions – is also its downfall: they all leave you wanting more!
Not that Greg needs any endorsement from me, but I have taken several of his classes including a revolver class, a medical class, and a tactical handgun class. All have been extremely good classes and well worth the time and expense. Greg is a masterful instructor and he is one of the few guys out there who is exceptionally knowledgeable on the revolver.
After Greg’s class I met up with Mike and we headed to dinner.
Dinner & Auction
After Sunday’s sessions a meal was provided. A local caterer provided barbecue that was amazing. I certainly didn’t hear anyone complaining about the food. I also had the good fortune to sit with Mike and Nick and a few others and listen to plenty of great stories and interesting revolver talk!
Concurrent with dinner was a huge drawing. Many prizes were given away including several revolvers, holsters, sights, speedloaders, grips, targets, training packages, and more. The drawing concluded with the auctioning off of a Lipsey’s 5-inch, half-lug GP100. Steve Havey, who I met at the first Cognitive Conclave, won this auction.
Sessions 3 & 4
I planned to attend Darryl Bolke’s Pocket Carry and Justin Dyal’s Double Action Skills classes. Unfortunately I had a family emergency and had to leave a day early (don’t worry – all is well). Even missing two of my four sessions, I don’t feel like I got the short end of the stick; Revolver Fest represents a tremendous training value.
The Best Part
The best part of Revolver Fest 2025 was the fellowship with other revolver enthusiasts. At this stage in my shooting career, it’s hard for me to attend a class and not see someone I know. At Revolver Fest 2025 I saw a bunch of people I know, and met a few new friends.
Lucky Gunner’s Chris Baker was at Revolver Fest. Chris and I go back several years, to just a bit before RevolverGuy’s inception. His Wheelgun Wednesday series was instrumental in getting me into revolvers in the first place, and RevolverGuy owes its lineage, at least in part, to those articles. Chris is definitely a forward thinker in revolverland, and it is always great to talk to him.
Justin Dyal is on my short list of trainers whose classes I want to attend. Justin and I served together at MARSOC way back in the day, and reconnected last summer at Simon Golob’s On Demand Performance class. I didn’t attend one of Justin’s sessions at Revolver Fest but heard nothing but good things from folks who did.
My buddy Darren was there, too. I met Darren at a shotgun class back in the spring, and coincidentally took a handgun instructor class with his dad a couple of years before that. Darren is a couple decades younger than me. He is, however, an equally good shot and is maybe even a bigger revolver fan. It is very encouraging to see younger people seriously taking up the wheelgun.
Of course, I was most excited to hang out with Mike. It has been several years since we’ve seen each other. Back in 2020 he and his wife traveled out to my place. Prior to that, the last time I’d seen him was in Arizona on our Prescott/Ruger factory visit, and just before that, a quick visit in San Diego. I really appreciate Mike’s friendship and it was a pleasure to get to catch up in person. He and I are talking about not making it so long until the next visit, and maybe meeting up at Thunderstick ’26 (even though I just complained about how hard it is to get west of the Mississippi)!
RevolverFest 2026?
If you missed Revolver Fest 2025, it seems likely that you’ll have a chance to attend next year… And if you attended this year, it’s almost a certainty you want to come back. Fret not – it looks like Revolver Fest 2026 is already in the works. This year 227 people showed up for Demo Day and exactly 150 attended the classes.
That demonstrates solid interest in wheelguns, but it wouldn’t hurt to let us know you want more! Feel free to chime in below and let us know about your experience at Revolver Fest 2025! If you weren’t there and would like to attend next year, let us hear that, too!
From my completely unbiased perspective, this is a phenomenal training event. The 2026 Revolver Fest would well worth your time and money to attend. You’ll meet lots of fun folks, see plenty of cool revolvers, and train with some of the best instructors in the business.
*****
Video links
Lipsey’s Revolver Fest 2025 Video
American Fighting Revolver Revolver Fest 2025 Video
Justin, thanks for your kind words and for the great review! I’m humbled that you found the class worthy of your time–that’s high praise, coming from you.
I like to describe events like Revolver Fest and Roundup as social events interrupted by occasional gunfire. The camaraderie is always the highlight for me! Spending time with old friends and making new ones, while we share our mutual enthusiasm for revolvers and shooting, is the best part. It’s good to spend some time with your tribe, and it was particularly good to reconnect with you after such a long break! I really enjoyed that.
I was favorably impressed by the Diamondback revolvers that I spent time with. Those were the first production samples I’d seen, and I think they’ve got a lot going for them. I look forward to doing more work with them and doing a review for the RG audience.
I’m looking forward to next year already. We’ll be back at Clinton House in October 2026, so I guess I’ve got a year to come up with a better name for the holster class. ; ^ )
If you guys went to the Fest, let us hear from you. Tell us about your favorite parts, the cool guns you saw, and what you learned. I didn’t get to see the other Demo Day displays, so I’m especially curious what you thought were the most interesting guns out there.
Hey Justin, it’s nice to see your name attached to an article here again! Thanks for the excellent Revolver Fest review, I’m glad you got to go! Good training, good company, time well spent. I’ve wanted to go to the Round Up at Gunsite since it’s been held there, but I always burn my leave on hunts prior to the event, don’t want to leave my guys short at work, etc. Your review pushed me over the edge- my wife green lighted the request, and I registered. I’m hopeful for a cancellation that may have left a spot open to accommodate my last minute-ness. Be safe with your day job, congratulations on it!
Hey, Kevin! Good luck, I sure hope you get a spot. I’m also hoping to convince Mike to record his talk this year. I can’t make it out there, but would sure love to see it!
Hopefully our paths will cross one of these days. Again, good to hear from you!
Justin, Thanks for the AAR. Unfortunately Revolverfest is as geographically unsuitable for me as the Roundup is for you, but I’m not surprised that DB and Y put on a great show. Having only a 45 minute drive to Gunsite, I’m looking forward to my fourth Pat Rogers Memorial Revolver Roundup next month. You should arrange to attend on of these years. Thanks again, Michael
Mike, Tell us more about your “Holster Skills” session. Will you be reprising it at the Roundup?
Michael, I think I’ll be in the classroom at Roundup, not working the range. Doing a presentation on Lessons Learned from three notable LE revolver gunfights (not Newhall). I might do the Holster class at Roundup in 2026.
The Holster Skills class is designed to put some context into working from the holster. We do some skill building in the early part, but I spend the back half forcing students to make tactical decisions related to drawing and shooting. I think that’s more valuable than just doing a bunch of reps.
Justin,
Glad to hear you’re commissioned full time, I think you’ll not regret it. Interesting to hear that Chris Baker inspired RG. Sounds like you rubbed elbows with some excellent people at the event, and had a good experience… thanks for the review! I wonder if they have dates set for next year? My annual vacation picks start the rounds in November, and I’ve changed shifts so I don’t exactly get first dibs on anything with the very senior bunch I’m working with now.
Riley, the plan is to do it on the Columbus Day weekend again next year, so 10-12 October 2026 is what you should aim for.
Thank you, sir – nice to see a familiar face around here, so to speak!
Chris and Lucky Gunner were one factor among several that nudged me in the direction of revolverguy. One of those was naivete – now that I know how much work running a blog is I’ve held back from starting at least one other. With a 10-year anniversary just around the corner you can be sure a full post about RG’s origin story is in the making.
I’d sure love to see you there next year. No guarantees that I’ll be able to make it, but I’m sure going to try!
No guarantees on this side either but it would be a pleasure. I’ll look forward to that article when it comes out!
I was able to attend Demo Day and yes sir I had goodtime. It was good to be amongst a large group of revolver people. Just being there looking and listening to conversations, checking out revolver related stuff and of course just walking up and getting to shoot a wide variety of wheel guns. And for only twenty-five bucks, if that ain’t pretty cool.
The Clinton House Plantation was just a scenic four-hour drive for me, right off the interstate and easy to access. The shooting range was top notch. The weather was good, and the pavilion was a good home base to hang out at in between shooting. The offerings at the pavilion were good, I bought a Simply Rugged holster, but I expected there to be more venders selling revolver related stuff, maybe next year.
I got to meet DB and Bryan of American Fighting Revolver, which was ok, I think they were concerned with making the event run smoothly and were focused on that. I was surprised to run into Chris Baker of LuckyGunner walking between ranges to which I’m a big fan of him and his videos. Chris was very personable and chatted with me a couple different times about a variety of topics. I missed the opportunity to meet with Mike Wood at the pavilion and later he was busy entertaining at the Diamondback booth. Next time Mike.
Lipsey’s by far was my favorite booth! Lots of cool guns and excellent staff. The head Lipsey’s guy, I don’t recall his name, I found him to be passionate, informative, patient, and really into what he was doing. Lots of good vibes. I went back to their booth several times and shot several different guns. Very well done Lipsey’s!
Smith & Wesson table was just blah! I’m a S&W guy and was wanting them to be awesome. It was like they kind of just gathered up some stuff the week before. Sent that stuff along with a couple of lukewarm employees out to make a halfhearted showing. And, to make matters worse they are now headquartered in nearby TN and could have loaded up some vans packed full of guns, swag, and people. Maybe next time? Come on S&W, y’all can do better.
The high light for me at the S&W booth was I got to see, hold, and talk about a real Registered Magnum from a RevolverFest participant!
The Ruger, Colt, and Taurus booths were generally all solid and adequate in my opinion. I shot some and watched others shoot. I did dry fire the new Python and my S&W tuned trigger finger was not happy and quickly decided that the Python sure is pretty, but the trigger on the version I dry fired was not that good. The trigger noticeably stacked at the end right before the break. I have almost zero experience with Colt revolvers and I was not impressed with the Python I handled. Except she was pretty. And boy do they think a lot of them, kind of pricey.
I’m new to the Diamondback brand and handled a few and shot one. Not sure if it was just me or if the model I shot was off, I could not make good hits with it and I train with my J-frames regularly.
RevolverFest was a success, and I can imagine next years to be even bigger and better!
I would like to see more venders of all kinds selling whatever, more single action guns, and maybe a food vender or two on demo day selling some hotdogs and drinks or something. And of course, S&W needs to redeem themselves with a better showing.
Looking forward to next year.
Glenn, thanks for the great feedback! It’s good to see the event through the eyes of the participants, and I think your insights are valuable. The Lipsey’s gent was no doubt Jason Cloessener, and you won’t find a more passionate advocate for revolvers in the industry.
I’m glad you got to experiment with some other brands and guns. I agree that it would be good to have more vendors, and hope more will get on board for next year, now that they’ve seen how successful the event was. We had invited some makers of single action guns but didn’t get any takers–hopefully we’ll fill that niche next year (on that note, I was surprised to learn Ruger didn’t bring any of their great single actions).
I’m sorry we din’t get the chance to shake hands, but hope we’ll be able to fix that in 2026. Thanks again for your feedback!
Sorry if we were tangled Glenn. Darryl and I were up to our proverbial asses in alligators that day! Thanks for coming out and hope to see you next year.
Any chance somebody will host an event in Utah one of these days?
Jeb, I can’t speak for Bryan and DB, but would suspect that won’t happen soon. We need to reach a certain level of participation to make the event profitable, and it’s a challenge to pick a location that will support enough student interest and have a good training site. it’s tricky, and I think you’ll probably see the East Coast event mature for a few years before other locations, if any, are added. I understand it’s difficult, but you’ll need to travel to take advantage of the training, for a while.
My wife and I did attend Revolver Fest. We are both retired LEOs, who started our careers carrying S&W model 65 s. While we spent the majority of our work days with semi automatic handguns in our holsters, we prefer to own and shoot revolvers. We were happy to have the opportunity to refresh our training. We thought Demo Day was fun. We found something to purchase from each vendor present. I purchased a holster from Wilderness Tactical, and ordered one from Palmetto Leather, and Simply Rugged. I appreciated the opportunity to speak with the owners of these companies, to discuss my preferences. I felt more confident in my purchase decision. I have purchased a handgun from R&G Firearms via the internet, and I was pleased to see that shop with a table at Demo Day. We had a number of pleasant conversations with the owner, over the next 3 days. In the Taurus shooting bay, I took advantage of the opportunity to shoot a TORO gun. It did satisfy my curiosity about red dots, but I do not think they are for me. I can say the same about 454 Casull and the S&W 500 handguns I tried. My wife and I were both pleasantly surprised by the Diamondback bay. I had never seen one of their handguns in a retail shop, nor had I handled one. We shot each sample available, and did not find anything to dislike. My wife shot the 3 inch 38 sample very well. I do not need another snub nose, but those guns tempted me. In the S&W bay I was most interested in the new version of the model 36. I thought that the trigger was remarkably shootable. In the Lipsey’s bay I was most impressed with the 22LR Mountain Gun. One of those may be in my future . In the Colt bay I found the Viper to be very much to my liking. Alas, my safe is full of 357s, and I can not justify another. I do think I can find room for the Anaconda however. The training days worked out well for us. The 3 hour blocks of instruction were just enough to introduce the concepts taught by each instructor, and to encourage us to seek further training from the presenters. If we had to pick a favorite class, we both thought the retention shooting block by Greg Ellifritz would be our choice. We would really like to attend a longer version of his class. Our biggest problem was being limited to only 4 classes with so many interesting possibilities. The fundamentals class, required of all the shooters, was our least favorite. It was just too basic old revolver shooters, and we would have preferred to spend the valuable class time on something else. My wife loves to shoot, but is not a “gun” person at all. She had some concern that she would be a poor fit for the group of shooters likely to attend. That was not the case at all. Everyone that we met there, instructor, or student, was very pleasant, and welcoming. We truly enjoyed meeting some of the people in the industry that we had been following for years. We had a great time. Shortly after we had begun our 1100 mile drive back home, my wife told me that she would like to attend again next year. She has already started thinking about which instructors she would like to train with in 2026.
Kevin, that’s wonderful feedback, and I appreciate you taking the time to share it. I’m glad the event was worth the miles you put on the car!
I liked the three-hour blocks, myself. As a student at Roundup, where I’ve seen both two-hour and three-hour formats in the past, I think the three-hour is much better. It allows you to get deeper into the instruction, and eliminates a lot of lost training time as people travel to/from other classes. It’s definitely not enough, if you get a great instructor like Greg, but it works for a conference-style event like Revolver Fest.
I was busy working the Diamondback bay and didn’t get out to see the other players, so I’m really enjoying the reports from folks like you. It’s interesting to see what guns attracted people. It’s neat that you could try things out like oddball calibers or optics that you might not normally run across.
The wide range of experience at an open invitation conference like this lends itself to doing the basics class at the start, to make sure everyone has a certain baseline. Hopefully the more experienced shooters will still find some value in sharpening the essentials, but I can understand why you’d want to substitute another specialty class for it. There’s never enough time to take all the classes you’d like to at one of these events, which is why I’m glad to hear you and your wife will rejoin us next year.
Thanks again for the super report!
Mike,
We understand the reason for the fundamentals block, and enjoyed the opportunity to be trained by Bryan. We would have made another choice however, given the number of topics available, and the limited time.
With that said, we were pleased with our experience, and plan to be back next year. We would happily take the fundamentals class once again if required to do so.
Thanks,
Looking forward to seeing the two of you! Until then, be safe!
Kevin, if I’m not mistaken, I had the opportunity to speak with you and your wife. You guys drove down from New England if memory serves.
Anyhow, I’m glad you both go to attend, and that you enjoyed the classes – I know I certainly did. I know what you mean about having a hard time narrowing down to just a handful of classes from at least twice that many options!
Thanks for checking in with us about your experience, and we’re glad to hear you made it home safely. Hopefully I’ll run into you again next year,
Justin
You are correct.
We did enjoy meeting you.
We will see you next year, but we may choose to fly in
.
Hate to be the fly in the frosting, but did anyone get a chance to ask the assembled manufacturers about their spotty quality control and desultory repair service? More importantly, did anyone get any useful responses?
I didn’t get a chance to talk to the manufacturers about it, but I’d like to hear from anyone who did.
We had one gun (out of 7) go down (frozen action) at the Diamondback booth, and one gun that occasionally had a light strike that couldn’t be traced back to ammo. I heard from a number of shooters who experienced problems with multiple guns at S&W (sights, barrel clocking, frozen action, etc). The best place to shoot S&Ws was actually over at the Lipsey’s booth, where the guns were reportedly doing well. Maybe Lipsey’s did some inspections, cleaning and maintenance on the samples they brought?
Mike,
It seemed to me that many of the company reps were not experienced with revolvers and didn’t clean them occasionally. I shot all day on demo day. By the end of the day, many of the guns were in dire need of a little cleaning. Caleb at the Taurus booth is the only rep I saw do any cleaning on the revolvers.
Hmm . . . a lesson in there, perhaps? 😁
Justin,
Great summary of the weekend. Revolver Fest ‘25 was a great event! I was fortunate to train under Lew Gosnell, Greg Ellifritz (same class with you), DB and Justin Dyal. All of them were outstanding as expected. I have already started planning for next year’s event. Having heard several reports on Mike’s class, it’s now at the top of my list. I had never had the chance to train under Justin Dyal, but I am now looking forward to training with him again.
While the Industry day and training were fantastic, I spent a lot of time talking with a lot of great men and women. I talked with Rob Leahy of Simply Rugged Holsters, several guys from Lipsey’s and many others in the hotel lobby until 12-1am a couple nights. I enjoyed sitting with you, Mike, Nick and a couple other guys at Sunday nights dinner and auction. The friendship and fellowship of the weekend was a highlight for me.
Other highlights included seeing some amazing leather holsters (I ended up with a black alligator pocket holster from Simply Rugged. Thank you Rob!) and an old school Kydex holster (Thanks Greg Ellifritz). As for revolvers, I saw a S&W Registered Magnum, Custom S&W’s and Ruger’s, and Colt Single Action’s. All of them sporting some beautiful grips. My wish list grew as well including the Lipsey’s 617 and 686 Mountain Guns, the Lipsey’s 432 UC TI, and the Ruger GP100 3” in .357/.38.
Looking forward to next year and reading your upcoming book.
Stay safe and God willing, I’ll see you and others at Revolver Fest ‘26!
Kevin, it was great to meet you and spend some time together at the BBQ! I’m so glad you got to spend some time with Rob–one of my favorite guys in the industry, and a lot of fun to talk to. His leather is outstanding stuff, as you know–I bet that black alligator holster looks sharp!
You sure had a great lineup of instructors! My one regret about working the event is that I don’t get to be a student under those guys, because I know there is still much to learn from them. I look forward to seeing you next year in class!
I attended the Fest with my friend, Kyle. Kyle is a police officer from a small town in southwest Ohio and a firearms trainer. He knows and is friends with many of the trainers. The Lipseys booth was the favorite of pretty much everyone. I have a 432 UC and shot the Ruger in .32 and cannot really say which is better. I did order a 632 UC from a gun store the other day. I shot the S&W carry comp and was disappointed in how low my shots were. I am upset with S&W for showcasing a product that wasn’t perfect. I really enjoyed the classes given by DB, Greg and Wayne Dobbs. If at all possible I will train with these guys next year. I have been checking their schedules everyday. Everyone I meant was very friendly. These attendees are all a great bunch. Kyle attended Mike’s class on Monday afternoon. Kyle did correspond with Bryan concerning some of the shortcomings and his proposed solutions. I will bring up the most glaring: some attendees really really needed a basic class with hands on instruction. These people really slowed down some classes. In a class I attended the guy next to me kept bending over to retrieve a speedloader, even after the instructor and I told him to stop several times. He had very poor gun handling techniques. Overall I had a positive experience and plan on another trip in 2026.
Bruce, thanks for the report! It’s always difficult to walk that line between the beginning and advanced shooters in a conference-style format, but this year’s experience will result in some changes for next year that should allow us to do a better job of that. It sounds like you were very helpful to the instructor, in keeping an extra eye on your fellow student, and I’m sure he really appreciated it. Safety always has to come first.
I think we had a great crowd at ‘Fest, and really enjoyed visiting with everyone. I look forward to seeing you in 2026 and hope to have you in class.
Justin,
Great meeting you! It was a good event. Can’t wait for the one next year!
It was an incredible event. Bryan and Darryl’s ability to bring so many great instructors to one class is truly impressive.
It was an honor to have you in class, and a pleasure to see you again. RevolverGuys: If you’re looking for a great holster, made by someone who understands our needs, because he’s one of us, please check out Harry’s Holsters
I camped with my family at the Clinton House in an RV site during Revolver Fest ’25. No doubt about it, the highlight of the event was getting to meet Mike Wood in person! We’ve been communicating via email for a couple of years but haven’t met in person until this month. Mike got to meet my wife and our two dogs too!
I only signed up for Demo Day and I shot the following revolvers, ammo included, for the grand sum of $25.00.
Diamondback .357 magnum 3″
Colt Anaconda .44 magnum 6″
Colt Grizzly .357 magnum 4″
Ruger GP 100 10mm 2.5″
Taurus Judge .45 Colt 3″
Ruger GP 100 .327 magnum 3″ (Lipsey’s)
S&W .357 Comp. 2.5″
Colt Kodiak .44 magnum 6″
Diamondback 9mm revolver 2″
I also brought my four revolvers and had Monte Long, of XS sights, install a tritium front sight on my S&W 242 Ti – 7 shooter.
When Monte finished he said, “send me an email next week and I’ll tell you how to pay me.” Great to see trust, craftsmanship and honesty displayed by Monte and XS Sights!
I thoroughly enjoyed my Demo Day and every instructor and company representative was friendly and safety conscious, except one.
One gal seemed like she wanted to be anywhere else other than working at the S&W booth. She had no interest in my 25 year old Titanium, denied my request to test shoot a few rounds with my new XS sight. However I did learn that she was tired and hungry. Fortunately Mike helped me out with my test fire request.
On the other hand Kaylee from Colt set me up with information regarding a very generous retired LEO discount. I was smitten with the Colt Kodiak after firing those .44 caliber magnums!
Next year I’ll be attending the entire three day event and hope there’s an option for experienced revolver aficionados since I’ve been carrying revolvers since 1981. Perhaps a few of my sons can join their old man for a couple days of range work so we can all learn from Mike Wood and the other instructors.
The honor and pleasure were mine, my friend! It was a highlight to connect with you and meet the family. I look forward to seeing you next year.
Thanks for the great feedback on the Demo Day. I think it was a fantastic opportunity for RevolverGuys to get their hands on guns they wouldn’t normally be able to shoot. I know some of the shooters were surprised to learn how much they enjoyed or disliked guns that they had prior opinions of–there’s nothing like taking them for a test drive to know for sure.
Monte and Kaylee are great representatives of their companies and the industry, and I’m glad you got to work with them. That new XS sight seemed to transform your 242! S&W seems to be their own worst enemy, these days.
Kaylee is our people. She’s one of my favorites in the industry. She takes great care of AFR and my only hope is she stays at COLT!
Great write-up and great to see you contributing to Revolver Guy again, Justin! Looking forward to those reviews you mentioned. I’ve been very happy with my Lipsey’s SP101 in .327 FM.
As the event is a mixture of old and new, I would really like to see a retro event like the old PPC courses we had to shoot for qualification back in the day. I believe the geezers would enjoy remembering our hey-days and younger, non LE shooters would enjoy seeing what range quals were like back then. Plus, it would raise the round-count, which overall was actually quite low.
OTT the event was a hit with me, especially the BBQ which I found to be Much superior to the RR at Gunsite last year.
Thanks Donn! I agree the BBQ was much better than the meals we’ve cooked for ourselves at Roundup–the vendor did a really great job. We’ve got a great wealth of PPC experience in Bryan, so maybe we can talk him into putting something like that on the schedule? It’s a super idea!
Justin,
Hey. I’m Darren’s dad you mentioned in your report. Thought I was going to get to see you again at Tom’s Shotgun instructor class at Apache earlier this year. But, i understand the job change.
Darren gave me the rundown of this year’s ‘fest. And we are definetely making plans for next year. The wife and I were in TN this year celebrating 36yrs, so I couldn’t be there this year. Anyway, good writeup as always and look forward to crossing paths again.
Semper Fidelis and early Happy 250th!
Steve
Hey, Steve, it’s great to hear from you! I’ll have to keep it in mind that you do some gunsmithing. Too bad we didn’t get to meet up – would have been nice to see you. Just starting into a new career I had an opportunity that I had to jump at…maybe next time, and maybe next year at Revolver Fest!
Semper Fi,
Justin
How is Mr. Ellifritz doing? I seem to recall it being mentioned in the comments on a previous article that he had the c-word and his prognosis wasn’t good. I wish the best for him, as my mother is also dealing with the c-word right now.
I was fortunate to spend a bunch of time with him Axel, and he had a good weekend. He still has the cancer, but was looking and feeling good, and his spirits were high. I’ll keep him and your mother in my prayers, along with everyone else who is dealing with it. Hang tough.
I had an awesome time at American Fighting Revolver’s Revolver Fest! The event was packed with great people, incredible revolvers, and some seriously informative instruction. I had the opportunity to shoot a variety of wheelguns and picked up a ton of useful tips from the training sessions. One of the highlights was getting to chat with Mike Wood — he’s as knowledgeable and down-to-earth as they come. He even signed my copy of his book, which was a really cool gesture. Overall, it was an outstanding weekend — great shooting, great learning, and great company. Can’t wait for the next one!
Gosh Mark, you’ve got me blushing now. Thanks for the kind comments! It was a privilege to meet you and an honor to sign your book. I look forward to seeing you at the next one!