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Primer on snubbies

Sld1959

Sld1959

Ronin
No, they are not for everyone. And really not interested if you hate them. But for those who are new to handguns, or revolvers this is a nice primer on the different styles of short barreled, or snub nosed revolvers, or snubbies for short. If nothing else it will help you intelligently know what you are looking at and why.

americanhandgunner.com

Snubbies The Four Formats

If you think the double action revolver is obsolete for self-defense purposes, you’ve spent too much time listening to the wrong sources.
americanhandgunner.com americanhandgunner.com
 
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When my son graduated the police academy my wife and I presented him a 642 Airweight as a backup. Snubbies definitely have their niche. You have to practice with them, and recoil in the airweights can be discouraging for novices. I have seen some extraordinary feats of marksmanship with snubbies in the hands of great shooters. For the rest of us, they are far superior to a sharp stick in a close up fight.
 
I have a 1987 Taurus .38-special snubby that I do not care for, however it was my very first handgun purchase as an adult in 1992. Thus I will never sell it willingly. Sights integral to the barrel and frame suck and are impossible to see without bright light on the revolver from overhead. But I can hit paper from 30' and in (with all the lights on!). But I can say with certainty that it has never malfunctioned.
 
Jfal said:
I have a 1987 Taurus .38-special snubby that I do not care for, however it was my very first handgun purchase as an adult in 1992. Thus I will never sell it willingly. Sights integral to the barrel and frame suck and are impossible to see without bright light on the revolver from overhead. But I can hit paper from 30' and in (with all the lights on!). But I can say with certainty that it has never malfunctioned.
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If the revolver is blued, I find whiteout covering the facing of the rear sight and a bright color nail polish, I prefer bright green, can help with sight picture and acquisition. If it is stainless I like to blacken the rear sight blade and use a bright nail polish on the front. There is also a glow in the dark paint which I got recently and like well. Will have to look up name.

A file can help with dialing in the sights. The trough can be widened on a side to move POI in or deepened to move point of impact UO up or down in conjunction with filing the front sight. There are videos of how to do this.

Thos is og course a last resort after trying different loads.
 
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Jfal said:
I have a 1987 Taurus .38-special snubby that I do not care for, however it was my very first handgun purchase as an adult in 1992. Thus I will never sell it willingly. Sights integral to the barrel and frame suck and are impossible to see without bright light on the revolver from overhead. But I can hit paper from 30' and in (with all the lights on!). But I can say with certainty that it has never malfunctioned.
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When training police recruits with fixed sight revolvers we found that painting the face of the rear notch green and the top of the front sight orange with model paint helped a lot of shooters. Standard equipment in my instructor bag in the day were bottles of flourescent green and flourescent orange and some model paintbrushes.
 
It's a stainless frame and cylinder. I have painted the front post on my M1A and Garand for the exact reasons you described...although I used nail polish. The Taurus's rear sight is very small and shallow, while the front post fills up the notch completely while aiming...if I think of it I'll post pictures this evening. I won't be filing the metal...it is a memento that resides 100% of the time in my safe for nostalgia.
 
Did anyone notice the barrel length mentioned on the J frame as 1 3/8" instead of 1 7/8"?
I personally wouldn't have a shrouded or hammerless model, but to each his own. Having rubber stocks make sense on these, especially on heavier recoiling rounds. I had a pre-36 model that was a beauty. Having no money at the time, it was sold to attend a family funeral.
 
Long time trainer here. Good read! To me whenever someone goes on about all the negatives on a snubby I have to wonder are they talking from any experience or just regurgitating their own “Tactical Timmy Special Ops favorite YouTube trainers bias?!?!?!

I cut my teeth in revolvers in a duty capacity and saw some detectives (and citizens) use them.

Snubbies are not a going into battle sidearm they are a get off the X and out of trouble or backup sidearm so of course they aren’t going to compete with a Glock 17.

Sometimes I want to ask the snubby haters if their ex girl has the same bias against them compared to their new BF!
 
My father inherited a 1960's (Don't know exact date) S&W snub nose stainless steel 38 special. Wooden grips, surprisingly heavy for how small it is.

Shoots -very- different than any other gun I've tried. Definitely something you need to practice with but not in a bad way. The grip and trigger pull are both very unique.

Not a picture of his but this is the exact same one.
063_smith-and-wesson-model-60.jpg
 
Bragah said:
My father inherited a 1960's (Don't know exact date) S&W snub nose stainless steel 38 special. Wooden grips, surprisingly heavy for how small it is.

Shoots -very- different than any other gun I've tried. Definitely something you need to practice with but not in a bad way. The grip and trigger pull are both very unique.

Not a picture of his but this is the exact same one.
063_smith-and-wesson-model-60.jpg
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Many departments issued the Model 60 to their detectives and command staff. I kick myself for not buying up several of these surplus guns when departments transitioned to semi-autos.
 
ECS686 said:
Long time trainer here. Good read! To me whenever someone goes on about all the negatives on a snubby I have to wonder are they talking from any experience or just regurgitating their own “Tactical Timmy Special Ops favorite YouTube trainers bias?!?!?!

I cut my teeth in revolvers in a duty capacity and saw some detectives (and citizens) use them.

Snubbies are not a going into battle sidearm they are a get off the X and out of trouble or backup sidearm so of course they aren’t going to compete with a Glock 17.

Sometimes I want to ask the snubby haters if their ex girl has the same bias against them compared to their new BF!
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They have their place for sure
 
Snubbies absolutely have a place as a close-quarters fighting weapon. The capacity issue is over-played, imo. A semi-auto can do things a revolver can't, but the opposite is true as well. Any lifelong student of weapons systems should be proficient with, and understand the applications of, the fighting revolver imo.
 
Great article. I'm a big fan of snub nosed revolvers. I've owned S&Ws, Rugers, Charter Arms, Taurus.

I currently own a S&W 638 Airweight Bodyguard that is one of my favorite firearms of all time. I changed the stock boot grips to bigger Hogue ones.

When I lived in Arkansas(North Little Rock area near the Faulkner County line) poisonous snakes were common because of the creeks and such. I never stepped out of my house without muck boots and my 638.

Now that I'm back home in South Texas the 638 is handy to carry on walks. Plus some of my female relatives like it because it's light and simple to use. I like them well enough to let them handle and shoot it, not enough to let them have it...:)

I have been looking at Taurus 856 spurless snubbies. I think I would get a 3 inch version because I wish my Bodyguard had a longer barrel.

I'll be 65 soon, God willing. Snub nosed revolvers are so much easier to use than most semi-autos, even though a S&W EZ is pretty close in ease of use(I keep hearing good things about Ruger EC9s, so I'm going to handle one of those one of these days...:)).

I also like how well 38 CCI snake shot works in my short barreled revolver. Most times one shot did the trick but I have encountered some pretty big aggressive Water Moccasin snakes that required 2 shots.

As a martial arts instructor and student, I like the simplicity of a snub nosed revolver. It's a good compliment to a knife for self-defense.
 
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Hammer67 said:
Snubbies absolutely have a place as a close-quarters fighting weapon. The capacity issue is over-played, imo. A semi-auto can do things a revolver can't, but the opposite is true as well. Any lifelong student of weapons systems should be proficient with, and understand the applications of, the fighting revolver imo.
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Well said sir.
I like the "lifelong weapons systems" phrase. I've been studying and handling weapons from a very young age.

It started when I was young and in Reynosa, Mexico flirting more than I should have. A rock to hit anything that got close while I ran back to the US side was a good weapon system for that environment...:)

I've been curious about "weapon systems" since then, but I have also done my best to not get into stupid situations...:)
 
Bragah said:
My father inherited a 1960's (Don't know exact date) S&W snub nose stainless steel 38 special. Wooden grips, surprisingly heavy for how small it is.

Shoots -very- different than any other gun I've tried. Definitely something you need to practice with but not in a bad way. The grip and trigger pull are both very unique.

Not a picture of his but this is the exact same one.
063_smith-and-wesson-model-60.jpg
Click to expand...
That’s a historic piece, there.

The Model 60 wasn’t only S&W’s first stainless revolver, but it was the first all-stainless production gun ever.

They started production in 1965, so you’ve got one of the earlier ones.

Very nice.
 
Jfal said:
It's a stainless frame and cylinder. I have painted the front post on my M1A and Garand for the exact reasons you described...although I used nail polish. The Taurus's rear sight is very small and shallow, while the front post fills up the notch completely while aiming...if I think of it I'll post pictures this evening. I won't be filing the metal...it is a memento that resides 100% of the time in my safe for nostalgia.
Click to expand...
If you blacken the face of the rear sight, and paint the front sight a bright color. It helps make the sight more visible against the stainless.

20230404_153440.jpg
 
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