A reader asks about snubnose revolvers for defensive use

 

Reader E.W. e-mailed the following suggestion:

You mentioned once awhile back about pocket carrying a Bulldog 44 special, and I found that intriguing, as I'm starting to experience some back pain carrying a duty size pistol on my hip every day. I think it would be interesting if you wrote a blog post about that, what you carry, where at, how, etc.

I'd be interested to read that, as well as all the comments that are sure to come from it.

As requested, here goes.

First off, let's get arguments about the platform out of the way.  I agree that a semi-auto pistol has several advantages over a revolver when it comes to defensive shooting (which is why I usually carry one).  They include a more easily concealed weapon, larger ammunition capacity, greater ease and speed of reloading, (usually) a smoother, easier trigger, and greater familiarity with the platform among most modern shooters.  However, for pocket carry in particular, a pistol has corresponding disadvantages.  The greatest of these is that, if it's necessary to shoot from the pocket, the slide can (and usually will) get caught up in the material of the pocket, preventing its normal operation and jamming the pistol.  Secondly, in order to fit in a typical pocket, the pistol must be smaller in size than a normal full-size or compact pistol.  All other things being equal, in the hands of all but well-trained and -experienced shooters, smaller handguns are harder to shoot fast and accurately than a larger weapon.  Finally, many modern pistols are equipped with optical sights.  It's very hard to fit such sights into a pocket, on top of the gun itself, meaning that the shooter will have to rely on old-fashioned, much smaller "iron" sights - something with which they may no longer be very familiar.

On the other hand, small "snubnose" revolvers offer advantages and disadvantages of their own.  Their ammunition capacity is smaller, generally 5 or 6 rounds, and reloading them is more complicated (thanks to the need to remove empty cartridge cases before inserting new ones in the cylinder) and slower than simply swapping out a semi-auto pistol's magazine.  Their long double-action trigger pull is often more difficult to master than a shorter, crisper semi-auto trigger, requiring more training and practice.  Their sights (particularly on pocket-size revolvers) leave much to be desired;  there's a reason early models were often referred to as "belly guns", because that was the range at which they were intended to be used, and it was hard for most shooters to aim them accurately at longer ranges.  That does not apply to experts, of course, as Jerry Miculek demonstrates!

We can't all be Jerry Miculek, unfortunately, but with training and practice, we can certainly learn to use a snub-nose revolver well enough to defend ourselves with it.  Nevertheless, it's one of the more difficult handgun options to use well, and does require time, training and practice (and the expenditure of a fair amount of ammunition) to master it.  It is not, repeat, NOT a "gun for beginners".  I get very annoyed when I see ignorant gun store clerks try to sell a novice shooter a snubnose revolver for defense.  It's actually one of the worst choices for new shooters, for all the reasons mentioned above, and under the wrong circumstances might even contribute to their death or serious injury.  Buyer beware!

Notwithstanding the factors mentioned above, a snub-nose revolver (usually defined as a revolver with a barrel less than 2 to 3 inches long) has several real advantages for defensive use.  First, a .38 Special or .357 Magnum snubnose is small enough to fit into most trouser pockets.  If your pockets aren't quite big enough to conceal it, simply cut open the bottom seam, add an inch or two of suitable material, have your local tailor or seamstress stitch them together, then sew the (new) bottom closed.  That should take care of concealment problems.  If you're using a slightly larger snubby, like the Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Special, you might want to add a little width to the pocket using the same technique.  Just make sure the mouth of the pocket is wide enough to allow you to draw your weapon without it getting caught on the edges.

Weight is a major factor for pocket carry.  Steel-frame snubnose revolvers weight the most;  an aluminum-and-steel version (which Smith & Wesson calls the "Airweight") is a lot less;  and the modern titanium and scandium versions are almost feather-light by comparison.  A heavy gun will drag your pocket down, making it difficult to conceal and rendering your appearance less smart:  but it'll be easier to shoot, as its weight will absorb more of the recoil.  A lighter version won't drag down your pocket nearly as much, but you'll feel much more recoil - and have the problem of controlling a hard-kicking gun in rapid, aimed fire - when you use it.  You have to make that call for yourself.  As I get older, I've come to intensely dislike the sharp, painful recoil of a scandium or titanium snubby.  I've stayed with the "Airweight" or medium-weight versions, except for .357 Magnum, where I want all the weight I can get to handle that kick!  (That's one reason I don't like carrying that caliber in a small gun.)

The rounded profile of a snubnose revolver is less likely to catch on the inside of the pocket than the (usually) sharper edges of a semi-auto pistol's frame.  The hammer of the revolver is also prone to catching, but you can buy revolvers with concealed hammers (e.g. Smith & Wesson's Centennial style) or shrouds that fit over exposed hammers, which remove this danger.  A snubby's sights are usually abbreviated, which may make them harder to see in a hurry in poor light conditions, but which slide out of a pocket more easily than the bigger, more angular sights on larger revolvers.

Those small sights bring up a very important point.  In defensive shooting, one needs to be able to get a "flash sight picture" - i.e. rapidly line up one's handgun's sights on a target - in order to stop the threat;  but hard-to-see sights, particularly in low light levels such as on the street at night, don't make this easy.  For many of us, this gets worse as we get older.  My eyes can no longer focus on the front sight with any clarity unless I'm wearing reading glasses or bifocals.  My almost universal recommendation to my disabled students was that they fit Crimson Trace Lasergrips or an equivalent device (do a search for "laser sights for handguns" and you'll find several options).  I particularly recommend the Crimson Trace version because their activation is one-handed.  The button is right underneath the middle finger of one's firing hand as one grasps and draws the revolver.  The laser sight will come on almost without thinking about it;  you don't need a second hand to press a button or flick a switch.  One can look at one's attacker - rather than hunt for a sight picture - and see where the laser dot appears.  Where the dot is, that's where the bullet will go.

Here's a video clip illustrating the concept.

Laser sights are particularly useful if you've been knocked off your feet, or are trying to push an attacker away from you with one hand while drawing your pocket firearm with the other (another argument for using a laser sight that doesn't need both hands to activate it).  You don't need to raise the gun to your eyes to use the sights.  Even from waist height, or rolling around on the ground, simply placing the laser dot on your attacker and pulling the trigger will achieve results.  That simplicity might be a lifesaver.  Equally, laser sights may be a mixed blessing, because the laser beam will reveal where it's coming from, exposing your location;  but in a close-range emergency requiring you to get your gun out in a hurry and use it, that's not going to be a major factor.  Staying alive and uninjured comes first!

You may find different models of laser sight grips to fit your particular weapon, particularly if it's a common one.  I like this, because I can put a smaller grip on a handgun for deep concealment, or a larger, easier-to-handle grip for the same size gun in a heavier-recoiling cartridge.  The larger grip will, of course, be more difficult to conceal in a pocket, but that's the price one pays for greater recoil control.  As an example, on a Smith & Wesson J-frame .38 Special Airweight for deep concealment, I like the Crimson Trace LG-105 grip, but on a steel J-frame in the heavy-recoiling .357 Magnum cartridge, I prefer the larger, rubber-covered LG-305 grip (which is more difficult to conceal, and is one reason I seldom carry .357 Magnum rounds in a snubby).  Neither grip fits my hand perfectly, but their other advantages outweigh that factor.  It's one of the situations where the conditions under which I carry have a "power of veto" over a part of the gun I'll use.  You should try to shoot a few rounds of both heavier- and lighter-recoiling cartridges in a snub-nose revolver, using different grips if possible, before deciding which gun to buy and what grip to put on it.  It is not a choice to make "by guess and by God":  only actually seeing and feeling the difference will show you what you can shoot best, and which fits your conditions of carry.  Find friends who have different guns and grips, and ask them to let you fire a few rounds, or rent guns from a shooting range - but don't make the decision "blind", if at all possible.  How well the gun fits your hand is a critical element of defensive shooting.

Remember that your laser sight is not a magic wand, guaranteeing a hit every time.  You still need to have mastered the basics of shooting, and practiced often enough to be confident in your ability to use the weapon.  You should also align the laser sight to the distance over which you expect to need it, if possible.  Crimson Trace factory-aligns their laser sights for a range of 50 feet (just under 17 yards), which works for most people, but a typical engagement range in a crowded environment might be ten feet or less!  Adjust your laser sight accordingly, and then practice with it to see how high or low the sight is at different ranges, so you can allow for that if necessary.  (Crimson Trace has a good video presentation on how to do that.)

Of course, with a snubnose revolver you may not have enough space or time to draw your weapon before shooting it (for example, if accosted on the street at close range by an attacker jumping out at you from between two parked vehicles).  However, you can, if necessary, shoot through clothing or a handbag without drawing the gun.  A semi-auto pistol might jam in such circumstances, but a snubnose revolver is less likely to do so.  Muzzle blast may well set your coat or trousers on fire, but if you have a bad guy trying to bash you over the head with half a brick at halitosis range, you need to stop him just as fast as you can.  Clothes can be replaced.  Your head can't!  I had no choice but to fire a handgun from inside my clothes, once upon a time.  The shot ruined my clothes (and gave me a hellacious flash burn in an embarrassing area of my body - the comments from the ER nurses were epic!), but it ruined the target, too.  I called that a win, under the circumstances.

What about cartridges and calibers?  Right now, you can buy snubnose revolvers in .22LR, .32 H&R Magnum, .327 Federal Magnum, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, 9mm Parabellum and .44 Special.  I've recommended the lowly .22LR to many disabled shooters who don't have the wrist or arm strength to cope with heavier recoil.  It may not hit very hard, but with practice it'll certainly do the job (and you can afford to practice with it a whole lot more than snubbies in larger calibers, where their ammunition costs a lot more).  I've tried the .32 rounds, which have the advantage that their revolvers have 6-round cylinders as opposed to the 5-round capacity of larger cartridges, but I haven't read much about actual street shootings involving them and whether (or not) they delivered effective performance;  so I won't (yet) recommend them.  I've carried and used the last four cartridges mentioned above, and know of many shootings using them.  They've developed a reasonably good "stopping power" reputation, PROVIDED THAT:

1. The bullets are placed where they need to go (i.e. a vital target zone) to stop the attacker;  AND
2. The right (i.e. most effective) bullets are used.

Both of those criteria are vitally important.  Aiming and shooting the gun is a matter of training and practice, and we've covered those subjects extensively elsewhere.  However, the choice of the right defensive ammunition becomes critical when using a snubnose revolver.

Most modern hollowpoint ammunition is designed to expand within the human body, transferring more of the bullet's energy to the target and causing greater pain and injury.  To do that, the round needs to be moving at an optimum speed to aid expansion:  but snubnose revolvers have short barrels, reducing the bullet's muzzle velocity and therefore their potential for expansion.  Many ammunition tests using ballistic gelatin have shown such rounds to have less than optimal expansion out of short barrels;  indeed, more than a few show no expansion at all.  Discussions with emergency department physicians, coroners and morticians tend to bear this out.  Therefore, I don't see much point in choosing a hollowpoint defensive load for a snubby.  I'd rather choose a round that will inflict as much damage as possible within the initial capability of the firearm and bullet combination, rather than hope against hope that it'll expand and do better.  Fortunately, there is a solution.

The late Jim Cirillo was a member of the New York Police Department's famous "Stakeout Squad".  He survived multiple gunfights with criminals, and wrote an excellent book about his experiences and subsequent activities (which I highly recommend you read).  Among the lessons he learned, and passed on to subsequent generations of shooters, was the terminal effectiveness of the so-called "wadcutter" bullet style as opposed to rounded bullets.  The wadcutter is flat-nosed, having no rounded shoulders to slip more easily through flesh.  When used on paper targets it cuts a crisp full-caliber hole in the target, and does the same to human flesh when used for defensive purposes.  Light-duty target wadcutter bullets are often not strongly made, because they're not designed for defensive use, but several companies make hard-cast, heavier wadcutters that perform very well in the latter role.  (Two that I carry in my snubbies are Buffalo Bore's 150-grain .38 Special load and their 200-grain .44 Special manstopper, both of which I recommend very highly.  There are others out there.)  They don't need to expand to do their job, and have built up a solid "street stopper" record.

I don't normally recommend heavy-recoiling loads for use in a snubby, because the smaller weapon is hard enough to use even without the handicap of excessive recoil.  Remember that one has to be able to shoot accurately and repeatedly, because one round might not be enough to stop the attacker.  If that first round recoils so hard that you can't rapidly bring the gun back into line for the second and subsequent shots, it's not going to be much help to you!  You'll have to test-fire different guns with different ammunition to see what works best in your hands.

For that reason, even in a .357 Magnum snubby, I usually carry the above-mentioned .38 Special wadcutter.  I don't usually carry 9mm. in a snubby due to the problem of bullet expansion out of a (very) short barrel compared to most semi-autos.  As for the smaller .32-caliber cartridges, there are wadcutter loads available, but I'm not certain that the smaller calibers will be adequate for the job, so I haven't yet carried them "socially".  The heavy .44 Special load mentioned above does kick hard, but I don't know any other round that approaches its effectiveness, so I've learned to live with that.

What about reloading?  A snubnose revolver doesn't lend itself to rapid reloading, due to its small size.  Also, few people seem to carry reloads for it.  If I'm going into a situation where a reload is likely to be needed, I'd rather carry a bigger gun with greater ammo capacity!  Others prefer to carry a second snubnose revolver, so that instead of reloading one, they simply swap it for the other gun.  That may not be possible for everyone, of course.  Speedloaders such as HKS and Safariland work well, but add bulk to your defensive load, so many people prefer the simpler speed strips, even though they're slower to use than a speedloader.  It boils down to your personal preference.

As for pocket holsters, there are many of them out there.  I like the DeSantis Nemesis holster, but it has many worthy competitors.  Do an online search for "pocket holsters" and you'll find them.  Examine them in gun shops and decide which is best for you.  I strongly advise against carrying the gun in a pocket without a holster.  It can get tangled up with other things in your pocket;  and yes, I know you should not carry other things in the same pocket as your gun, but we're all human and make mistakes.  The same goes double for a lady carrying a firearm in her purse or handbag;  there's so much other stuff in there that without a holster to secure the gun, tangling is inevitable.  A holster keeps the gun in the same position all the time, and keeps alien objects out of the mechanism and the trigger guard.  It also means that the gun is less easily identifiable from its outline in your pocket.  It's an essential accessory, IMHO.

As for what snubby to buy, there are so many out there that you have to make up your own mind.  For myself, I've standardized on Smith & Wesson J-frames, Ruger's LCR and LCRx (which tend to have the smoothest, lightest "out-of-the-box" trigger pull, in my experience), and the Charter Arms Bulldog.  I use and recommend them all.  You pays your money and you takes your choice.  Handle as many as you can to see how they feel, look up videos about them on YouTube and elsewhere, and try to shoot them if you can (ask your friends who own them, or see about renting one at a local gun range).

I hope this answers reader E.W.'s question, and helps others too.  If you have more questions on the subject, please ask them in Comments, and I'll do my best to respond.

Peter