Snub chat

[SSGN_Doc]

My interest in revolvers was rekindled when my father-in-law had a stroke and he asked me to go to their house and secure his handguns. I brought everything home. Each handgun needed a good cleaning and lubricating service. One of the handguns was a Taurus 85 from the mid 1990s. I took that one and another out and put a few rounds through them before doing a thorough cleaning. The little Taurus impressed me at how smooth it was and how shootable it was, being an all steel snubby. My last snubby had been a 442 and I remembered it not being particularly enjoyable to shoot. But the steel 85 seemed to put things right.

So, I set out to acquire a couple snubbies of my own. I bought a 640-1 Pro in .357 mag and I bought another 442. The Taurus has been gifted to me but is back with my Father in law, because he still felt he wanted a gun around the house, but he couldn’t load or operate any of his autoloaders.

I’ve been working on improving my snubby shooting and the 442 has been going on more trips with me.

[Joe in PNG]

I have speculated in times past that a more modern version of the old Velo dog revolvers (tiny DAO revolver with folding trigger) would be a nice, easy to tote thing for the pocket.

Make it in .22 Win Mag, or make up a .25 centerfire cartridge about the same length firing a similar load.

I suspect that a .25 x 24 LCF would make for a decent Old Man revolver chambering.

[Totem Polar]

My interest in revolvers was rekindled when my father-in-law had a stroke and he asked me to go to their house and secure his handguns. I brought everything home. Each handgun needed a good cleaning and lubricating service. One of the handguns was a Taurus 85 from the mid 1990s. I took that one and another out and put a few rounds through them before doing a thorough cleaning. The little Taurus impressed me at how smooth it was and how shootable it was, being an all steel snubby. My last snubby had been a 442 and I remembered it not being particularly enjoyable to shoot. But the steel 85 seemed to put things right.

So, I set out to acquire a couple snubbies of my own. I bought a 640-1 Pro in .357 mag and I bought another 442. The Taurus has been gifted to me but is back with my Father in law, because he still felt he wanted a gun around the house, but he couldn’t load or operate any of his autoloaders.

I’ve been working on improving my snubby shooting and the 442 has been going on more trips with me.

Sidebar: no less an authority than @Mas Ayoob has mentioned that the old-school Taurus 85s seem to be the exception to the Taurus rule of sucking. I have an original recipe DAO 85 from the mid-90s as well, and it’s great. Trigger, sights, accuracy… it just works, and works as well as any of my J-frames costing many times more. Well, except for the 640, because, adult sights. But, yeah, the old 85s were GTG, for the most part.

[OlongJohnson]

Sidebar: no less an authority than @Mas Ayoob has mentioned that the old-school Taurus 85s seem to be the exception to the Taurus rule of sucking. I have an original recipe DAO 85 from the mid-90s as well, and it’s great. Trigger, sights, accuracy… it just works, and works as well as any of my J-frames costing many times more. Well, except for the 640, because, adult sights. But, yeah, the old 85s were GTG, for the most part.

Pretty sure DB enlightened us about the non-sucking of the Taurus 431 back in the day, too. Apparently, a lot of competent LEOs in his AO carried them off duty.

[OlongJohnson]

I have speculated in times past that a more modern version of the old Velo dog revolvers (tiny DAO revolver with folding trigger) would be a nice, easy to tote thing for the pocket.

Make it in .22 Win Mag, or make up a .25 centerfire cartridge about the same length firing a similar load.

I suspect that a .25 x 24 LCF would make for a decent Old Man revolver chambering.

Maybe a shortened version of the .17 WSM case. It's native .27 caliber, could totally be necked to take .25 bullets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.17_Wi...r_Super_Magnum

But that's an RF cartridge. CF, there's .22 Hornet and K-Hornet. And .25 Hornet has been done. Rimmed, even.

[jh9]

I have speculated in times past that a more modern version of the old Velo dog revolvers (tiny DAO revolver with folding trigger) would be a nice, easy to tote thing for the pocket.

Make it in .22 Win Mag,

This the only not-clear-gel testing I've seen for .22 mag: https://www.americanrifleman.org/con...-self-defense/ . I wonder if @JCN has done something similar. Seems like it'd be up his alley.

I can't tell if the 45gr FTX round out of a snubby still sucks, or is close enough to not sucking to make it worth considering. For reasons known only to Ruger their .22 mag LCR is only a six shot when its Smith contemporary is 7. The LCR definitely has the lighter trigger and lower recoil boxes ticked. But, it's still a .22...

[SSGN_Doc]

Sidebar: no less an authority than @Mas Ayoob has mentioned that the old-school Taurus 85s seem to be the exception to the Taurus rule of sucking. I have an original recipe DAO 85 from the mid-90s as well, and it’s great. Trigger, sights, accuracy… it just works, and works as well as any of my J-frames costing many times more. Well, except for the 640, because, adult sights. But, yeah, the old 85s were GTG, for the most part.

Yes, the 640-1 Pro is, in my head at least, a logical evolution of the improved snubby, with regards to sights, smooth edges, and trigger.

I have gone down a bit of a Taurus snubby rabbit hole. I purchased a 856 2” last week and just got notification that my (seemingly low) bid on a early 90s model 85CH was unexpectedly the winning bid. So, I’ll be able to do some decent side-by side comparison of the “Old” 85 snubby, compared to the new snubby 856 from Taurus.

[JCN]

This the only not-clear-gel testing I've seen for .22 mag: https://www.americanrifleman.org/con...-self-defense/ . I wonder if @JCN has done something similar. Seems like it'd be up his alley.

I can't tell if the 45gr FTX round out of a snubby still sucks, or is close enough to not sucking to make it worth considering. For reasons known only to Ruger their .22 mag LCR is only a six shot when its Smith contemporary is 7. The LCR definitely has the lighter trigger and lower recoil boxes ticked. But, it's still a .22...

Mine was clear gel, but I also shot some other things like wet pack and wood / ham / etc.







I’ll see if I can find some of the testing videos and pictures of the targets.

22WMR out of a pistol was underwhelming.

[JHC]

This the only not-clear-gel testing I've seen for .22 mag: https://www.americanrifleman.org/con...-self-defense/ . I wonder if @JCN has done something similar. Seems like it'd be up his alley.

I can't tell if the 45gr FTX round out of a snubby still sucks, or is close enough to not sucking to make it worth considering. For reasons known only to Ruger their .22 mag LCR is only a six shot when its Smith contemporary is 7. The LCR definitely has the lighter trigger and lower recoil boxes ticked. But, it's still a .22...

Thanks for posting that. I don't think I've seen that before. While I have some of the FTX and Gold Dot .22 mag, I load my 351C with CCI 40 grain solids.

I won't be pursuing expansion in .22 lr, .22 mag, or .380. Not even certain about pursuing it from a .38 out of a snubbie (there are multiple flat point options)

[awp_101]

After seeing the D&L sights on @GJM’s 337, I contacted Mr Lauck about having them installed on one of my French SP101s. He’s “a long way out” on anything requiring milling and suggested finding a local smith. Which means I’m still going to have to send it out because good smiths in the DFW area are slim and none, and slim just took the last train out. Lots of parts changers but chatter regarding good smiths over the past 10 years has dropped to zero.

I plan on contacting Gemini soon™️ but who else should I consider? I know the “cheap, fast, good” rules but ideally I’d like a sub-6 month wait if at all possible.

EDIT: before I forget, Mr Lauck said his J frame sights work on the SPs and new King Cobras. And he’s working on a replacement Python sight as well.