Thoughts on 9mm Snubbies?

[SCCY Marshal]

I was following the thread on the Taurus 856 and noticed they make a 9mm model 905. With ammo availability and the price of .38 spl being what they are, what is the current thinking on 9mm snubbies?

A buddy has one with the old style bull medallion stoccks and loves it. His only issue was finding ammo that hits to sights as the previous owner either over-filed the front sight or properly filed it for some oddball load. He's found the TK moon clips to work very well with the wide assortment of ammo he's run through to see if any hit to sights or he needs to weld more metal to the top of the front sight..

[Bigghoss]

I had an LCR in 9mm, it kicked a surprising amount. Between that and having to carry moon clips I decided to just stick to .38 special.

[TC215]

I briefly had a S&W 940 j-frame. I’m not particularly sensitive to recoil, but I found it to be pretty unpleasant to shoot and sent it on down the road.

[BobM]

I briefly had a S&W 940 j-frame. I’m not particularly sensitive to recoil, but I found it to be pretty unpleasant to shoot and sent it on down the road.

A coworker bought one as a BUG when they first came out. I shot it and thought the recoil was excessive even back then. At the time I was able to shoot 110 and 125 grain magnum loads from my SP101 without any issues.
A few years ago I shot someone’s LCR 9mm at a class and didn’t like the recoil. I was hoping it would work out to simplify my ammo supply especially when traveling.

[Up1911Fan]

A coworker bought one as a BUG when they first came out. I shot it and thought the recoil was excessive even back then. At the time I was able to shoot 110 and 125 grain magnum loads from my SP101 without any issues.
A few years ago I shot someone’s LCR 9mm at a class and didn’t like the recoil. I was hoping it would work out to simplify my ammo supply especially when traveling.

For traveling i've always just used one ammo box with enough 9mm to load to mags and enough snub ammo to load the gun and speedstrip.

[eaglefrq]

I have a Charter Arms Pitbull in 9mm and it doesn't use moon clips. I was surprised at the sharp recoil it has.

[Clusterfrack]

How does it do with 115gr and 124gr?

I've never shot 115gr in it. I dislike that bullet weight in 9mm because it's loud and exists for no good reason (other than maybe 9 Major in 2011s).

125gr at ~1060fps is my standard reload, and feels a lot like 147HST.

I've also shot Buffalo Bore 147 +P hardcast (1100fps), and that's no fun at all.

[HCM]

I had a brief flirtation with a S&W Performance Center 986. I have shot 625s a good bit and expected a similar experience. On the range with the 625 the use of moon clips was optional. Without them you just punched the cases out with a pencil or something. The .45 moon clips were a little PIA but only a little.

With the 986 the moon clips were a GIANT PIA. Like a pox on their house! Bad to load and I needed to have tools along to not bend the hell out of them removing fired cases.

And the gun was nearly useless without the moon clips. The cases moved forward enough that they wouldn't ignite.

I was not impressed.

How was the accuracy?

It’s not as much of an issue with a snubby, but I’ve heard the 96 and the 99 both deliver poor accuracy unless you custom load 9 mm rounds with .357/.358 bullets because Smith was using existing 357 barrels on their 9mm revolvers instead of a proper .355/.356 barrel.

If I have to custom load ammo, it defeats the purpose for me.

[vcdgrips]

A number of old school shooting mentors flirted with them. The though was their back up would run the same ammo as their primary. To a man, the concept was ultimately rejected and a .38 Airweight went back into the pocket/on the ankle/in the outer coat pocket etc.

The few times I shot one, I thought for the snap, I might as well shoot 357 mag in an SP101 as it snapped less to me given the recoil absorption properties of Rugers' OEM grips.

[Joe S]

Watching. I'm mulling a 9mm snub for the same reason. The downside is, I'm not seeing any good way to EDC loaded moon clips, compared to dropping a loaded Safariland Comp whatever it is into my back pocket.

A cut down medicine vial won't work for the pocket carry?

For that matter, is it really that hard for someone to make a revolver speed loader that can work with moonclips?