Snub interview

[Totem Polar]

there is NO pressing need for more than a blade front and rear notch on a snubnose revolver

I couldn’t disagree more. If snub makers would give us real sights, the capability for real hits would improve, and there are people out there with better sights on snubs proving it. Correct me if I’m wrong: it reads to me like you are accepting a hackneyed conventional wisdom for the same reason as most: the makers of the most popular snubs have simply been too niggardly to provide real sights to the marketplace. As everyone but S&W has moved in glacial fashion to address this issue, the guns have become way easier to shoot, and more user-friendly at distance.

Look at it this way: the Glock 42 is in the same category of extremely easy to conceal BUG/CCW gun, and *nobody* even halfway sane would knock those plastic sights off just to replace them with a 642 centennial-sized front and rear, even if the aftermarket offered such an abomination—which it doesn’t.

It’s damn near the 2020s, not the 1920s. Fortunately marques like Colt and Kimber have started noticing the calendar, and building products appropriate to the accumulated knowledge of the times.

[paherne]

there is NO pressing need for more than a blade front and rear notch on a snubnose revolver. if the propensity of targets one requires to hit is considerably longer than what's practical for snubby, a snubby is the wrong firearm choice. for a LEO (et al), a snubby is a BUG and not a primary.

if more than a blade front and rear notch is needed for a colt .45, let alone a snubby, for distances faaaar longer than 7 yards, it's a shooter issue and not a gun sight problem. proofed by hickok45 at 80 yards with a snubby, and he's just one of many good shooters. a snubby is in its element in a pocket or iwb and its far more for ECQ than much beyond the FBI 7 yards. this doesn't mean one should limit practice to snubby distance. i always stretch out to 25 yards, and proper practice makes one better, fo' sho'.

What do you base this opinion on? All of my serious guns wear custom sights. Heinie Straight Eight Ledges are my preferred sights, but I've got a few guns with the Ameriglo orange front sight and rear .180 notch + my WC 92 Vertec has the Wilson U notch and a red FO front. I've been looking for my sights for at least 30 years. Conservatively, I've got well over 100k rounds where I have used my sights. I'm aware of flash sight picture, have practiced Jim Cirillo's technique of using the silhouette of the pistol to aim, and Louis Awerbuck showed me a pretty similar technique, so I CAN shoot without sights if I have to. My snubs are not just BUGs. I call my 642 my not carrying a gun, gun. I used to be able, in like 2005, to shoot bowling pins with it at 40 yards. Now that I'm 50, I need something with better sights, specifically higher contrast and with a wider rear so I can see daylight around the front sight. I'm not willing to give up my ability to take a shot over 10 yards.

[Cecil Burch]

i will add my 100% disagreement on a snub only needing minimal sights and they are just a close range gun.

I am all for preparing for worst case scenario situations such as you failing at the pre-fight threat containment and get into an entangled fight, and using the specific features of a snub to your benefit in that case. I think that is prudent and far-sighted. However, what also is prudent is accepting another worst case scenario is that you have to take either a precision shot (i.e. eyebox at 7 yards) or a longer range shot ( outside 10 yards). Just as you should prep for the ECQC event, you should prep for maximizing the range potential of whatever handgun you need to use. One of the reasons I am looking at moving away from the 642 are the sights. If I have to have a gunsmith do a major job to get better sights, I may as well use that money for a gun that has those options in the first place, and hence my contemplation of switching to an LCR.

I would never overlook being able to shoot a snub at some distance. I just may need that ability.

[TC215]

there is NO pressing need for more than a blade front and rear notch on a snubnose revolver. if the propensity of targets one requires to hit is considerably longer than what's practical for snubby, a snubby is the wrong firearm choice. for a LEO (et al), a snubby is a BUG and not a primary.

If you have to transition to your BUG...guess what....it’s now your primary.

I prefer the sights on the M&P340/360. They are excellent.

[rfd]

i hear y'all and thank y'all for yer opinions. c'est la vie, ymmv.

[okie john]

I noticed that the LCR has front sight options. What do we think of the Bodyguard revolvers? I coonfingered one and was unimpressed.


Okie John

[scw2]

i will add my 100% disagreement on a snub only needing minimal sights and they are just a close range gun.

I would never overlook being able to shoot a snub at some distance. I just may need that ability.

From what I recall in the interview Mike Seeklander did with Charl Van Wyk, he engaged terrorists located at the front of an auditorium while he was sitting near the back, using a snub. He then re-engaged the shooters from the side of the church building across the street. I don't know the precise distances, but I'm willing to guess that they were fairly far by most self-defense standards, to say nothing about the expected distances for which one would use a snub.

[Clusterfrack]

I'm probably the last person who should comment on a thread about snubby revolvers, given I just purchased my first one--for my wife. It's an LCR 9mm with a CT green laser grip. I took it to the range a couple weeks ago. Of the ~40k 9mm rounds I've fired this year, these were the first from a revolver.

Honestly, I hated it. The ergos, the trigger, the sights all seemed inferior to a G43, which has smaller dimensions.

Then, I started to figure out how to shoot it. The trigger is actually quite smooth and crisp. The sights were sufficient for me to consistently hit 10" steel at 30 yards, and I was able to shoot GW Light Pin scores for 2H from AIWB. The green laser is daylight visible at 15+ yds.

I find myself liking this gun a lot more than I expected. I hope my wife will too. If not, I guess I just bought myself a snubby.

[Rex G]

While I generally agree with DB’s assertion that an auto is the better handgun for going to get into trouble, there are moments when I want a revolving pistol for getting into, or looking for, trouble.

Some time in the 2002-2004 time period, when a G22 was in my duty holster, four bad guys engaged several UC narcs in the lower Montrose neighborhood, in Houston. The bad guy with the shotgun was, understandably, the priority target, and he was dropped, on the spot, dead-on-scene. Another bad guy was also dropped, on the spot, though he was still moving, and ultimately survived. (He had to wait, quite a while, for medical assistance, until the area was methodically cleared, as being safe for the EMTs.) One UC narc was shot, in the abdomen and heel, and was pulled to safety by fellow narcs. Two suspects, fled, and went to ground.

As the area being searched/cleared by K9 units moved father from the shooting scene, one K9 hit on a loosely-placed piece of vinyl-ish siding covering an opening in the crawl space of a house that was being renovated. I was providing long gun coverage to the K9 unit, and when we saw blood on the vinyl siding, the K9 handler pulled the piece of siding away. I dropped to my belly, in the mud, and found myself facing two suspect, several yards away, sitting on the soil underneath the house. I then became acutely aware that I could fire one shot shell very quickly, but with my long monkey arms, running the slide would not be nearly as instantaneous as I would wish. At that moment in time, I wanted my trusty 4” GP100 to be in my hands.

Well, where was my GP100? I was prone, and my GP100 was inside a Safepacker, worn on a strap, pinned between my belly and the mud. So close, yet, a thousand miles away. I would have been able to reach my G22 duty pistol quicker, but, I shot the GP100 notably better. Sigh.

Actually, in the 2000-2008-ish time period, quite a few felons, or suspected felons, got to look into the barrel and chambers of several of my four-inch revolvers, while the duty 1911/Glock/SIG remained in the duty holster. At first, it was because .357 Mag shoots flatter than .45 ACP. Then, it was because I could never shoot a Glock up to the level I could shoot the sixguns. After I dumped .40 Glocks for SIGs, I soon felt confident in my accuracy capability with SIG DAK, but the Magnum sixguns remained my comfort guns.

Of course, when using the above-described methodology, the four-inch sixgun was, in effect, acting as a carbine substitute, and the duty auto, with its accompanying spare magazines, was still an important part of the equation.

The two felons, mentioned above, complied with my commands, keeping their manos where I could mirar them, while scooting toward me on their butts. (Yo quiero mirar los manos!) They had actually dropped their 9mm Glocks before hiding under the house, so, were unarmed when I saw them. (So, it is a good thing I did not light them up, on sight.)

[Dagga Boy]

Finally finished the podcast. Great information, and I'm getting back into the snub world as a result.

Looking at the LCR and various Smiths.

What do you guys prefer for sights?

Thanks,


Okie John

LCR allows for better sight choice. I like the X/S in general in the snub. Love the D&L on my 340PD. My other stuff usually has hi visibility colored paint and a blacked rear if it is a blade only gun.

at best a front rounded blade and a top strap rear notch

snubbies is what they is = ECQ.

Did you listen to the podcast? My crystal ball sucks and I know what scenario I would like a snub for, but I might not get it. I would prefer them as a Bug...but again sometimes life hands me a snub as a primary. I would like the gun maximized for the best performance I can get within reason. Also....the fist size target that is the acceptable target on a human universally doesn’t get bigger because I have a snub. I can shoot a blade sighted gun under sunshine and blue skies with puffy white clouds on a nice range with a perfect target and some decent ranges. I just know my luck and Murphy ain’t giving me that on the street.