The Flourishing Snub Revolver

Bobby Macs
I don't believe there was ever a holster maker who devoted himself purely to holsters for the snubby... until Boby McEachern went public with his holster company. Bobby's holsters are absolutely top-notch and he shares Michael deBethercourt's beliefs about what a revolver holster - and a snub holster in particular - should be and do. Most of his holsters carry the revolver lower than usual, with the cylinder's top and bottom aligned with the belt's top and bottom. He makes OWB, IWB and appendix-specific holsters, each designed specifically around the physical characteristics of a revolver and the special purpose for which the snub is intended. If you carry a snub, you owe it to yourself to try one of Bobby's holsters; they will literally change the way you think about how a snub should be carried.

Crimson Trace LaserGrips
CTI LaserGrips have been around for a few years now for most snubbies, and I consider them a hugely helpful piece of kit. (By the way, CTI LaserGrips are the only laser units that I can recommend for handguns - see the Armed Response DVD on laser-equipped handguns for all the reasons.) Here's why: snubbys are inherently very mechanically accurate; fire them from a Ransom Rest and you'll be shooting tiny groups at 30 yards. However, off-hand they suffer from their small sights and short sight radius. Plus, they are mostly meant for the very close-in, spontaneous attacks that constitute most of the attacks on us, during which you are most likely to focus on your attacker rather than your sights. The LaserGrips solve all of these problems, and allow you to realize much more of the snubby's inherent mechanical accuracy. You will definitely shoot your snub revolver much better with LaserGrips (but realize that there is a slight learning curve to using a laser-equipped handgun; again, see the Armed Response DVD on laser-equipped handguns for an explanation.)

Snub-specific ammunition
In the last several years several manufacturers have come out with ammunition (usually .38 caliber) that is designed to expand reliably when fired from the short-barreled snub. Included here are the Speer 135 grain +P Gold Dot, the recently re-introduced classic 125 grain Federal Nyclad (in both standard and +P loads), the Remington +P 125 grain Ultimate Home Defense round, the 130 grain Winchester PDX1 +P round, and the Hornady Critical Defense FTK 110 grain round. Also, the devastating Glaser Safety Slug is still available from CorBon. You are no longer forced to load your snubby with a round designed around a 4-inch revolver barrel.

The POSA Defensive Snub Revolver program
The Police Officers Safety Association has produced a free program on the snubby, and it's available for download from Officer.com. It consists of interviews with experts like Massad Ayoob, Walt Rauch, Southnarc, Yelena Pawela, Andy Stanford, Michael deBethencourt, the late Jim Cirillo, Wes Doss, Clyde Caceres, Ed Lovette, Claude Werner and Paul Gomez, each describing why they find the snub revolver to be relevant today and how they integrate it into their armed lives. The token dissenter is Tom Givens, who makes the case for a small semi over the snub. Several hours of golden advice from 13 of the country's top firearms experts, for free!

Is the snubby still relevant today? Well, if you own one, you've answered the question in the affirmative since you haven't sold it. If you don't, pick one up. In 20 years, after you've bought and sold several other guns, I'll bet that the little snubby is still in your collection, and still carried often. In either case, the products and services above will help you to maximize your defensive potential with the classic snub-nose revolver.