Snubby Tactics by John Farnam
November 10th, 2007 by Syd
15 Oct 07
Snubby Tactics
Many of us carry five-shot, 38Spl, snubby revolvers, like S&W’s excellent 340PD, particularly as a back-up pistol. However, when reverting to the snubby, we often routinely fire all five shots in a single burst. It is bad practice!
Bad practice, because, once all five shots are simultaneously expended, you are faced with the prospect of a agonizingly slow reload, even with the aid of a speed-loader. Accordingly, once all five shots have been fired, (whatever the result) options dry up quickly!
Instead, I recommend thinking in terms of “Three-and-Two.” When deploying your snubby, fire three rounds. Then, stop, move laterally while accessing, keeping the last two rounds in reserve. This strategy will provide you with flexibility and preserve your options a while longer.
The snubby’s advantage is ease and thoroughness of conceal-ability, extreme retain-ability, and speed of deployment. On the other slide of the ledger, the snubby lacks power, range, and has an severely limited reserve of ammunition, combined with, as noted above, a slow reload.
The “Three-and-Two” strategy, when thoroughly practiced, will be helpful in dealing with the latter.
/John
John, I appreciate your comments regarding the 3-2 approach when carrying a snubbie. I have carried a Smith for many years sometimes as a primary but more often as a backup. I always practice with a double tap - double tap - then hope to hell I don’t need that last tap.