While respecting the wish to keep open informed discussion out of the other thread, I decided to post this in response:
It’s a shame how we criticize Hollywood for unbelievable scenarios, but then refer to fictional characters to back our position, hopefully they were tongue in cheek. Many pro-snubbie remarks can also be applied to small pistols.
Anyone who thinks revolvers are simpler:
1) In design, obviously has never looked inside a revolver or at a schematic
2) In operation, can’t count and/or hasn’t thought it through. Manual controls on revolver are cylinder release, trigger, ejector rod, hammer. Manual controls on Glock are trigger, mag release, slide stop; add a safety on 1911 type guns. More on this later.
All sorts of people learn to drive a car with 16 or more controls, to think those same people cannot learn to fire a pistol, even with one or two more controls (at most) than a revolver, are only fooling themselves and insulting those new shooters.
When, not if, a revolver jams you need a hammer or a gunsmith to get it back in action. When a pistol jams – tap, rack, assess/bang – no ‘smith needed. Cylinders get out of time, cranes get bent, timing hands get bent, etc.
Reloading the snubbie vs. auto:
The ejector rod on a snubbie won’t eject all the empty cases at once b/c its length is restricted by barrel length and the space between the back of the cylinder and the grip is limited by frame size. The result is one must fiddle with not jamming the cases closest to the frame while still ejecting the other cases, then rotating the cylinder to finish ejecting the cases.
With a revolver, when all hell is breaking loose and you need more than 5/6 rounds you must use fine motor skills, which you won’t have, to align 5/6 small rods with 5/6 small cylinders very quickly and simultaneously, or load them one at a time.
With a pistol, you can shoot 3x or more rounds before reloading. When you do have to reload, press mag release button, push big stick into big hole, pull back on large slide and release – almost no fine motor skills needed.
Shooting:
Higher barrel placement torques wrist more than pistol.
I’ve seen many female and elderly shooters struggle with the long, heavy trigger pull of a DA revolver, never with a non-DA pistol. Those same shooters struggling with the DA revolver also struggle with pulling the hammer back first. Good luck to them getting off a quick accurate shot, or follow up shots. Many new shooters are sold airweight revolvers, can’t handle the recoil, and then don’t practice when they are the ones that need to practice the most. With only 5 shots, you can’t afford to miss even though you are experiencing tunnel vision, rapid pulse, loss of fine motor control, and an adrenaline dump. A mid-sized pistol is more comfortable to shoot which results in more practice with one’s carry gun and it’s easier to recover from a miss or two. Police only connect about 10% of the time, or once for every 10 shots.
Pistol sights are usually better than those on snubbies people carry.
Flash from muzzle and cylinder gap is greater than from a pistol.
Can’t shred your hand/fingers by putting them next to the cylinder gap with a pistol.
While a snubbie may be accurate, shooting them accurately is an entirely different matter. I can hit targets at 100 yds with my G23, offhand.
While you may get a piece of brass in the forehead, I’ve had revolvers spit lead in my face/glasses – I’ll pick the brass.
Carry:
Revolvers are thicker than pistols and speedloaders are thicker than magazines. Speedstrips are slower than either. Who wants to carry a bunch of loose rounds in their pocket. Cylinder can create a pressure point while carrying.
Shooting with Injured hand/arm:
If hand is injured and can’t pull back a DA trigger, most likely won’t be able to pull back hammer either for lighter trigger pull.
Reloading a snubbie one-handed is a tricky juggling act. Try opening cylinder and ejecting rounds (see above) with one hand and then keeping the cylinder open while holding the gun between legs/knees or inside belt and lining up speedloader or individual rounds with a spinning cylinder using one hand. For a pistol, shoot till slide lock, drop mag, put gun between legs, insert mag, release slide with slide stop or hooking on belt/sole of shoe/seam in pants/handy stationary object nearby.
Police, who can call for backup over a radio, on their person, with instant access to all officers (local, county, state) in the area, carry pistols loaded with more rounds than revolvers, plus 2 or more extra magazines. When they carried revolvers, police didn’t carry snubbies.
Private citizens call 911, hopefully not getting a busy signal, who must then dispatch officers, who may be across town, – usually only one or two.
Jamming into other person’s body:
Hollywood nonsense which goes against the importance of weapon retention. If the BG is that close, I’m using my weak arm to create/maintain distance, drawing my pistol, rotating it while keeping it tucked near my hip and firing as soon as it’s horizontal. Why would you put your firearm where the BG might easily get his hands on it.
Grabbing slide of pistol to disable:
BG can also grab cylinder of snubbie to disable or put hand/finger between hammer and frame.
Once a BG obtains your snubbie, game over. With a pistol, he may or may not figure it out before you get your BUG or you may be able to drop the magazine, disabling the pistol or limiting him/her to only one shot.
In the spirit of the other thread: The only time you can have too much ammo is if you’re drowning or on fire.
![]()


LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks







the title of this thread cracked me up as soon as I read it!




If the day ever comes that a Glock AND a wheel gun ever fails me then I guess it's just my time to go

