I am kind of looking at snub nosed revolvers and i would like to know recomendations
so far i have seen a ruger .357 magnum that weighs 26 oz, weight is an issue that is why i want a snubby
i also want some info on the .357, like what game you can take with it humanely, and what you could take if you were desperate. also doest it preatty much blow up small game?2 how heavy is about 50 rounds of ammunition?
also for the revolber i don't need anything like the judge that can shoot .45 and 410, i do not much like recoil. nor do i need a 10mm since this would be a survival weapon only preatty much. high capacity revolver is not necessary.
i have heard good things about the .357 as self defense and really that would be what i would get it for.
one that i really do want a recomendation for is a .22 snub nosed revolver in .22 that while .22lr is my main want it would be better if it could take .22LR/S/L, all 3 types that i know of.
there are people on this who have really helped me with technical questions,may i suggest you change your post to something that will include caliber comparison,such as 357vs 38spl etc.
i have several snub or short barrel revolvers i find 38spl is the largest cal i can handle effectively,by far the best for me is the ruger lcr,i carry in my front pocket using a flat almost sticky holster that allows a very easy draw.
if u are serious about shooting game,u may need to look at something else,these are for close quarters shooting.
ask other members about the 22 o 22 magnum for defense,i personally would not use one unless there is no larger cal choice.
i bought my wife a taurus 22 magnum and she cant manage the stiff trigger pull.
Any .38 can be fired in a .357. The .357 is a higher pressure version of the .38 which is .10 greater in cartridge length to prevent inadvertant chambering of the higher pressure cartridge in a .38. I'm not a great deal in favor of .357 shooting in short snubbies because much powder and blast goes out the end without a great deal of boost in ballistics, but something like a 3" BBL SP-101 (a bit long for a snubbie) is probably good. You could also use their 2" bbl but get some pretty good muzzle blast; I usually only go for the reduced recoil tactical short bbl load from Buffalo Bore in this to reduce blast. Most of the time I stick with .38+P (158gr LSWHP +P from Buffalo Bore, or the 125 Gold Dot from Double Tap). I've shot the BB heavy 125 gr .357's in a 2" SP-101 at an indoor range and the blast made my teeth hurt. It's controllable but not much fun. I can't think of what it'd be like without hearing protection even outdoors but I wouldn't want to try it.
You can take deer with a .357 with a well placed shot. A well placed shot from a short bbl .357 on a deer would not be impossible but difficult to achieve at any range in practice--snubbies are difficult to shoot well due to their short sight radius, gun fit, and propensity for the gun to move during the trigger squeeze. You probably could get to the point you could take reasonably accurate 25 to 30 yard shots but again this would take a fair bit of practice.
For a "survival" snubbie .22 I might suggest the Smith and Wesson model 317 with the hi-viz front sight. It's 8 shot, adjustable sights, 3" bbl lightweight accurate revolver with a very visible front sight.
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Only snubby I own is a Rossi Model 720 3 inch Stainless 44Special,I find the recoil manageable and even out of a 3" barrel is verry accurate and has adjustable sights.Only Tarus bought the rights from Rossi and they are no longer made.I feel it to be a better choice for concealed carry and will deliver more energy than the 357 snubby.
I'm a big fan of the Taurus Model 85 .38 Special when it comes to snub nosed revolvers. It's a very nice little gun for the money if you can't afford a comparable Smith.
The .357 Magnum is a hell of a round, but one can't really take advantage of it's power in a barrel shorter than 4 inches, with six inches being the ideal. The powder is still burning long after the bullet has cleared a 2 inch or shorter barrel and you wind up just spraying hot gas out of the muzzle with no gain in velocity. In a snubby I'd stick to the .38 Special. It's cheaper and more efficient for the task at hand. The only real practical reason to have a short barreled .357 Magnum is if you have another weapon in it and you want the ammunition to be fully interchangable.
Personally I wouldn't hunt with the .357 Magnum at all. It's a man killer. It was designed specifically to penetrate car doors and retain lethal velocity, not to drop game. Of course with a long barrelled revolver or one of those Lever action 1894 Marlin rifles you could probably take a Boar with it, I'd rather just use a .30-30 Winchester for that job.
hum, see i was thinking since revolvers are hailed as reliable i was thinking i would like to maybe get one eventually, however i was thinking snubnosed for lighterweight. i do like that you can shoot 38 out of 357, is that all 38s or just some? i once decided i did not want a revolver at all since i couldn't find one that was lightweight but now i seem to be finding some, i have seen the ruger lcr but i think it was listed as being just a .38 not a 357 though i guess that woud be ok, i had heard that the 357 could fire 38 before and that was a plus when you might be scavenging for ammo.
oh and i may eventually get a lever 357 i have heard of them before and they sound good
You can shoot ALL .38 special rounds out of a .357 Magnum. They will chamber fine and all (even +P or +P+) operate at much lower pressures than the .357.
__________________
God gives us free will; the statist tries to take it away
I personally own a SP101 snubbie and love it. My mother got a S&W 38sp+p and I can't stand it. The Ruger has a far a superior trigger pull. I would feel comfortable shooting at 25yds with it at a deer. That's if I were desperate. The new Ruger LCR now seems to be the gold standard for CCW snubbies. My only complaint is that it's 38sp. I'd rather have an extra 1/4" of gun and a lot more power.
I think sacrificing another pound or even two for a larger revolver with a 6"+ barrel would serve you MUCH MUCH better for anything "survival" related. Much more accurate (especially as far as aiming goes), and much easier to control recoil-wise. If I were going to recommend a survival revolver I'd say something like this:
Taurus Tracker in .357. 7-shot, 6" barrel, 40oz, compact frame. This the one I have been toying with getting for the GF, though I worry about the DA trigger pull. Taurus International Manufacturing Inc
I personally own a SP101 snubbie and love it. My mother got a S&W 38sp+p and I can't stand it. The Ruger has a far a superior trigger pull. I would feel comfortable shooting at 25yds with it at a deer. That's if I were desperate. The new Ruger LCR now seems to be the gold standard for CCW snubbies. My only complaint is that it's 38sp. I'd rather have an extra 1/4" of gun and a lot more power.
what about the S&W 38 couldn't "be stood"...I have been seriously considering getting this weapon myself and am interested in any short comings it has. thanks in advance for your reply.
We have two of these .38 Taurus Model 85 snub nose revolvers for ultra concealment in really hot weather; one stainless and one blue steel. The image with grip configuration below is identical to the ones we have. They're good point and shoot at close range weapons. We keep them loaded with .38 special Remington Golden Saber JHP defense loads. I would never try to take game with them.
what about the S&W 38 couldn't "be stood"...I have been seriously considering getting this weapon myself and am interested in any short comings it has. thanks in advance for your reply.
I've noticed little difference in trigger pull between an SP-101, Smith and Wesson 638, or 642/442. All have been fine. All seem to have similar weights and travel in their triggers which have been pretty good overall--if one is intolerable I'd suggest it might have been a manufacturing defect (the Ruger seems a little better for me, but this to me is personal preference more than anything). You can have these smoothed up (but don't need to) but I wouldn't lighten them--part of the safety of the DA revolver is the higher weight longer trigger pull it has (you also want 100% reliable ignition as well).
The Airweights are lighter guns with a slightly shorter sight radius and I suspect they tend to move more due to the same trigger pull but lighter gun (less weight and less inertia, but the lighter weight makes the Airweights somewhat easier to carry so's it's still a tradeoff)--this seems primarily a grip and technique issue. Fit of a gun to the hand is fairly important (and can be helped thru aftermarket grips). The idea is for the gun to move as little as possible as the trigger is pressed until the bullet leaves the barrel. I tend to shoot the Ruger better but this might be because of the grips (and weight), the fact I painted the front sight, and the bbl is slighty longer.
I think you'll find the major drawback of the Smith snubbies to be the short sight radius, hard to see sights, and fit to the hand. One of the 642 PC variants has a white dot front sight which seems to me to help alot (as might Crimson Trace sights--this might also help hand fit as well--but I don't use laser sights much myself).
As a side note, I have found some folks do have trouble with the trigger pulls on any of these guns (not to be sexist but most were smaller women). This has happened more than I thought it would and in all honesty surprised me. The correct answer for me was to build strength thru dry fire practice with the trigger finger using the segment just short of the joint (i.e. between the normal target pad and the first joint on the finger). This seemed to help. I've heard that the LCR has a lighter trigger which doesn't stack at all--this might make it easier for some shooters to master with less training.
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God gives us free will; the statist tries to take it away
take note when ppl say a guns recoil is "manageable". it means " i can shoot this thing if i take my geritol and lay off women for a month".a snub nose with full power loads kicks .......hard! plus....shoot one at night (part of a survival guns duty) and you'll be blinded for the next 2-3 min.! a 4" barrel is very easey to conciel, has far more accuracy, the blast is less(even less with 38+p or flash suppressed loads), and i would feel confident at taking deer sized game at 40 yards + or minus depending on skill level
Let’s not take snub nosed revolvers out of context. They weren't really made for intricate sighting and long range shooting. They are point and shoot weapons meant for "arms length emergency situations," or at least at not much greater ranges than that.
I noticed a significant difference in performance at our law enforcement firearms range between 3" and 4" medium frame Smith & Wesson service revolvers; not a lot, but noticeable. Meanwhile, 2” J-frame revolvers weren’t even on in the critical kill zone that is the head and atlas cortex on the target beyond twelve yards in timed exercises.
The Model 85s that my wife and I have won’t even be carried except in really hot weather and very light clothing dictates a really small gun for concealed carry. There are certainly smaller frame, smaller caliber guns out there, but a .38 special snub nose is about as small as I would go.
oil field is a much better shot than i am, my grouping at, 25yds just isnt there. i dont practice at that distance any more. strictly point and shoot.
the ruger lcr is really great, i ordered another one 3 days ago from riverview arms,its here already, fastest service i ever had, kw larry from this site told me abouy the sale.
short revolvers suit my carry needs well,as does kahr pm9.as long as u know the limitations.
i am in live with the judge,
hum, ok well i was thinking about a backpack gun, if i was in a car or motor cycle i would definately take something else and was thinking reliable, against people most likely but able to take some sort of game and be accurate enough, kind of a lot to ask for but i bet a ruger mark 3 .22lr wouild suit me better, little recoil, more shots for the weight, still short range, imo while it doesn't have the power of a 38 or 357 but i don't give into the hype about it not being very lethal.
A medium-sized revolver isn't a bad single gun to have, though. You can protect yourself and, if starving, could still kill a squirrel (wouldn't have nice fillets, but you wouldn't die either, haha) or a racoon or even a deer.
And I really don't think the extra space for a slightly larger revoler would be a big deal. My camping / backpacking / BugOut pack is relatively small, but I have no problem fitting my large-framed 9mm in one of the small pockets, even with a scope and flashlight (just for the feel).
Though, a .22 pistol does have a place and should not be discounted. Right now my only (gotta have) bug-out weapon is my 9mm. I can't decide if I want to go smaller, like a larger .22 pistol or perhaps a revolver in .22lr / .22mag, OR if I want to go bigger, which would likely be a Raging Bull in .44mag. If I go smaller, I get an efficient food-getter, but lack the power or range from either of the weapons for closer-range (<50 yards) larger game, or perhaps shots up to 100 yards on 2-legged enemies (from the prone or otherwise supported position, with a scope most likely). Of course, if I get a Raging Bull I get the power advantage, but I don't really have anything to get small game with. And I don't quite know if I want to pack all three, haha.
take note when ppl say a guns recoil is "manageable". it means " i can shoot this thing if i take my geritol and lay off women for a month".a snub nose with full power loads kicks .......hard! plus....shoot one at night (part of a survival guns duty) and you'll be blinded for the next 2-3 min.! a 4" barrel is very easey to conciel, has far more accuracy, the blast is less(even less with 38+p or flash suppressed loads), and i would feel confident at taking deer sized game at 40 yards + or minus depending on skill level
Well! Since nobody else said manageable I must say I a'm 6ft2" tall and weigh 205 pounds and dont need geritol to shoot a 44 Special 3" Rossi and my 5ft 3" wife of 118 Pounds finds it enjoyable to shoot and she is pretty good at from the back porch to the dirt bank about 20 yds hits coke cans and some little 2" square blocks of wood with ease.We practice alot,so in a survival situation we wont be needing to worry about flash and not beeing able to see,big bullets in the right place only takes one.She also shoots the 12 ga.double verry good so guess I got backup.
The 44 Special is probably the best choice in a snub nose, as the barrel length does not play too much of a factor in its performance. A 2" barrel would be fine for this, and it is not difficult to control. I would opt out of anything with a magnum for snub nose revolvers, unless you plan on using this for woods protection, in which case I would go with a 454. Anyway, that is my $0.02 on the matter.
