I am looking for a 3", 4" or 5" .38 revolver to carry for snake protection with snake shot, and coup de grace on game with slugs. Since I am not familiar with the S & W models, I am looking for a recommendation for a functional revolver. Not looking for anything pretty just cheap and functional. What models should I be looking for?

I would get a nice 4" Model 64.
It's a medium sized K-frame and a good shooter.
K frames are plenty durable for extended use with .38
It's common to find this model with a bobbed hammer for carry comfort if you shop used.
More barrel lengths available too. And welcome to the forum.

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27-2, 66-1, 640 Pro, 10-5

Does it have to be .38 Special?

Consider the Governor?
GOVERNOR (Z) - Smith & Wesson

A .410 shotshell would be more effective against snakes than a .38 shot load.

Welcome.The 64 is a good suggestion,as is it blued counterpart,the Model 10.

J&G has still got model 64's at great prices.

The model 10 is a much older model. It has a tapered barrel as opposed to the 64's heavy barrel
There are probably more differences that don't come to mind. The model 10 can be found in most any finish.

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27-2, 66-1, 640 Pro, 10-5

A plain old model 10 or pre-10 in 38Spl. They made a million+ and they are everywhere. Tried and true, ruff and tuff and in all price ranges.

My sentiments exactly!!!! One should fit your needs perfectly. The 38 shot cartridge is a great snake pacifier.

For what you are talking about using it for most any brand of 38 special will do the trick. I would however suggest a short barrel revolver, something you can pocket carry. For years I carried a Charter Arms Undercover 38 Special from March to November here where I live in middle Georgia to shoot poisonous snakes with. Now days I carry either a S&W model 36, or a S&W mode 642.

Mcgiver,Lately I've been using a Mod.317 S&W AirLite in .22LR.Since you specified being able to finish off game I would suggest any "J" frame gun in .38/.357.
As a general rule,I have found the CCI Speer Shot shells to be the best,and I avoid any brand with "star crimped shells". Be cautious of shot shells loaded for autoloaders, using them in a revlover can lock up the cylinder when the crimp separates.It has always been my experience that the shorter the rifled barrel the less distortion of the shot pattern.When I feel the need for something a little stronger than a .22 in the woods I carry a Mod. 60 3" in .357 mag. but I hardly ever use mag loads.If I need something bigger then it is hard to beat a Mod. 29 or Mods. 57 &58. Nick

Please don't shoot snakes. They are a part of nature, serve a purpose, and prefer to slither away from humans. Humans are not food to them and they strike only when frightened and are defending themselves. You don't need any gun for "protection from snakes" as they are not stalking you.

If you see a poisonous snake, take three steps around it. There is no need to senselessly kill them.

I'm with Saxon pig. If you are a true woodsman, you will simply walk around a snake, or know where not to put your hands and feet in order to avoid a surprise encounter. If you are simply the nonchalant hiker type, buy yourself a pair of snake boots. They are a lot cheaper than a quality firearm.

First, I grew up in SoCal where we have 10 different sub-species of rattlers. Saw very few until I was old enough to look for them. No reason to kill them.

Regarding your pistol, are you where you might need something bigger? Is concealed a requirement/option? Otherwise, I'd go for a 357 and use 38's most of the time. A 4" model 66 or 19 seems to be ideal. A good Tom Threeperson's rig and your good to go anywhere the big bears and moose don't abide.

I used to kill every snake i saw, as i got older i learned to enjoy them being there, it added to my outdoor experience. i have steppen on more than one and have never been bit, the closest i ever came to being bit was while killing a large timber rattler, he just missed my hand thats all! but if your hell bent on killing them a good green stick behind the head is all it takes! I carry a pistol wile in the woods mostly for 2 legged beast.

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WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

If you want to shoot snakes on your place, shoot them. I have a country house and the thing that will keep the wife, daughters, daughter-in-laws, and grandkids away are snakes. I manage all the animals on my property, they don't manage me. When snakes start paying the taxes, the utilities, feed costs and upkeep, they can stay. Until then they all meet the same fate.

The lady that owned this property before me was bitten by a Timber Rattler while she was working in the flower bed. Luckily we are only about 20 minutes from a hospital. I have killed countless Copperheads in the watered areas around the house. They like the cool wet grass there.

I have used a 2" model 15 and a 3" model 60 with CCI shot loads. Accounted for several large rat snakes in my chicken house. Two quick rounds of it in the barn in the twilight when I couldn't see my sights scored a large opossum that had been bursting open all my feed sacks.

Also loaded some #12 shot in CCI capsules in a .44 Special Charter Bulldog to good effect. The good thing about using shot in your farmyard area is you don't have to worry about ricochets. Also they won't blow holes in the walls of the chicken house.

Please, no stories about how rat snakes eat mice and rats. I have a barn cat that eats all of those she can find. She will eat three a day to the rat snakes one a week.

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NRA Life
Walk softly, but carry.

If you must shoot the snakes, the shorter barrel will result in the better shot pattern. The more "spin" the shot capsule has will spread out the shot. A 2" barrel 38 would work best.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I'm in the leave 'em alone category for snakes. As for coup de gr*ce weapon, I'd recommend he m64 over the m10.
It depends on what you are finishing off and how you carry it. A Stainless firearm will hold up much better any blood that may be splashed in shooting, transport or dressing.

I say leave 'em alone. If you choose to dispatch them, at least skin 'em and eat 'em. They taste just like chicken.

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Isaiah 55:8-9
Phil. 4:13

Hey, fellers it's his land.

I say shoot 'em, skin 'em, 'n eat 'em, and that goes fer all dang trespassers.

/c

I have carried and used a m15 snubby for my trail gun. 3 rounds cci snake shot and 3 rounds swc +p loads. At 6 feet it kills rattlesnakes just fine with the snake loads with one shot to the head.

I also carry and have used my m625 mountain gun in 45 colt with snake shot. At 6 feet that load of snake shot is like hitting the snake in the head with a golf club.

I sold the m15 but am thinking of replacing it with a beater m10 for my trail gun. It's the same gun as the 15 but with fixed sights.

that might be the 15 i just bought at the cullman show?

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WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

I don't believe in senseless killing. Having said that, I have killed several Copperheads. They were hanging around the front door steps, possibly from a den under the step, and other places around the house. I have since filled in the area under the step.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had not seen any Copperheads this summer. Then, one night, while I was in the downstairs bathroom I saw a small snake crawling from under the storage area door down the hall into the bedroom. Wonderful! I didn't think it was a good idea to shoot it in the house. So, I got a stick and a rubbermaid tub and coaxed it into the tub. I took it outside. At first, I thought it was a harmless watersnake. The next morning I realized that I had caught a 13" Copperhead. I dispatched it with a stick.

This evolved into a thorough search on the lower level of the house. I'm fairly sure that it came in through the large screening over the furnace air vent which I have since covered up with smaller grid screen.

This is a different scenario from coming across a snake in the woods. They come to eat the frogs and the skinks and they will come back.

I also have a 6 year old daughter that I care a little bit more about than the Copperheads.

There was a piece on the local news recently about a woman that was showing her kids how cute the baby snakes were that she had found. Unfortunately, they were baby Copperheads and one bit her through her glove. This resulted in a trip to the hospital and 18 vials of antivenin at $2,000 per vial.

To get to the OPs question. Probably any .38 caliber revolver will work fine. I would recommend a lighter weight, stainless revolver.

I use CCI shot loads and they work great. I hesitate to say that I used my 6 inch python to dispatch the first two snakes. If there is another opportunity, and I hope not, I'll use my S&W Mod 60. That was the piece I put in my pocket the last time I went into the woods.

I know they were here first first. But, I was here second. If I see them around the house they're gone.

In my house or yard they have to go. Still don't kill them. Nudge them along with a hoe and they will leave the area. Snakes wander into human-inhabited areas, they don't seek them. Once they know humans are about they depart.

Stories about someone foolish enough to blithely handle unidentified snakes hardly justifies blasting everything in sight.

SP,

I know the snakes aren't after me. They're after the toads, lizards and other creatures that surround the house. Copperheads will strike at you if you bother them. If they go away, they'll be back again when they're hungry. I spend a lot of time landscaping around my house. I'm not comfortable knowing that a poisonous snake may decide that I'm a threat trying to prune some shrubs. I can be careful, but my daughter won't.

I respect your opinion, but I guess we're just going to have to disagree on this one.

Saxon, I wish you and your hoe would come on down here and nudge these things out of my yard. Copperheads are one thing, but rattlesnakes are another. How could anyone in good conscience leave a killer like this alive when their are people involved?

See the attached photo. That is a 10 rattle Timber Rattler. About 5 feet long and as big around as my upper arm. Disregard the Tokarev I'm posing with because Timber Rattlers are protected in my part of Texas. I'll just say I found him dead on the road. I disagree with this law in Texas though and think that when Texas starts protecting me and my family from being struck by one of these, I'll start protecting them too. This was the third big one we have "found dead" in the last several years.

In all fairness I have to say this one was found dead about 400 yards behind my house in a pasture. But the one that bit the lady that used to own my house was in the front yard.

Kindness to animals is one thing, leaving deadly ones in my yard is another.

CCI .38 Special shot loads and a 2" model 15 keep order in my yard.

With kindest regards,

Attached Images

DSCN1824.jpg (149.5 KB, 198 views)

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NRA Life
Walk softly, but carry.

I'd like to clarify my position on leaving snakes alone. I did kill them when we had a hunting camp on a friend's ranch. We had small children and dogs present and playing. We killed several that came out from the shade under our trailer. Otherwise, I leave them alone. Black widows on the other hand.............

Now that's just not always the case. I remember moving a hog-nosed snake out of my Mama's yard a half dozen times. I would take him to the back side of the place and put him out. (170 acres) He would be back in a few days. I kept moving him all that summer, though. I do not kill any non-venomous snakes. I have a bunch of common king snakes on my place, which is a very good thing. I also have a bunch of Timber Rattlers, which isn't a good thing. I killed one three years ago literally on the bottom step to my house. I killed what looked like his twin 10 yards from the step the next year. I kill, or passers-by kill, several in the road in front of my house each year. I have bird dogs and nieces and nephews that I don't want bitten. Have you ever seen a bird dog's head swell from a bite? I consider myself a farmer/sportsman/conservationist, but I'll no more let a killer of bird-dogs live when I see them on my farm than I would a rabid coyote or dog. Termites and fire-ants are part of the eco-system, too.

I used to use a 3" Model 36 as my designated snake-gun, but I now keep a NAA .22 mag loaded with CCI snake loads.

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Georgia On My Mind

I bought a Model 10 for the purpose of loading for snakes.
Corn snakes, black snakes, king snakes, gopher snakes, etc, if they're in my yard, they live but get relocated.
Copperheads, rattlers, cottonmouths, if they're in my yard, they die.
I don't seek them out, but if I see one, it's gone.

I'm in your neck of the woods Romeo, I can overlook a ratsnake on my yard but my 66 will deal with the first venomous thing on my property.

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27-2, 66-1, 640 Pro, 10-5

Actually, fire ants are not part of your ecosystem as they are non-native to the USA. They are a South American species.

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686, 629, 15-22 MOE FDE

3-inch Model 13... just the thing for RCBS... (Rats, 'Cats, the Bad and Snakes)

I can't wait to tell the fire ants around my house that. Maybe they will head south

They are indeed a part of the eco-system. Have been for about 50 years now. Ask that calf they killed when its mama dropped it on a bed. Ask my wife when she whelps up after a couple of bites. I didn't say they were native, just that they are part of the eco-system. Kudzu is a non-native invasive exotic species, but it dang sho' is part of the eco-system.

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Georgia On My Mind

what gun for fire ants?

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WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

Flamethrower from a distance.

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20 years Mil, 18 yrs Sac P.D.

I used to fish Lake Eufala (WFG) a lot, and down by the dam, which is constructed of large rock blocks, reside many large Cotton Mouths. I have encountered more than once, aggressive snakes that were determined to get in my boat. I've whacked them with graphite rods to no avail (most of the time), and when they won't give up, out comes the M-66 with CCI shot shells. If they go away, fine, but if they persist, Bang! If you wait until they're in the boat, it's too late.

I am not a snake lover. A word of caution here regarding snake loads. I used to load some with speer capsuls. I carried one on top the clyinder under the hammer on my model 60. If I needed to shoot a shot load I would turn the clyinder back. The other 4 were defense loads. Fourty years ago I got in a incident. Two drunks leaveing a bar T boned me and ran. My GF was driveing and managed to run them down. They deliberatly hit us a couple more times trying to get away again. I ran up to the drivers door and told the guy to get out. Instead they locked themselves in. In the excitement and my anger I took the gun and stupidly hit the window with it to encourage them out. Of course the window didnt break. In the aftermath the cops that came to the scene couldnt get the clyinder to open. The shot capsul had moved forward into the barrel totaly locking the gun up!

For right or wrong I have shot at least 3 rattlers that I can remember in or near public places. Once I had pulled over to get a drink out of a fountain that was at a turnout by a creek. A huge rattler was right where you had to stand to drink. The next I and a friend were walking and he almost stepped on it. Another, I was takeing stuff from a swimming hole to my truck where my daughter and my GF had been swimming. A rattler slid off the path into a bush. Here come the GF`s fife dog and I knew he would attack or investigate the snake. So I shot the snake. Both my daughter and GF hated me for it and I wouldnt argue about it.

Last summer this baby decided to occupy part of my backyard. My German Shepherds alerted us that things were not alright! This thing had 13 rattles and a button and was a foot longer before we removed his head with a well placed shot. It was the fourth one of the summer. My wife almost stepped on one walking out of the side door of the garage. I shot one on the patio with a good 1880s S&W 32. Got one with the PU. Try one for supper, they taste pretty good. If you have grandkids and dogs these things are as dangerous as a loaded gun in the wrong hands. FL lost a sherrif last summer to snakebite and he had shot the thing 3xs. These things are not my friend.

I agree they may have their purpose but I'm sorry folks... copperheads, mocs and rattlers hafta go anyplace that I may find them.
Other snakes (non-venomous) can stay as long as they don't come around the house or where kids/ g-kids are.
I will say that I don't entice snakes on to my property by having things or landscaping that attracts food or habitat for them. Consequently, I seldom ever see any.

We don't have many snakes where I live, but my western friends are hard on them. I remember as a lad I was once turned loose with a rancher's horse on the condition that I shoot any snake I saw. (Not from the back of the horse, of course.) At the time, that was a bit of a shock to me because I was raised to not kill anything I did not plan to eat, but I understand that they are trouble around horses and other livestock.

A Model 64 is as good as any other gun for shooting snakes and they are available at reasonable prices, but really, no special gun or cartridges are needed for killing a snake. Anything will do. Why not a .22?

I tried out some snake loads with my Model 10 after I found a dead rattler in my yard a couple years ago, and with my two year old around if I see one and I have a gun on me it is taking its chances although they are rare to see up here. I used to catch snakes when I was a kid but they never really bothered me much and my grandfather told me that they were good for gardens so I leave them be. It's the poisonous ones that will get my undivided attention. I would think a decent snub .38 would work but I would pattern the gun first to see how well it does, the .38 doesn't have the pattern spread the .44 or .45 shells have but at about 5-6 yards it should work fine.

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Vaya con Dios

My "just in case" rig for prairie dog outings: cut down Victory S.H. w/1947 M&P 2"

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Bill - SWCA #2327

Napalm works.......

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Take your time..quickly.

This is correct.The shorter barrels will give a tighter pattern with the CCI snake loads,due to less spin being imparted to the shot cup in the shorter barrel.

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Blessed be the Lord,my Rock

As it is, my home is not a place that snakes would generally like. The grass is short, there are not rocks in the sun, and I have cats that tend to kill most of the food that snakes would eat.

I'm about a year late on this, but this post is classic