There seems to be a bit of disagreement on this subject:
Wadcutters For Snubbies
Old habits die hard, usually not until their proponents get old and die.
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To be fair the real world shoot data from Roberts, Fackler, Marshall and Sanow, etc is for the most part decent data within its limitations. People like to denigrate it in preference to gel testing, but they conveniently forget the FBI’s gel testing standards as eventually adopted were based on real world shoot data indicating what worked. They then took those known to be effective in the real world loads and developed some general parameters and eventual standards based on how those good performing loads in the field performed in 10% ballistic gel.
The idea was to develop standards that would help predict in a repeatable, measurable way how a new load could be expected to perform in the field, to improve the odds of a new load selected for service actually performing well, without having to use it for years in the field to discover iif was a winner or a dud in real world use.
Good gel test results still are not a guarantee of good field results as a number of other factors can come into play, but it increases the odds of a successful load.
Conversely, some loads that performed quite well in the field didn’t meet the FBI’s gel testing standards. For example the old Federal Hydra-Shok in .38 Special was a very effective load based on field data but just doesn’t expand much at all at even 4” .38 Special or .38 +P velocities in 10% ballistic gel. That doesn’t make it any less effective based on it’s record in all that real world shoot data.
The problem of source with real world data is the large number of variable that cannot be controlled other than using large data sets that usually level out all the variables across the rounds being tested. But it’s not guaranteed. For example, .38 revolvers often different in barrel length based on whether they were used by uniformed officers (4” or even 6”) versus detectives who were more likely to use 1 7/8” to 2 1/8” revolvers with lower velocities. In some cases older, more experienced officers may have kept them long after younger officers switched to newer semi auto firearms in different calibers. That has impacts not only on officer experience but also the types of shoots they might be involved in.
All of that can have an impact on results. For example a snub nose .38 has historically, and properly, been regarded as an experts gun that requires a high level of marksman ship to be effective at greater than belly gun range, particularly when firing what is now regarded as a marginal cartridge in its standard pressure loading. The point here being that an old hand with excellent marksman ship skills who was cool under fire and made solid center of mass hits, was likely to get effective stops regardless of what he was shooting, and standard pressure .38 special 147 gr wadcutters or the 158 gr LSWCHPs were likely to be just as effective as anything else being shot.
But that doesn’t mean a standard pressure 147 gr wad cutter fired out of a 2” J frame is going to be the best bet for someone who isn’t very well practiced and skilled with a J frame.
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That real world data also shows that once you get to .357 Magnum and .45 ACP levels of performance nothing bigger performs any better. They all top out with similar percentages.
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Personally, I like revolvers and used to carry a J frame in any ankle holster as a non authorized backup as the chief of police was about as anti gun as it got at the time. He allowed six standard pressure .38s in the revolver and just six more in a dump pouch, with speed loaders and speed strips specifically prohibited (and this was in the mid 1980s). In response pretty much every one carried a J-frame as backup. We’d rather be fired than dead if we ever had the need to use it.
But I also shoot snub nose revolvers on a regular basis and shoot them at targets out to 15 yards. It’s a myth to say a snub nose revolver is not accurate, it just requires a better shooter with greater mastery of the basics to shoot them accurately at speed.
For the guys who can’t hit a bull in the butt with a base fiddle at 5 yards with a 17 round 5” service pistol, a snub nose would be a very poor choice.
