Posted by
Model12Win:
In the meantime, my five shot S&W 642 .38 snub will be all the gun I'll need, at least where I am in semi-rural Kansas. The odds of being attacked to the point of needing to shoot is less than 1%.
Okay, but the
likelihood of the occurrence does not influence what would be necessary to defend oneself
should it occur. That's a very basic tenet of risk management.
Don't feel bad about that--I spent a major part of my career in risk management, and yet, for some time I carried a Centennial Airweight because I didn't expect to need it. Then someone pointed out the error of my thinking. If I
am attacked, it will make absolutely no difference how likely that attack may have been.
The Ariweight now serves as backup.
There was a study recently of where just the presentation of the gun was shown to cease hostilities in 95% of cases.
I don't know about the 95%, but that would be the ideal solution.
When the balloon did go up and it was time to shoot, it was at night. It was three rounds fired, at a distance of three yards, in a time of three seconds.
Often quoted, often posted, but never attributed to a really objective source.
Think about it: in three seconds, an average advancing attacker would be able move about fifteen meters. At that rate, the defender would have been run through before firing a second shot.
That's why defensive trainers teach shooting three or four rounds in
one second--or less.
Whatever you choose to believe, statistically speaking, a person is very much not "undergunned" with a 5 shot .38 snub IF they can connect with it, and trust me, I most certainly can.
"Connect" with it? "Connecting" would mean hitting one, or preferably several, of the vital parts of the anatomy that would likely effect a fast stop. Those targets are really quite small,
moving, and concealed in the three dimensional envelope that is the attacker's body. No one I know would know where to aim, much less
be able to hit, such a small part inside a twisting, bending, running, and weaving person. The only real chance one has is to fire
several shots,
very fast, and hope for a favorable stochastic outcome.
I train heavily with my choice, which is important whichever gun one chooses for the purposes of self defense, and no matter what the gun rags tell you it's actually MORE important to have good training than to carry the latest ultra high capacity wonder micro subcompact polymer plastic tactical spaceship semi-automatic pistol.
Do not confuse practicing aimed shooting at a fixed target at a square range, after you have planned to shoot it, with training for realistic defensive pistol shooting.
But yes, good training is
extremely important.
Once you have signed up for it, and I
strongly recommend doing so, you will likely find that the better instructors do not want you to bring either a snubbie revolver
or a subcompact semi-auto.
There are a number of good courses available. I personally recommend Rob Pincus' Combat Focus Shooting (aka Dynamic Focus Shooting, at Gander Mountain Academy--they may have it in Wichita), but a course with Mas Ayoob or Tom Givens (see Deaf Smith's comment about him) would be excellent, too. They do travel. One can learn a lot from Claude Werner, but I'm not sure how accessible he is to you.
Training courses for snubbie revolvers have been offered for this who carry them for backup, but I'm told that lack of demand has made good courses very hard to find.
In the meantime, study John KSa's analysis linked in Post # 26.
.
Silly, but that's the way it is....