A friend of mine told me a story about shooting a mountain lion that was threatening his wife and dog on his ranch. He is a retired LEO and shoots a .45ACP. She screamed, he came out and shot at the cat; found a blood trail but the cat ran off. That cat crashed through a fence and eventually ended up in a tree. It had been shot twice, once in the body and once in the neck. It finally bled to death and fell out of the tree. Unless you're Annie Oakley, I doubt that .38 snubbie is going to be able to place those shots in the "stopping zone".