When is a barrel considered snub?

What barrel length(s) do you consider snub?

  • anything under three inches, NOT including three inches

    Votes: 65 69.9%

  • anything three inches and under, INCLUDING three inches

    Votes: 28 30.1%
  • Total voters
    93
M

mrray13

New member
So, I'm looking through the "who carries a snub?" thread, and with the posting of a some three inch guns got me thinking. I've never considered a three inch gun as a snub, but more of a duty length. So I googled it, and Wiki gives the definition as any barrel under three inches. What say you?

Just for clarification, my way of thinking goes like this;
under three inches, snub,
three to under six, duty,
six and up, hunting, target.

Not that those are set in stone, as a know a couple officers who still carry revolvers, and both of those are six inchers (a 25-2 .45Colt, and a Taurus .357). But just how I look at revolvers and barrel length, although the definitions work with bottom feeders as well.
 
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My youngest daughter CCW's a 3" S&W Model 37 Airweight - it's certainly no duty model, which AFAIK generally start @ 4" for revolvers.



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Good question. My wife carries a Colt Pocket Positive, with a 3" barrel, for many reasons not the least of which is that her Daddy also carried one back in the day. It's got a 3" barrel, and the dimensions of the little revolver make it look like a full-size barrel even though the frame is so diminuitive.

32Colt+01.jpg


That's a 3" barrel on a Colt Pocket Positive, and it certainly doesn't look like a snubnose to me, but it's really a very small revolver and fits nicely in a pocket.
 
While there are plenty of 2-1/2" barrels, there is usually a gap from 3 to 4. Our club permits 3" barrels in our snubby matches. For these reasons, I voted 3" and under.
 
I've always been a little curious about holsters for 3 inch guns. There aren't a lot of them off the shelf, if any. What do you guys that carry threes do? Do you use a holster made for a 4 inch? Or some kind of open bottom/slide style? Or ???


Sgt Lumpy
 
Let me clarify the three inch/duty size opinion. I owned a SP101 in .327 with the three inch tube, with a pair of Uncle Mike's boot grips, the revolver changed personalities. It screamed carry me in a duty rig. The combination of size/weight of the whole package, smaller then contemporary duty revolvers, yet sized in just such a way as to be just right, was unique and oh so shootable. I imagine if it was a .357 and still 6 shot, I probably would've carried it on duty.

Maybe that gun taints my opinion some, but at three inches it was too big to be a snub, but again, too small by contemporary standards to be duty sized. It was perfect for owb carry, and it got carried a lot off duty/other job.
 
Under 3" is what I consider a snub nose. 4" is duty length so I'm not sure what I consider a 3" barrel other than an ugly duck.
 
I carried a 3" Model 36, square butt, for years and never considered it a "snub", a term I used for barrels of 2" or less. So what is it? I don't know (or much care) but it shoots very well and has enough sight radius to let do reasonably well at 100 yds or so.

Jim
 
Back in the day when virtually everyone used revolvers, 4", and sometimes 6" was the standard "duty" length. Lots and lots of "duty" guns were 6" .38s, although after WWII the general trend was for 4 inchers more than 6, and with the gradual elimination of foot patrols in favor of cruising in cars, the shift from 6 to 4 was much more convenient.

If you want to label them, call 3" short, and 2.5" snub nosed if you like.
 
Frame has a lot to do with it, too. A 3" GP100 is not substantially smaller than the 4" one, but a 3" SP101 is also not substantially bigger than the 2.25" one, while being simultaneously MUCH smaller than either GP.
 
I've got it! 2" and under is a snubby, 4" is duty length, 6" is hunting/field and the 3" is a "compact". :)
 
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