...
There is a significant J frame coterie in the training world. Their take is that they can be shot decently IF you train up. Also, they acknowledge they are going for the odds of a single opponent, few shots needed risk most of the time.
That's my take.
Indeed.
There are always compromises to be found within compromises, and diminutive DA/DAO snubs, especially the lightweight ones, can push the bounds of what might be an acceptable compromise for a lot of folks.
Working to sufficiently master the skills needed to controllably and accurately run the little snubs, at speed, under stress and duress, requires more investment for most folks than doing the same with larger guns, and even some diminutive pistols.
Even in the heyday of service revolvers, though, when it was rare to find a firearms trainer who
didn't have a J-frame, Colt D or even a Charter Arms snub in their pocket (or on their ankle), the snub was considered something carried for only 1, maybe 2, threats. Well, the state of .38SPL ammunition didn't exactly help in those years, either.
While I was still seeing some LE instructors pocketing 5-shot snubs well into the 2000's, seeing them run hard on the range for drills and quals didn't seem exactly frequent. Not as frequent as I'd have liked to see, at any rate. When I returned to snubs at the end of the 90's, I chose to invest a lot more time into range work, especially since I had just ordered my first Airweight, which was a different experience than shooting my older steel snubs. It took me a few cases of ammo to feel like I'd restored my DA (now DAO) trigger skills to match the demands of the Airweight and +P.
I could see the older, experienced LE revolver shooters still pick one up and do well with it, and enjoy it, but the younger cops who hadn't carried service revolvers never really had the chance to have developed the requisite DA revolver skills. It was a little daunting to a lot of them.
In the later 2000's I went through a S&W revolver armorer class for DAO J-frames, for LE armorers, since the little snubs were selling quite well to LE as secondary and off-duty weapons. It was a full class, too. Lots of interest among the students, and the ages ranged from younger cops to older, more experienced cops.
The little .38SPL seems to still have a place in LE work, though, since the newest state contract of ammunition (approved by the CHP, since it's state testing for a state contract, after all) has 9 different .38SPL loads named on it. Some for range/training some for duty/carry (7 ammo brands). They wouldn't have tested and chosen those various loads if there wasn't a demand for .38SPL among the state's LE agencies. I've seen quite a few state ammo contracts over the years, but I've never seen one where 7 different ammo makers won places on the contract for .38 S&W SPL ammo.
Let me see if I can copy/paste that part of the list ... (something for just about everyone, too).
25 | .38 Special,
130-135 gr (FMJ)
Ballistic | Remington | 130 gr | 23730 |
26 | .38 Special,
130-135 gr (FMJ)
Ballistic | American Eagle | 130 gr | AE38S1 or AE38K |
27 | .38 Special,
130-135 gr (FMJ)
Ballistic | Winchester | 130 gr | Q4171 |
28 | .38 Special,
125-135 gr
Controlled Expansion | Winchester | 130 gr bonded +P | RA38B |
29 | .38 Special,
125-135 gr
Controlled Expansion | Speer | 135 gr | 53921 |
30 | .38 Special,
110 gr
Lead-Free Controlled Expansion | Barnes | 110 gr +P DPX | DPX38110/20 |
31 | .38 Special,
110 gr
Lead-Free Controlled Expansion | Buffalo Bore | 110 gr +P Tac-XP | 20F/20 |
32 | .38 Special,
100/101 gr
Lead-Free Frangible | Remington | 101 gr | LF38SA |
33 | .38 Special,
100/101 gr
Lead-Free Frangible | RWS | 100 gr Copper-Matrix NTF | 203840050 |