In this age of digital voice recorders, cell-phones that hold voice dictation, text messaging, email-enabled smart phones, and PDAs, do any of you not still use a notepad and pen? Of course not. Does it bother you that paper and pen is not just decades old, nor just centuries old, but a thousand or more years old? You probably never thought about it.

Sometimes old skool is good skool.

And so it is with the snub-nose revolver. It's simple, reliable, effective, and size-efficient. Revolvers are simple to load and operate. Their reliability is well-documented. They fire .38, .38+P, and/or .357 cartridges, providing effective (handgun) stopping power (while the snubby comes in many sizes, I'm here focusing on Smith & Wesson j-frames, their direct competitors, and similar small snubbys). And they do all of this in a package that fits easily (and is often carried) in a pocket, ankle holster or (if you are law enforcement) a ballistic vest strap holster.

More over, snubs are classic. They've been carried by cops and good guys for a long, long time, both in real life and on the screen. They have a fanatical following, and once you carry one for a while, you just sort of get attached to it. Frankly, it's hard to say that about any of the sub-compact semis, which are their chief competitors.

Literally millions of words have been written about the snub, so what do I have to say that’s new? Well, how about telling you about a few of the things that make the snubby better, more practical, and help you to achieve the potential that these small guns inherently have?

Barami Hip-Grips:
The Barami hip-grip consists of replacement panels for a snub's stock grip panels, but the right panel has a little lip protruding from the outside upper end to hook or catch on a belt as the little revolver is carried inside the pants. They make holsterless and/or Mexican carry practical and safe: the gun can't slide down your pants because of the lip; the gun can't ride up over your belt and fall out because the cylinder catches on the belt from underneath, and the gun won't accidently fire because of the revolver's long/stiff trigger pull. These are just the thing for sticking a gun in your waistband to go to the store, and they make carrying a snub as a primary or Back Up Gun (BUG) appendix style very practical. I carry my Colt Agent as a primary gun this way very often off-duty and have even on some low-risk surveillances while on-duty. The hip-grip is in fact so old-skool now that it's become a retro-cool item for many very high-speed gun people that I know.

Snubtraining.com and the related blog http://snubtraining.com/blog/
Would you buy, say, an H&K MP5 for protection and then figure, what the heck, I know how to shoot, I don't need any special training with it? (The correct answer is no.) Well, why would you assume that you know how to shoot, reload, outfit, and generally handle a snub-nose revolver without special training to accompany this different and special-purpose weapon? (The correct answer is that you shouldn't). Michael deBethencourt was known for years for his unusual but brutally effective approach to the folding knife. For the last several years, though, he's devoted himself to teaching the skills for his gun of choice: the snub-nose revolver.

Michael's a good friend, so I can call him compulsive in a nice way, and as such he's become the go-to source for all things snub-related: techniques, training courses, information on the snub, advice on same, web links to snub information, information about and sources of arcane snub equipment, and so on. His YouTube videos will give you an idea of his unique approach to several aspects of the snub manual of arms, and his courses are scheduled almost a year in advance.