Dear Friends: The material that follows I wrote over thirty years ago. I never felt if was ready to print and subsequently, excluding a few proto-galley proof tests samples, I never printed it. I still do not believe the material is ready, but I suspect a few fragments might be of some interest to one or two of my fellow snub shooting enthusiasts. If this includes, I hope you will follow me as I share this material and follow up with any possible thoughts, suggestions, or corrections. I cannot guarantee that I will get a chance to respond, but I’d welcome your thoughts. Thank you. Michael de Bethencourt, June 2026
Why Another Snub Text
There has always been a dearth of snub related texts. H. Fitz-Gerald, the prime motivation behind the classic “Fitz-Special” noted several of the snub’s self-defense advantages in his book Shooting. Master holster designer Chic Gaylord dedicated several pages worth of material to the snub’s virtues in his text The Handgunner’s Guide. But neither text is a dedicated snub bible. The arrival of the first ded-icated snub text had to wait for Ed Lovette. Mr. Lovette’s text The Snubby Revolver is the clear primogenitor on the subject of snubs, snub tactics and snub resources. It is in Ed’s text that he notes five reasons snub owners and shooters should continually be gathering up and recording self-defense revolver material:
- “We’re slowly losing all that good revolver ‘how-to’ we learned the hard way [.]”
- “I am concerned that the requisite revolver skills are not being passed on to those who need ”
- There is a dearth of “revolver only” courses
- “It is possible that the mainstay revolver – the one most pur-chased, most carried, and most used – will become the ”
- “With a little luck, it might inspire [other] revolver hands … to
share their experience and expertise.”
I wouldn’t compare this amorphous collection of snub commentaries to Ed Lovette’s work but I do offer it as a recording of the various snub handling tips I have collected along with a few related insights I have observed over the years. In the interest of expanding my own snub revolver skills library, I hope this small effort will also motivate other revolver shooters and trainers to contribute to the genre.
