Overlooked and underrated...

[1000meterstare]

Ditch your combat knife.  Get a j-frame (but not JUST any j-frame) rated for .38+p.  Your field knife is invaluable for skinning game and as a last-ditch.  How many of us are versed in knife-fighting?  I didn't think i'd like a .38 snub until I got one.  A model 640 from the Smith and Wesson Performance Center.  Uncle Mike's boot grips standard, tuned action and trigger, 15-yard head shots with a snub barrel!  Take it over a combat knife any day of the week.  It's so light I forget it's in my pocket most of the time.  The Joke between my friends and I here in North Dakota is if I have my "knife" on me or not.  Tell me your thoughts...

[Kentactic]

I get where you're coming from in a defensive standpoint and if I had to pick a knife or a backup pistol to stop a bad guy, id definitely pick a pistol but the knife has many more uses beyond last ditch defense. I personally only carry a folder but it gets the most use out of all the "tools" I carry. But if I had to pick a backup pistol it would just be another mag fed pistol. Reliability is not an issue with newer proven pistols. They are every bit as reliable as a revolver and they hold more ammo.

Thats my .02 brother.

[sledge]

Ahh, the Smith and Wesson 640.  The first gift I got ladydoc.  We'll, she did say that she liked shiney things.  She also said that she liked shiney things that were golden in color.  So I knew the box of brass cased HP's would be perfect.  She did make the change of putting a laser sight on it.  She's certainly come a long way since that first pistol, but that was the one that started it.  A damn fine firearm.

I agree with Ken that most modern semi auto's are fairly reliable.  But I don't know that I would put any semi auto's reliability in the same realm as a revolvers.  Especially over time.  It's just not mechanically feasible.  That said, I've yet to see a 15 round revolver.     



   

[Kentactic]

Ive seen my fair share of revolvers, totally fail. I wouldn't put any ole pistol up against a revolver but certainly a factory unmolested glock. Revolvers have a lot of precision things that have to go right for the gun to work. Its really a very close comparison in reliability in the real world. Besides if my glock totally explodes at 6 rounds I was just as well off as a guy with a revolver. But if it dosent... and it more then likely wont.... you'll have more bang for your buck.

[special-k]

I've experienced 3 fails on 3 different modern production (1980's or earlier), prominent name-brand revolvers:

1.  A single-action that would not cock due to a single grain of sand.  It had NOT been dropped on the ground, but somehow got a grain of sand in the mechanism while being stowed in a vehicle for months.  It required complete dis-assembly & cleaning to get it working again.

2.  Another single-action would not cock because the cylinder release would not actuate.  It had a lifetime warranty so I sent it to the manufacturer where it was discovered to have a broken part in the mechanism.  Due to this kind of failure from a relatively lightly used revolver, it now enjoys a permanent residency in storage... no longer to be trusted for defensive carry.

3.  A double-action revolver started having intermittent light strikes on primers AFTER I had adjusted the trigger/mechanism tension to lighten the trigger pull weight.  Even though this malfunction could be classified as operator error, it's still good to keep in mind that even though the adjustment can be turned/loosened all the way, it may not be designed to function that way.


Although pistols can be more ammo sensitive... In my experience, I've had more TOTAL FAILURES from revolvers than from *pistols... *that is any pistol that wasn't already a total failure right out of the box (Tec DC9  anyone?)

All that being said, a S&W 640 is an awesome little revolver that I came inches away from buying myself.

[sledge]

Wow!  I am totally blown away and amazed by those two posts.  A single grain of sand in a revolver made it inoperable?  Amazing.  I'm sorry for your misfortune.  Myself, I've shot revolvers for a lifetime and have only once had a revolver refuse to fire.  That was a late 1800's S&W 32 that the firing pin finally went out on.  I can't make that same statement for any semi auto that I've ever come across except for a Kimber, and I'm sure that is just a matter of time before that one has a failure to fire.  But, I guess that ya'll can.  It's all good.

 Edit: Let me qualify that.  I've never had a failure to fire from a revolver that was caused by the firearm itself other than the one instance mentioned.   

[JohnyMac]

The S&W 640 is a fine weapon 

I carry my wife's Ruger SP101 spurless when I wear in in my front pants pocket. With a pair of pleated slacks nobody would ever suspect I have a hand gun. I tend to use the same gun when I wear a suit. I keep in in a IWB holster and it just blends right in.

[1000meterstare]

Awesome posts, all!  My whole point is that my +p snub is like a combat knife for non knife guys!

[1000meterstare]

The only "hiccups" I've ever had with a revolver was at the range shooting steel-cased tula ammo.  No failures to fire, just did not want to extract.

[JohnyMac]

Yeah 1000M, brass cases are the way to go with revolvers! I had a similar problem and I don't know if they were steel casing's or nickel casings how ever I had to take a brass rod to force them out of the cylinder.

[APX808]

Awesome posts, all!  My whole point is that my +p snub is like a combat knife for non knife guys!

On contact range a knife is way more dangerous than a gun, you only have to worry about one attack vector and grabbing the gun you can break it's user fingers easily.

I'm scared shitless of knifes, just "sticking the pointy edge on the soft spots" real fast you can fuck anyone up, and a lot of studies show that all the knife disarming techniques work just on karate movies.

I carry a folding knife with me since years and I hope I'll never have to use it for self-defense.

[Kentactic]

APX makes a good point. Knives are deadly as hell once the bad guy gets close enough to use it. The most important skill we can have is making sure that never happens. You can have 10 guns and 5 knives on you but if you didn't spot the bad guy before the attack you're probably fucked. It takes .2 seconds to react to the situation on top of your startle response which if you haven't trained it will be to block your face. You're more then likely bleeding pretty badly by now.

Stay in Yellow mindset at all times!! It is not easy because our minds always want to drift into White. For a deer, if hes not always in Yellow mindset he gets eaten by the Mountain Lion.

For Reference:

White = Sheeple picking his nose.

Yellow = Alert and relaxed, always searching the area for threats, orienting yourself strategically in your environment.

Orange = Youve spotted a potential threat and are readying yourself. Possibly even hand on gun if you're in the car or something. You are waiting for the bad guy to give you your cue to act.

Red = The fight is now active. The cue was givin.

[APX808]

It depends a lot of your AO, but if you live in a city or suburban area is really common to have strangers walking really close to you, so is extremely probable you won't have time to pull out your gun.

As Ken mentions, being alert and not looking like a victim is a great start, then a bit of luck is always helpful.

[JohnyMac]

To your point APX & Ken:

I did an experiment a couple of summers ago at a local farmers market MrsMac and I would go to every Saturday.

Picture this - A open field with a bout 2 dozen open air tents. In the tents were farmers from Aquidneck Island selling their wares.

Some vendors were selling veggies, fruit and flowers while others were selling home made cheese, freshly baked bread. There was one to two fish mongers there too.

Most of the customers were locals with a hefty bunch of tourists as Newport was only one town over too.

MrsMac knew all of the vendors (Man O' man that women could make friends with the devil) so I would stay back out of the tents as she made here Saturday tour.

Well one Saturday I was standing out of one of tents waiting for MrsMac to get done shaking hands and kissing babies when I noticed people were moving around me like water goes around the boulder in the stream. They were keeping there distance and I saw several mom's and dad's grab their kids as they passed by me.

I immediately looked down to see if my fly was open and it wasn't. Then smelled my armpits and I didn't smell. Checked to see if my EDC was poking out - Nope.

For Kicks and giggles I went over to one of the picnic tables that a young couple was sitting at and asked if it was O-Kay to sit down and they said "yeah." Within a minute after sitting down they got up walked a short distance and the guy turned around and gave me a quick glance.

What was going on?

When MrsMac and I got back into the truck I told her about my experience of folks avoiding me. Well she laughed and she said, "You have your don't fuck with me look today." I quizzed her on what that meant. She explained that you have on your black Ray Ban's, you are constantly surveying the crowd and my demeanor was don't screw with me. 

Skip ahead to next Saturday and again we were back at the farmers market. Same vendors, same locals different tourists but they all looked the same. I stood in the same places and people didn't avoid me like I had described.

What was different was I had a Boston Red Sox cap on, no sunglasses, my hands were in my pockets and I had a big Gomer Pyle smile on my face. Basically I wasn't perceived as a threat.

Over the rest of the summer I played with my appearance and stance often, mainly because I hated going to the farmers market. I learned a lot.

In closing, how you carry yourself does have a WHOLE LOT of relevance to how you are treaded by friend or foe.

   

[special-k]

...In closing, how you carry yourself does have a WHOLE LOT of relevance to how you are treaded by friend or foe.

Yeah I've had a lot of practice in this area mainly because of my imposing size/build coupled with what I call "CCW vigilance."  I've found that nothing throws them off of your scent like sporting a pair of Crocs  (that one is for TG).

[Kentactic]

Ive been unfortunate enough to have a relaxed "mean mug" and im a bigger then average guy aswell. Looking like a hard target is always beneficial. On APX point, I rarely walk the streets but when I pass people im already in a state of ready if they appear at all out of place. Might sound silly but ill be saying in my head "cmon punk, DO SOMETHING! " that way if they do attack me, I was planning on it anyways. It should help avoid any startle response.

[special-k]

This public awareness video about "bitchy resting face" and "asshole resting face" seems relevant:

ORIGINAL VIDEO - Bitchy Resting Face

[JohnyMac]

  Were do you find all of this stuff SK 

[1000meterstare]

I'd leave a red hand print on their asses.  All joking aside, I'd still take a .38+p over a knife any day.  Even if I can't draw at the immediate threat point I can shoot thru my pockets.  Once I draw (doesn't take long) I can score vicious hits on a target outside knife range.  Don't get me wrong, I still carry a knife, too.  But that Smith-and-wesson Performance center .38 is as good as gold.  It's the gun you always have when you "can't have a gun."

[Burt Gummer]

It's the gun you always have when you "can't have a gun."

It's sad because I can relate. I'm not a bad person am I...?

[crudos]

3 keys to survival….

pistol, fixed-blade knife, and a bad-ass attitude. Winning all the time.

 

[thatGuy]

Back in the day we picked up a 637 (if memory serves) 38sp+p for thatGirl and it hurt more to see that pistol leave than it did to see her go.

I am saving up for another one because I can carry when I can't carry a gun. It is in my estimate the finest CCW piece made.

[Kentactic]

Ok whats this "Can't have a gun" business? Are you guys reffering to the times when carrying a long gun just isnt possible? 

[Burt Gummer]

Sure....

[Kentactic]

Im trying to understand.. if you guys were in CA this would make more sense. But my "Can't have a gun" Gun is a G26. Holds 11 and you can stick a 33 rounder in it next if need be or anything in between.