This was usually more a problem with using the wrong ammo in the guns, usually 110 or 158-grain JHPs rather than the preferred 125-grain JHP or 158 grain lead hollowpoint, particularly in 2.5" barrelled .357 snubbies. But even after multiple .38/.357 hits there have been those determined assailants who survive long enough to also kill their opponent. A hit that eventually kills is sometimes not enough, whether it's a single hit or multiples that result. If only one connects, it needs to be the very best suited to the job. You slammed the .357 for not being a certain killer with a good, clean body hit. Now we are looking at snubbies; what would you carry instead of a .357 in a snubby????? I'm hardly *slamming* the .38/.357; if that were the case, I wouldn't own the pair of S&W .38s and the three .357 handguns that I do. But the circumstances THEN for those who had to carry a city or department-issue piece and ammo are NOT those for an individual, who had some better choices then, and a better and wider variety of ammo choices now.
And with the right ammunition it's not a bad choice for a less-familiar individual, though it's not at all an absolute guarantee of success in a lethal confrontation- nothing is that certain, though there are better choices under certain given circumstances than others.
What do I like better than a short-tube .357 [or my 30-year-old model 49 S&W] in a snubby? A 3-inch barrelled .44 Special, Charter Bulldog or Taurus 441, or something similarly sized in .45 Auto Rim or .45 ACP.
Or a Glock 36 or 30, Taurus 145, or Colt Commander. I don't care much for the *Officers Model* sized mini-1911s, but there are those who do.
-archy-/-
M
From
Combat Handguns:
Item: In Kansas, a lone officer pulled over a suspect who had shortly before robbed a bank using heavy Rambo gear including smoke bombs and concussion grenades. The felon came out of the car shooting, and caught the patrolman off guard. The cop was a southpaw, and the first bullet smashed into his gun hand. As he clawed for his 9mm Smith & Wesson third generation service automatic, the would-be cop killer hammered four .44 Special bullets into the cops chest. Horribly wounded but determined to live and fulfill his duty, the officer retreated for cover, firing as he went. Fired weak hand only, most of his fusillade went wide, doing no more than causing peripheral wounds on the gunman but at least keeping the latter from reloading his revolver. The cop took cover behind a car. He stabilized his hand on the vehicle and fired one more shot. Witnesses saw a hole appear in the center of the felon's chest, and saw him shudder. He turned, stumbled a distance to his car, got in, and put it in gear. The walk to the car had been perhaps fifty feet according to reliable reports; the car went another fifty feet before it crashed with the attempted murderer dead at the wheel. The officer's 147-grain subsonic hollowpoint had destroyed his heart. The officer remains in intensive care.