How short can a snub barrel be?

511pe

Got an x-military friend (highly trained)who stated the minimum is 3/4". My topic is how short can a snub nose barrel go and still be lethal? lets exclude the forcing cone & crown please in this forum.

Don McManus

A round fired out of a cylinder without any barrell would be lethal. If the question is how long a barrell is needed to stabilize a bullet, it will vary with caliber, bullet weight and velocity.

nmyers

The earliest revolvers were called "pepperboxes", & had basicly just several short barrels rotating around a rod.

The term "snub nose" refers to modern revolvers with a frame surrounding the cylinder; you really don't need ANY barrel with these, as the bullet will (hopefully) pass through the hole in the front of the frame. But, like Don says, the barrel helps stabilize the bullet; plus, it's nice to have a place to mount the front sight.

Neal

grdad45

"plus, it's nice to have a place to mount the front sight."

With a barrel that short, "We don' need no stinkin" front sights!"

v35

Some early snubbies were Colt Single Action revolvers with their barrels removed.
Caliber by itself doesn't mean much until you have enough barrel length
to develop meaningful velocity.

Laredo Lefty

There was a woman murdered here in Cal years ago by a guy who removed the barrel from his revolver and shot from the cylinder only.

He wanted, obviously, to leave no rifling marks on the bullet, but was caught anyway.

clb024

Here's a thought - Grab a round around the case, you choose the caliber, with a pair of vise grips. Now place a nail over the primer and have someone hit it with a hammer. Lethal? Yep! Dumb? Absolutely! Happy New Year!!!

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by 511pe
Got an x-military friend (highly trained)who stated the minimum is 3/4". My topic is how short can a snub nose barrel go and still be lethal? lets exclude the forcing cone & crown please in this forum.


As already mentioned, historically, some of the earliest "snub noses" were standard revolvers with the barrel entirely removed to improve concealment. They may not be accurate, and you may lose most of the velocity, but at point-blank (ie card table) distances, they're plenty lethal.

So long as the cartridge case is supported (to contain the force of the gunpowder charge) and there is **some** degree of barrel, frame, or cylinder length (to direct the bullet) a revolver with any standard cartridge is potentially lethal. . .so long as you hit a vital area.

FWIW, I have personally seen with my own eyes a successful suicide with a 1" barrel .22 short pistol.

ebeshirs

Actually CLB, i had an uncle that did close to that very thing as a kid. He put a .22 in the vise and hit it with a hammer. Physics being what it is and all, the case being lighter than the bullet, the case blew backwards and went in his arm. Not what he expected.

clb024

Yea, this is actually something from my childhood. There was a railroad tie between mine and my neighbors houses that had varying nails sticking in the side. We would grab .22's in pliers or channel locks and hit it against the side of this railroad tie to get the rounds to discharge. Luckily no one ever got hurt. I was a dumb kid.

511pe

Way... way... off topic. Short barrel-OK, no barrel only cylinder-OK, no gun-what? Got a very interesting childhood. Thanks for shairing, I look forward to reveiwing all your postings.