Are Short Barrels Useless?

Hickok45 here. Do you really need a long barrel to hit anything with a handgun? Are short barrels useless? They can be, maybe. Depends on how much experience we have, right? And whether the firearm is accurate, whether it's easy to shoot. Well, I don't know. Anyway, thought I'd address this issue briefly today and, you know, shoot a couple of longer barreled firearms and then maybe try a cut my Glock 35 out here. And I've got a shorter Glock, Glock 43, 43X, you know, and I've got a big old long Model 19, 357, 38. I got some short ones. And, you know, you might be looking to purchase, you know, a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and barrel length. Pretty big decision, you know, what length is best and all that. We're not going to go too far with that, but just maybe address the, could be a myth. Well, I don't know. Depends on what I can do today. Let's take a couple of shots. I tell you what, before I do that, I want to thank Bud's Gun Shop. Great support of the channel and the reason you see so many fine firearms around here. And Silencer Central, a great company. And the reason you see so many fine items in the bandage line, you know, in our videos. Great company. And SDI, the Sonoran Desert Institute, just a plethora of courses you could take, you know, drone technology, firearms technology, you name it. You could even get on the road to becoming a gunsmith. So check them out. And let's just shoot, let's just shoot something long here and see if I can hit something with that long barrel. The Glock 35 is one of the longer, kind of a competition Glock, at least it has been known as that. Let's just reach out, see if I'm steady enough today. Let's put one on Clyde first as a warm-up. All right, let's try the gong. All right, all right, it's gong worthy. And I'll bet you it's not bad on this other stuff. It's pretty good at close range or long range, right? So yeah, nice. When you've got a longer barrel, you get a longer sight radius. That makes it doable. Let's try the revolver. Same thing. It's got the long six-inch barrel. And speaking of that, I want to thank Alabama Holster for their support of the channel. Great little concealment Kydex holsters. I usually have a couple of them on me. Great holsters. Appreciate their help. All right, so we've got a .38 Special, .357. Let's warm up with Clyde. Got a long barrel. I should be able to hit him. I heard it. I heard it. Well, let's go over to the gong. Okay, where do I hold? Well, I guess right there. So this one you can pop stuff with long range, short range, nothing like a long barrel. We all know that. So I didn't really tug anything, did I? Yet. Maybe I won't tell you anything all day, but we know that a longer barrel is pretty shootable. Well, what about these little guys? 43X. That's got a short barrel. Not a lot of barrel in that thing. Couldn't be very accurate. Well, let's try it. Okay, we've got a mag. This is one of those shield arms things. I've not tested it much, but let's try that and see if I can hold it steady enough. You don't have the sight radius you have with the longer slide and barrel, of course. All right, gong. Do you feel like getting hit? Do I feel steady? Yeah, I hear it. I was a little too high on a couple of those, I think. Yeah, so short barrel, but you know, let's try Clyde. I heard that too. You take out a Bigfoot at whatever, 50, 60 yards. How about a cowboy at about 20? So there you go. Kind of long range, not shooting at peanuts, but you know, not bad. Let's try something in a revolver line. You want to with a little three-inch barrel. Let's put some 38s in him. See if we can hit anything with him. So we know that long barrels with those long sight radiuses are ideal, but some people are still of the opinion that you get out under four inches or even a four-inch barrel and you just don't have a real gun. Now, I can't even cock this. This is double action. Let's try the gong with double action. All right. All right, let's try it again. Oh, nice. How about Clyde? Sweet. Do I have one more? Yeah, I thought I did. So, short barrel. Look at those sights, boy. You notice I didn't even adjust the sights before the video. I was going to get my screwdriver out and adjust those, and I didn't do it. Now, wasn't that hilarious? Wasn't that a hilarious joke? So, yeah. So the point of this is a reminder that you don't really need a long barrel to hit reasonably sized targets at reasonable distances, and sometimes even pretty far out if they're not too small. So, do not eliminate short barrels from your choice if you're looking for a firearm. And likewise, don't use it as an excuse for not being able to shoot as well as you want or calling the firearm inaccurate. Yeah, I bought a Glock 43X, but that thing isn't accurate. I can't hit anything with it. I've shot it, you know, lots of ammo through it. It's just I can't hit anything with the thing, you know, and you're getting your bigger, you know, semi-automatics out for that reason. Could be the same with a revolver. I got a small one or maybe even a pocket revolver, and you see me shoot the 642 out here a lot, you know. You can hit what you need to hit even with it, and it's got a shorter barrel than this. So, don't let that be an excuse for you. If you use that as an excuse, guess what? It's a lame excuse. You just need to practice a little more and work with it, and you'll be able to hit whatever you really need to hit and even some things you don't need to hit, but you just want to hit pretty far out there with a short barrel, okay? And I'll send you an invoice and bill you for this information. Life is good. Oh yeah, that's better. This is a great gun for defense. Oh hey, didn't see you guys there. While I've got you here, I want to remind you of our friends over at Talon Grips and Ballistol. Talon Grips makes grips, can you believe it, for all different types of firearms. You can get rough texture or more of a rubberized texture. It just sticks right on there. You know, really affordable, really cool option to improve the grip for your handguns or rifles. So, please check them out at talongungrips.com. You'll be glad you did. And also, Ballistol. Dad has been using Ballistol for many years. It's a cleaner and a lubricant, and it's non-toxic. It works really great, and we're happy to have them on board since it's been a part of our shooting endeavor for a very long time. So, go to ballistol.com, talongungrips.com. And also, while you're out there, I'm juggling all these things here. Also, while you're on the internet, please do check out our other social media like Hickok45 on Facebook. There's also Hickok45 on Twitter, TheRealHickok45 on Instagram. There's a John underscore Hickok45 on Instagram where I do some things. There's hickok45.com. You can find us also on Gunstreamer. So, check out all that stuff, and then watch more videos.