That’s the pocket dump of one Matt Campbell. The 27-year-old Michigander makes his living selling Swedish SNUS, a blend of ground tobacco, water and salt (leather pouch in the upper right corner). Click here to watch Matt’s video on the legal stimulant, derived from snuff. Does that make Matt’s pitch a snuff flick? No. Snuff said? One more thing . . .
If you look in the dictionary under the word “optimist” you’ll find a pic of someone who thinks he can reload a snubbie with a speed strip in the middle of a gunfight.
Click here to ID/purchase the rest of Matt’s loadout, including a trustworthy Spyderco knife. Click on the box below to peruse other pocket dumps.
“Does that make Matt’s pitch a snuff film? No. Snuff said?”
The vernacular term is “snuff flick”.
…someone once told me. Yeah, that’s my story, and I’m…
As for the speed strip, it’s a bit of a carry compromise, but my mindset on carrying has been that if I need more than 5 rounds, I showed up at the wrong gunfight for my skillset.
And quality snus cans make excellent carry tins for in-ear monitors and/or foam earplugs…
Very true I carry a speed strip but never expect to fire more than a cylinder.
You use the speed strip to reload from cover. There are lulls. Most of us don’t live in the world of Reservoir Dogs or Lara Croft — dropping mags and reloading in the midst of a 10-way crossfire.
What, you don’t John Wick your way to work like I do?
No, I Assassin’s Creed my way to work. Nobody ever even sees me. 😉
I remember my first combat style pistol competition.
I got penalized for hitting the mag release as I headed for ‘cover’. Apparently under the rules, that was the same as standing still, out in the open, while fishing a new mag out of the holster and feeding it.
Stay out of a few high crime/gang areas nationwide and the j frame and speed strip are very viable carry options.
Why, yes. I am an optimist.
That’s why I carry a revolver and not an MSR.
🤠
I too am a cautious optimist in this and many other ways. I too avoid sketchy areas and situations, but I do carry TWO speed strips for my S&W snubbie. 🙂
At that point you might as well learn how to shoot a semi-auto, but I guess it takes all kinds to make a world.
Why do you assume I don’t know how to shoot a semiauto? I qualified with and carried a 1911 while in the service. I just prefer revolvers. If I need to go all John Wick at the age of 66, then the slow-motion technology is going to have to be really advanced anyway.
Point taken. Wrong assumption on my part.
The 642 is a terrific revolver but it’s not very fond of some speedloaders. Top o’the grip gets in the way
That’s a 637 not a 642 but what you said still applies. I find the lcr to be very problematic with most speed loaders because of its grip. I honestly do not like the lcr. The extra few ounces makes the 642/637 snubbies more comfortable than the lcr. And the grip on the lcr sucks imo. It feels like I have no grip on the gun and it sits very high in my hand.
I have both SpeedBeez and HKS speedloaders (Mod. 36) for my LCRs.
The SpeedBeez is easier, because it’s taller (less problem with the grip being in the way), doesn’t require a twist, and the rounds seat themselves all the way, positively, so you don’t have to try to shake them free of the loader.
But I can still use the HKS speedloaders fine, though I’m sure a little slower. It’s just a matter of practice.
It’s likely that I simply need more practice. . . but, for me, speed strips have never been more than a way of carrying extra ammo so that it doesn’t get scattered and can be withdrawn from a pocket as a single item.
HKS speed loaders however, have always felt pretty fast to me, once I practiced enough to be able to do it quickly and positively, without necessarily looking. My first EDC was an S&W Mod. 64, for which I carried a pair of HKS speed loaders (the beginning of a life long habit of EDCing 2 full reloads for whatever my primary may be) and a Mod. 36, for which I carried a speed strip out of a nod to size/concealability of the package and owing to the fact that I found it highly doubtful that I would make it through 3 cylinders full in my primary, one in my BUG and still be around (one way, or another) to reload again.
The speed strip was more about having more total ammo in case I wanted to squeeze off a few at some non-emergency target while I was out, or being able to drop the heavy, more difficult to conceal, primary in the car or whatever and go forth with the smaller, lighter snubbie for heavier concealment and still have a somewhat viable method of reloading it should it become critical.
That said, and even after years of ardent practice, I never really felt like even the HKS, which I greatly prefer, was an absolutely positive reload under combat stress, especially if injured or moving at the time. Eventually it was the short availability of ammo on tap, combined with a somewhat dubious reload that pushed me to carrying an auto pistol, despite what were at the time (the mid 90s), concerns about reliability.
It’s probably telling that I went rapidly from what is essentially a 100+ year old tested design (a Mod. 64 basically being a Mod. 10) to another 100 year old proven design; a 1911. . . and then to something completely different. It was as if, having finally embraced the auto pistol as reliable enough, and having trained with them to where I felt competent enough, suddenly the same problem that drove me from the wheel gun to the auto in the first place pressed me further on. . . I needed more reliability/positivity from the feed system/reload process, and more on board ammunition. Next up was a HK USP in .40. At the time (well, and still to an extent) it seemed like the best compromise between power and capacity. Remember, this was 20+ year of ammo development for the 9mm ago. That isn’t to say that there wasn’t good factory loadings readily available for the 9, but the really common stuff was still more akin to the basic loadings for the .38 special that the .45. .357 Sig, had it not been proprietary at the time, would have been in the running as well.
Now, all these years later, and despite a definite winding down of the sort of life that might call for such firepower to be carried daily, I feel slightly under armed with less than 30 rounds for my primary. . . and a BUG. It’s hard to believe that I was once fine with 6 and a slower, possibly botched reload. . . but it’s not that my needs changed, or that I ever really NEEDED more than 6. . . it’s that such large capacity mags, with the positive and rapid reload of more of the same gave me options. . . possibilities. . . and I think that anything (within the realm of ‘reasonable’ volume and mass) that increases my options in an emergency is what I want to have.
All of which is just a very long way of saying I favor more ammo than less in any package, and a faster, more positive reload over a slower, less positive one, and more shots before/after a reload than less. . . which leads inevitably to the thought that if you need more ammo, a 5 shot snubbie was already a less than optimal choice, and everything following that (speed strip vs speed loader) feels like trying to ‘fix’ the wrong problem in the first place.
Quote RF”
“If you look in the dictionary under the word “optimist” you’ll find a pic of someone who thinks he can reload a snubbie with a speed strip in the middle of a gunfight. ”
RF stands for Rat Fink
There are so few civilian gun fights where more than five shots are fired that your reload is mainly carried to top off the gun post fight. Almost no one who gets in a gun fight will ever need to reload, whether they have five rounds or fifteen. Carry what you want, and get skilled at shooting it and you will be fine.
I see nothing wrong with carrying extra ammo for any gun. It’s not just for that extremely rare scenario where you’re in a Hollywood style shootout. I like carrying extra ammo for the slightly more probable (but still probably not much more so than the Hollywood scenario) scenario of being in a survival situation where having more ammo is better than not.
A “Hollywood style shootout” requires more than extra ammo for your pistol. It requires a different category of gun.
I’m not trying to detract from your point. I’m just sayin’.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you are unable to reload a revolver because of the stress of a bad situation you will not be able to reload a semi, either.
If you are so stressed as to be incapable of reloading your 5-6 shot revolver then the 15-17 round capacity of your full sized duty auto is just going to be wasted shots fired higgeldy piggedly to no good effect. You cannot miss fast enough to save yourself.
Those who have never been in the shit try to wield the latest and greatest kit like it was a magical talisman. It is not. It’s always been and will always be the man at the controls. Whether it was a pointy stick or the newest Glock. The hands wielding the weapon are important, not the weapon.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you are unable to reload a revolver because of the stress of a bad situation you will not be able to reload a semi, either.”
I disagree. If you fumble with the reload on a semi-auto, you pick up the mag. If you fumble with a revolver, it’s not that simple.
Revolver advocates seem to have the misconception that semi-auto carriers are carrying 15-17 round mags. Most aren’t. Most carry a 7-8 rounds, because most carry a Shield or 43.
All that said, you’re dead on that “The hands wielding the weapon are important, not the weapon.”
I tend to agree with JWM. speed strips are not that hard. Speed loaders are even easier. Yes, dropping a Mag, and inserting a new one is easier still, but all are difficult without practice, and all reloads can be screwed up.
I practice fast reloads and draws from concealment and it’s hard for me to do quickly sometimes. I’ve loaded my mag backwards many a time (rarely these days) and I sometimes keep my spare mag in an ankle holster of sorts, so it’s not always easy to get.
If I have a speedloader I can reload a snub just as quickly as my tcp. But these days I’ve taken to carrying two guns. I can draw and fire a second gun faster than any other option. And a pair of pocket pistols can be carried effortlessly.
Just in my head I see reloading a revolver with speed strips taking about 8 steps where a semi would take about 3. Revolver: cylinder release, swing cylinders to the side, press ejector rod, at this time you can now grab the speed strip, insert first two rounds, second two, and last round (yes I’m counting those as separate steps), close cylinder. Semi auto: mag release (you can simultaneously be grabbing the mag with non dominant hand), insert mag, rack slide/ slide release. Some steps with the revolver could be done in one motion and you could save a few steps by not fully loading it but that also presents other problems such as closing it on empty cylinders.
Its not steps. It’s a fluid motion. Neither type of handgun, revolver or semi, leaves my strong side hand. Chopping it up into steps just slows your roll.
Which is beside the point I made in the first place.
If the stress of the situation renders you unable to reload your revolver you’re not going to become John Wick because you have a semi. It is the inability to handle the stress that is destroying your proficiency.
I can’t speak for right-handers, but the left-hand revolver speed-load procedure advocated by Massad Ayoob, and which I’ve found works best for me involves transferring the revolver from strong to weak hand (weak hand holding and bracing the cylinder with thumb through the frame, while left-hand operates the ejector and manipulates the speedloader, then you drop the speedloader and take the grip in your strong hand while your weak hand is closing the cylinder.
Jerry Miculek may do it differently … but it’s too fast for me to see. 🙂
No, an optimist carries a speed strip for his derringer!
“If you look in the dictionary under the word “optimist” you’ll find a pic of someone who thinks he can reload a snubbie with a speed strip in the middle of a gunfight.”
And if you look up “pessimist,” you’ll find a pic of someone who thinks he will need more than five shots.
And if you look up “pessimist,” you’ll find a pic of someone who thinks he will need at least two extra 14-round mags to shoot a slow-moving mugger at least once.
Pessimist, or NYPD trained Professional?
I carry two snubbies and two speedstrips, I’m slightly less optimistic.
Well,
Thank you Robert for the EDC shoutout! I appreciate it. Yes I do carry a speed strip or a HKS speed loader. Just depends on the day. I did however forget to put my flashlight in the photo… a Olight S1R Baton.
Check out:
http://www.SnusTV.com
Also, my personal youtube channel for future EDC updates (soup222)
Thank you again!
-Matt
I think we are all missing something here. An optimist doesn’t carry a speed strip. They carry nothing at all.
I clearly see three keys. The handcuff key is on top of two stacked “house keys .”
Perhaps with glassses or LASIK one could load with a speed strip a little faster…..
D’oh! Text amended.
Looks like the safety lock key for the S & W to me. I have mine on my key chain though I’ve never had occasion to use it.
So I carry 2 speed strips and 3 speed loaders…. but those are just for my BUG.
Your move.
You can improve your reloading skills with speed strips by practicing regularly at home…just like anything else. Is it ever going to be as quick as changing a mag? No, but if you carry a revolver, speed strips are a non bulky way of carrying extra rounds so you might as well make the best of it.
CCH Optimist
If you carry, you at least have better chance than if you do not
is like a
Power Ball Optimist
If you have at one ticket in hand, you at least have a better chance to win than someone who did not purchase a ticket
but the odds and the value of what you win are very different!
I carry what is in my Pistol or revolver. Cardio and a good idea of what and where I am make the difference. I stay out of bad places where I may need something belt fed to survive yet carry for the leakers who invade good guy areas.
In my younger days I watched an 76 year old retired Arizona lawman reload a 100 year old break open Remington .44 from a belt faster than I could reload my Smith 19 with a speed loader.
He told me, “It’s not the gun, but the hand it fills.”
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