No. I did carry one, for decades, usually as a second gun for the specific emergency circumstances I wrote of. A full size service weapon usually covered the other circumstances. Yes, I cheated and experimented for something better occasionally. PPK, Jennings, Beretta 1934, Mustang, M1903, (even a Detonics MK VI one year) etc., etc. Tore up a lot of jacket liners keeping them concealed. Kept coming back to the small revolver as it gave the most for the weight. Having qualified modified PPC with several of those things, on several occasions, I suspect I was reasonably proficient. Never though did I mistake them for being something they weren't. A snubbie (or pocket auto) is, a defensive tool of last resort. Please don't let the salesman convince you it is more than that.
FTR, when an agency I worked for went to Sig 228s in 9mm is about when I mostly desk drawed the things. A nice mid sized gun (and the 40 version is just as good). It should be noted I consider the mid sized weapon to be a different animal. A 3 inch model 10 is quite a step up from a 5 shot Chiefs Special or Bodyguard. So too is a short model 19, but that also is a mid size. IMO, you should carry full house ammo in a mid size, but not in a mini like a J frame or a Colt DS.
In that 'long ago' era you speak of, most police officers were given a longer barreled weapon for primary carry. The off-duty weapon or second gun (a subject of controversy in many jurisdictions these days) may indeed have been a snubbie, but trust me, no one intentionally planned in the morning when they woke up to get into a shooting with an armed adversary while armed only with the snub nosed revolver sometime later that afternoon. [Not if they were sane.] If you were a plainclothes officer serving warrants, you may have actually had a only snub nosed revolver with you, but you also had 3 or 4 (or more) other armed people with you too. Sometimes someone brought along a pump shotgun (or more, depending on what town you were in) too. If you were off duty you also avoided those establishments and places where problems often happened.
Yes, anemic performance of the generic .38 LRN ammo was a problem. That doesn't mean stuffing hotter ammo into the little things was a better solution. It was tried. Hot .38 ammo has been around since the 1930s. (38/44, etc.) Using wadcutters instead for lower recoil, but faster second shots is a really old trick dating back to the 50s or 60s, if not earlier. Old Colts don't like hotter ammo. Neither do CAs and similar. Quite simply, IMO+Ex, given the ranges of most confrontations, assuming reasonable skill and tactics on your part, the wadcutter bullet (reversed is okay too) is the most effective in a snubbie. I do however respect your right to disagree.
