[GreenKeys] To snub or not to snub?

[Peter Gottlieb]

Now that I got the 2B pretty much going, and the Dovetron hooked to the 
receiver and XY scope, I started building the loop supply.

Using an isolation transformer I made a constant current source for 60 
ma, then made it switchable, so I can run it from the Dovetron.  I have 
it hooked to a spare selector magnet and decided to look at what kind of 
inductive kickback I was getting.  In a work, big.  The MJE13005 goes 
into avalanche at many hundreds of volts and limits there but this 
cannot be good.  First of all I am not familiar with this transistor and 
don't know if this will kill it (I am more used to avalanche rated FETs 
but don't have any HV ones lying around).  Second, I am sure these HV 
spikes have the potential (ha, pun intended) to cause QRM. 

So I got to thinking, what is the practice in regards to snubbing?  I 
threw a diode across the coil and of course that ends it right there, 
but the price is that the coil must conduct current longer after I turn 
it off and obviously this slows the response.  Should I use a RC 
network?  What does everyone else do in this circumstance?

Peter