Sig 365, S&W Sheild or Shield+. Unless you have a supply of .38Spec laid in. I myself am looking for a small .380 pocket pistol. Anyone had experience with either the Ruger LCP or LCP2?
I bought a LCP when they first came out. Good pistol but very heavy trigger. I would have preferred something easier. I have heard Ruger has corrected the issue.
I have an LCP. Carry it everywhere, even work where it is technically verboten. What they can’t see can’t hurt me.
I carry it at work because I don’t want to leave it in my vehicle. I live in a Constitutional Carry state and bad guys know if they need a gun all they have to do is break into three or four cars and they’ll find one.
I have put a couple of boxes of cartridges through it. It shoots OK. It’s not meant to be a target pistol.
In 98% of defensive gun uses (DGUs), a shot is not fired.
Which means that a mouse gun is as good as a cannon 98% of the time.
Fact: Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year or 6,849 every day. Most often, the gun is never fired and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed.
Source: http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf, page 21.
Fact: A victim may have a strong reluctance to talk to a government agent about a firearm brandishing incident (which are 98% of DGUs) because they may not know the act was 100% legal.
Source: http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf, page 83.
In other words, the 98% number is probably low.
Very snappy due to small size and light weight.
I only carry it when I can’t carry something else.
Boy, those both came HIGHLY recommended, just nudged out of the top two, but hope your question generates some good discussion because I could very well end up with that model as well!
Have the S&W 9 Shield+ and the .380 Ruger LCP Max. Both are great guns. Will probably get the P365 once Mrs. gets her new dishwasher.
Carry both concealed, but the Shield+ feels like a brick compared to the LCP Max. The LCP Max has a barely-there feel and can hold 10 rounds in the standard mag.
Don’t have the link, but there are good sites which allow you to overlay/ side-by-side true dimensional pictures of these guns. The P365 is a bit lighter than the Shield, if I recall.
My wife has the LCP. Excellent firearm. I carry the LC9.
No personal experience but folks I know that have the LCP are very happy. Good luck finding .380ammo
My smallest handgun is an LCP Custom. It’s pretty much the same as the original LCP but with a slightly taller front sight. I like it. Addng a Hogue Handall grip sleeve made it more pleasant to shoot. Recommended, the pistol and the Hogue grip.
Next smallest that I have is a Kel-Tec P11. It’s recently been discontinued, but used pistols for sale are probably still around. I wouldn’t recommend that one. Very heavy trigger pull and you have to be careful with your grip on it or it will jam. I bought it mainly because capacity is good for a pistol that small, it will take magazines from my S&W 5904, and my experience with revolvers made the trigger not too much of a problem. Buy something else.
The difference between the LCP and LCPII is the original is a hammer fired weapon (although the hammer is not external) and the LCPII is a striker fired weapon. Both are good and reliable, but it is very difficult to find defensive ammo for the .380. I would go for a sub compact 9 like the Hellcat, the Ruger Max 9, S&W Shield 2.0 Plus, or Sig 365X in 9mm. Practice and self defense ammo are widely available for the 9mm.
I love my Ruger LCP.
On the negative side, .380 does not have the stopping power of larger handgun calibers.
On the positive side, it is VERY concealable. It also has low recoil and is very controllable. So much so that I am more accurate with my LCP then with any other handgun. I have never had one misfire or one misfeed.
I love it so much, and it is so inexpensive, that I’ve purchased three of them.
I have the LCP 2 and love it. It’s very easy to slip in your pocket when you head out the door. I had to start carrying it rather than my S&W Shield after back surgery. I’ve never had any issues with it but it’s a little snappy because it’s so small.
I have an LCP. I carry it in my pocket in a Sticky holster. The trigger is very heavy making accidental discharges unlikely. My wife can’t rack the slide. It goes bang every time.
I live in SW Florida, so shorts and very light shirts are the uniform. The LCP is very easy to pocket carry. I have a Sig P238 as well. The fit, finish and trigger are much nicer than the Ruger, but the LCP carries a little flatter.
I think you’ll find the Ruger to be a bit “snappy”. I’ve had the opportunity to fire the Ruger and I thought it had a tendency to throw the barrel upwards.
I have the Sig 365 SAS which has the sights inset into the slide so there is no post to snag on clothing. It DOES take some getting used to if you try to obtain a sight picture, but most of the time an EDC weapon is more point and shoot.
You may consider a Sig 320 Compact if you want a medium frame weapon. It’s still concealable and yet has a larger frame for stability.
Kel Tec made the first mouse gun of that style. The first gen was bad, second was good. The LCP is much more refined and a good carry weapon.
Sig 365 just came out with one.