Kahr PM9 with Laser
I would not carry smaller than a 9mm. I currently pocket carry a .40 S&W.
I carry an 32ACP by Seecamp. It was expensive and it took about 6 months to get.
I am never out of my house without it.
I have many larger guns that would be better in a firefight, but nothing conceals as good as my Seecamp.
The article covers Kel-Tec’s P32, Ruger’s LCP, the Glock 42, SIG’s P238, Kimber’s Micro Carry, and Smith & Wesson’s 638.
SO ... why did the site editors choose to lead the piece with an illustration of a hand holding Colt’s 380 Government Model?
Author Hawkins concludes with good advice but it is incomplete:
Users should field test their piece with the ammunition they plan to use for carry purposes, for feed reliability. Be sure to test-fire the exact brand, load, and bullet weight/configuration. Every semi-auto handgun has its own preferences. This goes double or worse for the very small concealed-carry pieces: two guns with adjacent serial numbers, made during the same hour on the production line, can exhibit markedly different feed reliability.
I’ll take them all, sight unseen, just on sheer principle. Of course, I man need to put a few extra pockets in my trousers...
Sorry I came to the thread late, rktman. It has provided a lot of useful information and helpful commentary. I’d like to add one more item that I recently discovered that has been a “lifesaver” for me.
I’m one of those people that has developed a significant loss of grip strength in my hands due to certain health issues. As a result I had become unable to rack the slides on some of my pistols. I share this problem with many other potential shooters such as women or younger shooters who have to pass on many fine sporting or self-defense weapons because of their lack of strength.
A gunsmith in Ohio has developed a device called a Handi-Racker for people like us. It’s a tool which fits over the slide and gives added leverage making the slide easy and safe to rack. I tried it and it works well for me. I can now enjoy some of my pistols I’d thought I’d never shoot again, e.g. my Browning Hi-Power (that has a very stiff spring), and it’s opened up the possibility of being able to use some of the newer guns I’d earlier passed on, e.g the S&W Shield. And, as several posters have noted, many of the small pocket pistols have stiff springs and are hard to rack.
Here’s the link for the Handi-Racker - http://www.handi-racker.com/
*Disclaimer: I have no financial affiliation with them, just a satisfied user. It’s well worth checking out if you’re one of those folks who have a need for help with racking a slide. Also, I’ve tried to ping as many of the commenters on the thread as possible; my apology to any I missed.
LOL “Fanner 50”, you just dated yourself my FRiend. ;)
Mrs. Sooner gave it a try and while she's not physically weak, she had a problem with it failing to feed, presumably because her grip was different than mine. This was really disappointing to me because I really liked the 42, more than any other Glock I've tried, and I/we were close to a decision to buy it.
A friendly reminder to all, 'specially if buying a semiauto, make sure all authorized users can shoot it without this kind of problem before buying, if possible, and it might be a good idea to have at least a couple of revolvers in your gun safe.
Also this list is rather biased toward semiautos, especially so many 1911 type semiautos and so few revolvers.
For a pocket/purse gun I'd include the Kimber (or maybe the recent 1911 type Browning?) in the list just to be uh, inclusive, but no more than one 1911. I'd include a couple more revolvers instead, chambered in .44 special, (Charter Bulldog, which has a cult following) .38 special, .327 Federal (Really .32 H&R) and/or even a .22LR (Smith model 317) or .22WMR like the Smith model 351c. Even a .22 is 100 times better than being unarmed.
Come to think of it, I think could come up with a list of "Top 10 revolvers" and it might be interesting.
Kahr PM9 with Laser
Used to have four of them but I lost all in a tragic boating accident.
Highly accurate, incredibly reliable, butter smooth light trigger pull, extended tang to avoid the "slide rash" that Walther PPK's are notorious for, a breeze to disassemble and clean and very reasonably priced. Coupled with the right ammunition: highly accurate and "effective".
hickok45 did an outstanding review of the Bersa 380CC:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-_RWl6L0BnU