Posted: 5/29/2016 7:53:54 PM EDT
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I'm looking for two summer-time (think pocket pistols) for my wife, daughter and possibly myself. I have read and researched until my head and eyes hurt; literally. I've narrowed it down to the pistols listed above, but unfortunately every one of them seems to get mixed reviews, so I'd like your assistance in helping me decide.
For the sake of this discussion, reliability is of utmost importance, followed by concealability and caliber being the least important factor. Please vote for your favorite pistol on the attached poll and provide any words of wisdom. 
ETA: In the poll, the pistols are listed from shortest to longest slide length. I have purposely omitted the G43 simply because I already own one and all the pistols listed are smaller. |
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If you got the coin, get a Springfield EMP... http://www.springfield-armory.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PI9209LP_11.jpg I love my .40 cal; frame made in steel (9mm frame is aluminum). I carry it on a Galco Royal Guard IWB holster. Nice pistol, but it's 6.5 inches long; a little longer then what I was looking for. |
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Because fuck Glock that's why Quoted:
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why no g42 or g43? eta: RIF  Because fuck Glock that's why That's funny, although I don't agree with it. I'm Glock poor and the G43 regardless of what people say isn't a pocket pistol, it's a medium size pistol or at least it is to me. I don't wear skinny jeans or any tight clothing and I can barely pocket carry it in cargo shorts and it's too big for those tiny-ass purses my daughter carries. I'm still laughing about your reply.......now my wife is too. She said you must be as big of a smart ass as I am; take it as a compliment. |
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I'm looking for two summer-time (think pocket pistols) for my wife, daughter and possibly myself. I have read and researched until my head and eyes hurt; literally. I've narrowed it down to the pistols listed above, but unfortunately every one of them seems to get mixed reviews, so I'd like your assistance in helping me decide. For the sake of this discussion, reliability is of utmost importance, followed by concealability and caliber being the least important factor. Please vote for your favorite pistol on the attached poll and provide any words of wisdom.
ETA: In the poll, the pistols are listed from shortest to longest slide length. I have purposely omitted the G43 simply because I already own one and all the pistols listed are smaller. Not one of your choices, but I've had great luck out of my BodyGuard non-laser model. |
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Why no Ruger LCP? It might not be ideal but it's what I carry when my clothing demands. This^^^ I have had the 1st gen LCP for seven years without a failure over a thousand rounds of mixed ball and hollow point ammo. I've pocket carried in a galco holster ever since I've had it -- it's awesome!!! The LCP Custom has drift sights, a better trigger, and sets you back about $219 if you find the right place to buy from (I watch slickguns.com). If the grip is too skinny, you can buy a LCP specific Hogue grip that covers the frame and is pinned in place. I would at least take a look at one before you make up your mind. |
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Quoted: Why no Ruger LCP? It might not be ideal but it's what I carry when my clothing demands. This! Having owned a couple of the pistols listed in your poll, this is what I'd go with. I carry a GLOCK 43, but not pocket. Ruger LCP: Owned two of them. Zero malfunctions. Thinking of getting another. Kahr P380: Zero reason to get the P over the CW. Zero malfunctions but didn't offer anything over the LCP. Kahr PM9: Zero reason to get the P over the CW. Owned both. Zero malfunctions. Too big for true "deep concealed" pocket carry. |
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Aren't those Glock 26 size? Bigger than OP is looking for. OP, I think it's time to search them out for loan or rent and start shooting. That is how you will find what works for the wife and daughter. Quoted:
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No P2000SK or P30SK???   Aren't those Glock 26 size? Bigger than OP is looking for. OP, I think it's time to search them out for loan or rent and start shooting. That is how you will find what works for the wife and daughter. You are correct, bigger than what I'm looking for. Unfortunately, no place close me to rent; it usually involves handling them at a LGS or Cablea's. I buy and if I don't like, I sell. |
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Had a Kahr CW9. Trigger bar broke after less than 900rds. Took me three weeks just to get an RMA number and nearly 2 months to repair the gun under warranty at Kahr. After the repair I would get 2-3 light strikes per box of new factory ammo. The idea of dealing with Kahr's glacial customer service again led me to trade my CW9 away rather than try to get it back to a trust-able state. I like the feel of my CW9 but could not trust its reliability and Kahrs custom service was horrible. My pocket carry is now now a Remington RM380 or S&W442. My RM380 has been very reliable so far, about 600rds through it so far.  |
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You are correct, bigger than what I'm looking for. Unfortunately, no place close me to rent; it usually involves handling them at a LGS or Cablea's. I buy and if I don't like, I sell. Quoted:
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No P2000SK or P30SK??? Aren't those Glock 26 size? Bigger than OP is looking for. OP, I think it's time to search them out for loan or rent and start shooting. That is how you will find what works for the wife and daughter. You are correct, bigger than what I'm looking for. Unfortunately, no place close me to rent; it usually involves handling them at a LGS or Cablea's. I buy and if I don't like, I sell. Any fellow ARFCOM members near you? Maybe hit the HTF? LCP is a great pocket gun, I had an early one and sold it, looking at a newer version for my pocket carry roles. Small, fit my bigger hands, and was easy for me to shoot being as small as it was. |
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I'll second Kahr's horrible customer (dis)service.
IMO do yourself a favor and run away from Kahr. I have a CW380 that Kahr didn't want to fix. It was defective right out of the box. I called them one week after purchase and they wanted me to put 200 rounds through it before they would even consider doing anything even though the pistol would not shoot two consecutive rounds and obviously had a problem. I did all the break in stuff recommended on the Kahr site before taking it to the range for the first time. Kahr never did anything for me. I ended up fixing it myself and now it shoots better than most of the other CW380/PM380 out there where you hear about them being ammo sensitive. Mine now shoots any ammo fine. The problem is Kahr QC isn't good. I had to reshape the feed ramp and polish the throat where there was some defect causing the round to catch and stick. I made several other modifications that were causing problems and the recoil springs were defective needing replacement. IMO if you want a pocket pistol you need to be looking only at this size pistol. I find my CW380 is just right. Anything bigger wouldn't work for me. Check out the LCP custom and Taurus 738 TCP. Some people like the TCP better than the others as it has a decent trigger and fits the hand a little better. Even though its inexpensive and its a Taurus it deserves a look IMO. |
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I've been driving myself crazy looking at pistols too and have decided it's going to be the P290RS for me. Just haven't decided which variation I want yet.
Decided against a Kahr because they seem to be a love it or hate it relationship. Didn't like the controls on the Nano. IMO the Kimber is overpriced. Didn't look at .380's since I have one. With all that said I've seen people comment that women have trouble racking the slide on 9MM P290's so the 9 version may not be your solution. However, the .380 is easier to rack. Might want to add it to your list. Best of luck with your decision. Be sure to make sure your gals have the final word. You won't be happy if they don't.
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After driving myself nuts on making a decision, I've come to a very stark and true realization on the subject; at the end of the day, you'll have to fight with it. That being said, I'm going to stick with what I know: Glocks.
My wife is good with the G43 she carries, so I won't be changing that. I'll train the daughter on the G43 and if it's too snappy, I'll get her a G42. I currently carry either a G26, G19 or G17 depending on the setting and my attire, but there are times that I can not comfortably conceal a 26. My Rohrbaugh R9 used to fill this niche nicely, but I sold it and have regretted it ever since, so I think I'll look into a Ruger LCP Custom (as bad as I hate to) to be my companion when the 26 won't work. I appreciate all the posts and advice. Thank you. |
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for a woman who probably won't practice ftf drills, imo, you want a small revolver.
The lightweight Smith .38 is the way to go. Great ammo is available for them. Gun goes click, pull trigger again. I use the keltec .32 and the ruger 380 for my pocket pistol when not carrying my Glock .23. Good luck, test ammo. Txl |
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Lots of folks like the LCP no doubt. I had a first gen, recalled, and it doesn't do some things well. First, it has a horrible trigger only corrected of late - some might complain about CS but the reality is that Ruger is taking a long time refining a Keltec copy and still working on it. We're talking third generation now.
Another issue is that it does NOT have a slide hold open. You shoot it empty and get no clue it is other than a click. Duty grade guns don't leave you in the lurch that way - a slide hold open tells you Reload Now and it also helps do it by having the slide back. Drop the empty mag, insert mag, hit the slide release, it chambers and you are back in action. With the non slide lever guns you are discovering you are empty, have to punch the mag out, load one against the stack pressure of the column, tap it securely to make sure it's really in the well, then rack the slide to chamber it hoping the mag doesn't fall out. Guns with no slide hold open that force you to rack them every time are one mag pocket guns. Compare them directly to revolvers and you get equivalent performance, compare them to working duty grade guns and you fall behind the curve. It's easy to see the difference, take two guns, one with, one without a slide hold open, ten magazines each loaded one round each. Spread the mags evenly down a table and then shoot for time and precision. The slide hold open gun will usually win hands down even with new shooters. It will take a much higher level of skill and experience to compete with a non slide gun to be even. A knowledgeable shooter confident in their gun and it's use is developed by going to the range and shooting it. Some guns are the antithesis of good handling at the range, and those with high effort long pull triggers that force you to rack the slide every mag change are not user friendly and impede developing skill. They are pocket guns meant as a last ditch effort which become difficult to reload - you had your chance, if one more round out of the second magazine would have settled the issue, it's less likely you will find out. You get what you pay for and value engineered guns with long hard triggers and no slide hold opens certainly do dominate the low price offerings. As for customer service every maker has it's bad days regardless. What does happen is that some have higher expectations than were justified, too. Ruger has a reputation of great service, but in this case the product isn't all that. If they had done things better they wouldn't have copied the Keltec, we'd have gotten a better trigger up front, and a slide hold open would have been standard. Since Ruger was basically just copying a design then they could have come up with the Kahr CW380 and made a killing. When I was searching for the right pocket gun I tried triggers for pull length and weight, made sure it had a slide hold open, that I could upgrade the sights over time if I wanted, and read the reviews carefully for when and if issues came up. The SIG P938 wasn't all that in the early numbers up to 80k, I bought one after that. The LCP wasn't all that, I sold mine off. The RM380 is nice - the alloy slide makes it heavier - and it has one of the longest trigger pulls I found, right back to the frame. It's incredibly long for me. You have to go pull triggers to find what you like, and for that, trying to choose a handgun for someone else? Fine when you enlist, you get the issue gun and make do. When you have choice, tho, do you defer to anyone else? Why expect wives and daughters to be any different? Let them pick their own. Don't be the guy who insisted they shoot something they dislike - it's not a positive reinforcement to what they might see as a negative situation. Just offer to buy whatever they want, take time to shoot it with them. In the long run you might find THEIR choice is actually better suited than the tribalistic demands of forum fanboys. 
My CW380 is head and shoulders a better gun than the LCP I owned. I want to shoot it compared to a gun that was difficult at the range and only suited to a one mag experience. |