Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Pocket Guns - Mini Autos vs Revolvers

Mini revolvers peaked around the time that WW1 was transpiring.

Back then, the manufacturers thought that it was important to hit what you aimed at.

My 1920 Colt Police Positive in .32 long still will.

It rests comfortably in the inside pocket of a sports coat and will push a 100 grain cast flat point to Mach 1 without excessive stress.

A Fitz Special would do nicely after that, with a bit more punch. The S&W Bodyguards don't lack much either, and the Centennial hammerless has been a go-to for a good while:

The S&W J frame was the demise of the mini revolver.

A 4.25" "I" frame regulation police was where they peaked.

You couldn't give me a Walther PPK/S! I NEVER found a reliable one with anything but hardball ammo. The only "Big" .380 I would ever own would be a Sig 232. Very reliable and accurate, too.

I still prefer my 5-shot S&W BodyGuard Revolver with the Factory Lazer over any of my other "Pocket Guns". Mines loaded with 5 of the Buffalo Bore Flat nose Wadcutters for Penatration.

,...as compared to a fairly recent 5" Model 10.

It essentially a miniature of it.

A PPK, PPKs is a piece of crap if you have hands bigger than a school girl. I have a couple of S&W 36's but they roll around in a pocket carry and in a holster I might as well be carrying a !911. A small plastic frame DA only 380 loaded with Hydrashocks like the Keltec or Ruger(a poor copy of the Keltec) tucks nicely in the front pocket with your keys and crap and is always there. If you can cover it up, carry a pistol with a whole lot more going into the game

I guess, since it was my statemt that got the Oap to think and start this thread i should chime in.

I stand by my statement, "I" don't see the need for a mini auto. Now by mini auto i'm not talking the "ultra" sized 1911, or a baby Glock or Shield. I'm talking guns on the same scale as a Beretta Tomcat, and the little tiny Keltec, and LCP sized guns. If I meed a Handgun in a defensive situation, I want as few "Murphy" factors involed as I can, and those tiny guns, to me, seem to have been designed and built by Murphy and his family. I have big hands, and those tuny autos don't lend well to getting a good firing grip initially, and I have to finger faux them in my hand to get a good grip on them.

As has been posted in another tread, the ease of carrying them because they "slip right in a pocket, and you don't even notice them there" creates it's own unique problems namely. You may not remeber you even have it when you meed it because "you hardky noticed it when you stuck it in Your pocket". And do to positional problems you may not be able to get to the damn thing in a pocket.

Assuming the S will hit the F rapidly and without warning and the episode will be over in 2-3 seconds, it doesn't matter to me if the firearm has a cylinder or a slide, it just has to meet these requirements:

1. It has to hit where I'm looking without aiming. Yes, aiming is much better, but in sudden death I want something that fits my hand such that it will hit where my bug-eyed eyes are staring just by point shooting it. I missed a very pissed off Florida razorback three shots out of four at 6-8 feet because Smith K-frame service stocks, when grabbed very rapidly, point way right in my hand. A Kahr 9mm, when grabbed as fast as I can from multiple locations and fired from chest height will let me make a first round hit on an 8" target every single time at 7 yards - this by looking at the target, not at the pistol.

2. It can't hang up on anything, ever. The more protrusions, shelves, hooks and hangups it has, the more chances Murphy will use one to ruin your day. I practiced pulling an SP101 out of my back jeans pocket really fast - the hem inside the top of the pocket hung up on that little bit of cylinder sticking out past the recoil shield. An exposed hammer spur - fuggedaboutit - that hammer will catch on shirt tails, belts, hems, anything and everything. I had a gunsmith bevel the back of the cylinder, the back of the cylinder release and remove the hammer spur and that made it a very slick little piece to draw from front, back or coat pocket. But it still weighed about 1 3/4 pounds loaded and would really drag down any coat pocket short of a heavy parka.

3. It has to go bang reliably. Revolvers do that. All four Kahrs I've owned have done that. Not to tout Kahrs exclusively, I'm sure there are other brands just as reliable but they're the only ones I am familiar with in this genre.

4. Once it passes 1, 2 and 3, caliber is secondary as long as it is at least 35 and will penetrate 6-8 inches through heavy clothes - a .38 Spl or most modern 9mm ammo seems capable of that. When I'm startled, scared, in the dark, off balance, maybe stunned by a sucker punch (if I'm still concious - the one time I got punched like that in New Orleans by an "urban yute" I was), if I can put a really really really fast first round hit center of mass just by point shooting, that's the one for me. If I then have the opportunity to take an aimed or semi-aimed second or third or fourth shot, that means I'm still alive so those are gravy.

But I want to be able to yank that handgun from its hiding place in a blind panic, have it come free without hindrance and make a first shot hit. If it does that then what type of firearm it is is unimportant to me.

My PPK/S functioned perfectly with every thing it was fed, it was a very accurate pistol also!

It was just really heavy, was my truck gun and got replaced by a Glock 22.

Mike

These are as small as I will carry.

As Jim said, I want to be able to point shoot and the revolvers do that. My Shield has gotten a lot of carry time this summer, had a hiccup this afternoon that reminded me just how nice that little 357 is.

As for a pocket sized carry gun, I wear Wranglers and carried a Berretta tip up 22 a few years ago in my back pocket. Sure it was always there but it was almost always hard to draw compared to a real pistol in a real holster. Give me a J frame hammerless snubby.

I get hammer bite with both the rowled hammer and the spur hammer on a BHP. If there is a third type, I've never tried it.

Try C&S's "no bite" hammers: http://www.cylinder-slide.com/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=catshow&ref=BHPham

for me, it's not so much the size of the platform, but what cartridge is involved.
I won't go below a .38 Special, and I trust them implicitly for self defense. I prefer a .45 auto though, and can get that in my little XDS.
I carry both a J frame, and the tiny Springfield XDS, depending on my clothes. With it being summer time in Miami, most of the time I am in shorts and tee shirt. The J frame and the little XDS will fit into a front pocket., and are virtually the same size.

the profile is similar but the width on the revolver is a bit of an issue for me
I would like to carry a J frame but a CM9 just fits better imho
Hank

Out of all my handguns, I carry a J frame most of the time. Followed by the 938 and then a Charter .44 Bulldog.

Having carried both a PM9 and a S&W 340 alot in a front pants pocket, I find that the auto's blocky shape makes it look like you have a gun in your pocket where as the J frames lumpy more rounded shape is less obvious.

While I keep a 9mm semi in my car and my wife keeps a Ruger LCR in .38SPL, the gun I most often have on my body is a Walther PPK/s .380.

I guess the answer could depend on definitions of a "pocket gun" and a "mini auto".

I have a Model 60 that I had a gunsmith bob the hammer and do the sweetest trigger job on it I have ever seen and then I added some Hogue grips to it. I had a client that I was seeing a lot in a nearby town in a bad location where a lot of drug/crime traffic was rolling. I put the Model 60 in an ankle holster and went off to work.

Then one day when I was shooting it I noticed that there are only 5 holes in that cylinder!! And I wasn't carrying extra ammo and didn't want to.

Moved on to a Glock 26 and did some trigger work on it and put it in the same holster and away I went. 11>5 was simple to me, like the 9mm caliber over the .38Specl. and I don't consider either of them a "pocket shooter". Both are almost identical weight at 21-22oz.

I do have a pocket rocket that might qualify for the "mini auto" definition in a Kel Tec P3AT .380 which at 8 oz unloaded will fit in a pocket of most pants and works swell in cargo shorts.

The accuracy with the P3AT is better than expected but still a very limited range in that is is more of a "get off me" gun than anything. Or it could be classified as "dog shooter".

If I was in a shootout, no question I would want the G26.

I'm 6'7"and 365 lbs. Where can I find these oversized T-shirts?

I don't care to try to convince anyone about what gun or method to use. For me though, the micro pocket autos are the perfect solution for being"always armed..."

6'7", 365 and carries, damn ya must live in Sasquatch country. lol.