Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns When The Dust Settles...

I have a kimber micro took me a bit to get used to it after ton of practice at the range i love it I shoot well good groups etc
I just purchased a sig p365 waiting on my permit in the great state i live in but excited to see how it performs im certain it will be a great gun as my other sigs are

Regular P365, the idea is concealment, with a 15 rounder on board with 16 all up and a couple spare 15 rounders in a back pocket, you're GTG, they hit where that front sight is too.

Ask yourself if the gun you are choosing is one that you are willing to get into a standup gunfight with, against one or two attackers, who are armed. Since they (I will use plural verbiage, but it may be a single person) chose to commit heinous acts upon their fellow man, likely planned beforehand and are carrying substantial firepower.
Odds are in their favor right from the start, as they intended them to be in their favor. They deliberately planned it this way.

Many tend to choose handguns that are really Talismans. In other words, they are relying on hope as a strategy. They "hope" that if they produce their little 7 shot micro pistol (that is comfortable to carry)and point it in the direction of what scares them it will ward off evil and that will be all it takes. This has never made any sense, as there is an expectation that the bad guys are thinking rationally. The fact is that the very vast majority of people commiting violent crimes/shootings, etc, are either under the influence of narcotics and/or suffering from a mental health issue. They are not rational thinkers, so expecting them to behave rationally is simply not something one should bet their life on.



In talking with a lot of people who carry these tiny pocket guns over the years, and getting into their thought process it is pretty much always the same.

They "hope" they don't have to actually engage in exchanging back and forth fire with an adversary or two.

That is their strategy.

Their tiny gun is really a good luck charm.


The reality is that a person is better off choosing a handgun not based on what feels good in their hand, or what fits in their pocket. They are better off choosing a handgun that they can actually perform well with under stress. Ask yourself "what is the smallest handgun I am willing to get into a gunfight with against 1 or 2 armed men?" That is your answer.

Some guns are great to carry in your pocket and you can shoot them well, standing, shooting slowfire. But when it comes to making fast and accurate hits at any sort of distance, that is where the wheels fall off.

Don't rely on the old nonsense of "average" gunfights being 3.5 rounds at 10 feet nonsense. Most of those statistics are heavily skewed anyways, having such things as dog attacks and various shootings that are not relevant thrown in the mix. Plus, you are "hoping" you are not a statistical outlier.

Choose what you can make fast and accurate hits with. Not a talisman that is comfortable to carry.

You will get the fight you get, not the one you want to get.

The odds will likely already be against you right from the beginning, so choose wisely.

For ME my Psa Dagr and Mossberg mc2c fill the bill light weight lotsa shots 3.9 inch barrels for ballistic goodness and I can hit stuff with them. Find what works for you.

Having tried a S & W M & P and a Sig Sauer P365 I am not a fan of striker fired handguns. My preferred carry weapon is a Sig Sauer P239.

I will only add this to Mackay's summary. You'll be dealing with a ruthless MFer who will not hesitate and despite your anguish, he will keep beating/shooting/twisting the knife in you until you are a gurgling puddle of goo.

You must be just as ruthless. Don't hesitate to respond with overwhelming force and don't stop until he's down and out.

This is primarily a software problem, but the hardware has to be up to the job. Don't choose hardware that will work if everything goes right. Choose hardware that will work when everything goes wrong.

Hard to argue against a Glock 19. Uber reliable and easy to shoot well. And I’ve still got the original one I purchased many many years ago.

That being said, I mostly carry my Sig P365 nowadays for ease of concealment. Like Gunner500 mentioned, I carry a couple of spare 15 round mags in my back pocket. Only difference is I carry the gun with the factory 12 round mag in it, so that gives me 13 rounds, initially, and 30 rounds of backup ammo.

And if I carry a bigger gun, say the size of the Glock 19, I usually opt for my Glock 32 in 357 Sig. Same exact size and frame as the Model 19, except with the ballistics of a 357 Magnum round. Or a full sized 1911 in 45 acp. Just depends on whether I’m going to town, or working around the Ranch. Don’t feel the need for the extra rounds at the Ranch, as the “bad guy” will most likely be a feral hog, a coyote, or a rattlesnake.
And if I’m working at the Ranch, there’s always a AR-15 and a 12 ga pump mounted on the Ranger or in the truck real close by.
I use my Glock 19 mostly for plinking nowadays.

I'm also in the camp that it's hard to argue against a Glock 19, although I carry a 23, but same footprint.

I think the G19 is still ‘best’ in that it’s not the best at anything g but good enough for just about everything and they are ubiquitous.

Most of the time I have a G19 or P365. I shoot both of them well and I'm confident in both of them. The question of which one is mainly about how slim of a profile is needed for what I'm wearing that day. Reading numbers they may not seem that different...and in most cases either can still be concealed...but the P365 "feels" a lot smaller when carried. However, as another mentioned, I shoot it like a bigger gun....and I can't explain why.

Looking at it from Mackay's point of view, if I was planning on a gunfight, I'd probably go with the G19....but I wouldn't feel hindered with the P365.

Agreed. The P365 just feels “quite a bit smaller” when I’m wearing it. And I too, shoot it like a much bigger gun. Complete confidence in it too.
And I was never a big fan of Sig before I bought the P365.

Not to mention you can buy 32 round mags for them just to keep one in the glove box or night stand drawer.

Mostly bullshit.

The average person carrying a firearm for self-defense is not in the Cop business. They don't have to pick a fight. They can use the threat of lethal force to leave a bad situation.

I don't understand why you completely fail to grasp that a self-defense handgun is carried to get you out of a bad situation - not make an arrest or "save the day". So it is more important for people to have any gun with them as opposed to having the optimum gun.

Now to your points:

Bad guys may not be super rational, but they damn well all seem to know that getting shot is bad ju-ju. And when they get shot, they find it difficult to continue their nefarious ways.

Any gun is a talisman if you don't know how to run it, and, most importantly, if you're not willing to use it (or it is at home in the safe because it is a pain to carry). This "fast and accurate" mantra is misused all the time by [bleep] who can't open their eyes and see that proficiency has little to with the size of the gun.

Rational people pay attention to statistics. Statistics are reality, "what abouts" are bullshit and mental masturbation.

"The best fight is the one you avoid" - said some smart person somewhere, sometime.

Situational awareness trumps handgun choice everytime, without fail.

I worked in a 500+ bed county jail for a decade. Inmates showed me their bullet scars and told me their stories. The most interesting was that they worried less about staring down the barrel of a Cop's gun than a civilian's. But none of them felt bullet proof.

I like the Glock 19x. I have giant sized hands somewhere between a 2x-3x glove size. I can shoot a smaller framed pistol about as well but really like a full size grip that I can wrap all of my fingers around.

I don't really understand the 19X. What's the advantage vs the Glock 17?

In that class of handgun, I have no complaints with my Hellcat.

Your response is the difference between theorizing, and 30 years experience actually carrying a gun for a living and being involved in shootings.

It is not a matter of "picking a fight" most of the time you don't get a "choice". You simply have to deal with the terrible situation that unfolds in front of you. If you actually had any experience, you would know that.

Theory vs reality.

Only that it shaves an inch or so off of the slide length which is especially nice for appendix carry, it make a noticeable difference. It’s still a bigger gun but as someone that likes a full size frame to get my hand around it’s the best compromise between getting a full grip and still making it as compact as possible.

It’s probably mostly just an individual preference thing.

I think that’s especially true for men.

I can see where a woman is likely to be attacked by an unarmed or knife carrying male attacker believing that they don’t need a gun to over power a woman and sexual assault being a likely motive for the attack. In that circumstance most any reliable pistol that she is prepared to use would turn the tables.

As men if we’re put in a situation that justifies the use of deadly force it’s likely to be by a well armed attacker/attackers. In that situation I personally want more than a pocket pistol.

You are wrong and right:

• Wrong - Your mindset is that of a cop. Damned few folks are cops. You deliberately get involved in bad situations.
• Right - having to deal with the terrible situation that unfolds in front of you.