What's the smallest pistol you'd trust?

Logical:
Yeah, a five year old thread comes back to life. How does that happen?

.32 is the absolute smallest, but since you can get .380 in the same size gun, I'd stick with .380.
It should have been a poll...
-Bill

j-frame or 9mm

Yeah, a five year old thread comes back to life. How does that happen?

Click to expand...

Blame everybody whose first response to every thread is "search function is your friend."

It's still a pertinent topic though.

I'm happy with my .38 snub; it's lightweight (Taurus 851SSULT) and time tested. I'm a civvie, not an op or LEO so if I ever have to pull the darn thing I want it to go bang, and have enough confidence that it will do what it is intended to do -- stop the attack. I don't care if it kills him or not, I just want to be able to beat feet. I've put 300 rounds through it, and have complete confidence in it and my ability to hit something with it -- and that's the most important thing to me.

I also sometimes carry my Sig P250 9mm, but I feel a little "over equipped" when carrying it. Under what realistic situation would a civvie need 16 rounds of 9mm? If you need to shoot that much, you should be running away.

Used to have a 380 sig 230, was fine too.

I've shot thousands of rounds of 22. Fun shooting round, but i really doubt that it could accomplish the above. Also, I've had too many FTF rounds with even high-priced 22 rounds to even consider it reliable enough for personal preference (fired through 10/22, Mark II, Taurus 22 revolver, and Sig Mosquito). So no 22LR mouse gun for me thank you.

I trust all of these. Up top is a US Revolver Co (aka Iver Johnson) DA (caliber: .32 S&W.) Next is a US Revolver Co DA 7 shot in .22 LR; it's great with Supermaximums! On bottom is my P3AT.

I've shot perhaps 100 times as many .22LR rounds as any other caliber, and I know my rapid-fire accuracy is especially better with a .22 than anything else. Which sometimes makes me think the .22 would actually perform better as a defensive weapon -- it would be there more often (easier to carry), I'd be more familiar with it than anything else, I'd be able to fire more shots in a given length of time, and they'd be more accurate.

But then I remember that the bears are coming out of hibernation now. Dilemma solved!

shot placement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvepIvphWrs&feature=related

Not my video, don't want to hear safety lectures as a result of this Haha guy even has a holster for it though.

Seriously, I'm not sure... I do feel somewhat "under-protected" when Im an idiot and shoot all my .357 mags and forget to keep 2 speed loaders full for bedside duty, the 38s would do their job in their place fine if I do my part, I guess but I say that less confidently. For carrying around? I don't ccw yet, so my opinion is maybe a bit uniformed but Ill probably try pick something in the 9mm or .38sp area... was looking at kel tecs in the .32 and .380 range, but wasn't convinced I needed one after picking it up and looking at it a while. That was mostly me not liking the feel of it, not so much being scared of the size of the round. I wouldn't mind having a cz83 in either one of those.

.380 or snubnose .38

:banghead:3" or 22LR

Yet again, a first-time poster (post #123) bumps a five year old thread, instead of opening a new one.

Why, oh why?

Blame everybody whose first response to every thread is "search function is your friend."

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No, blame those who do not take this advice to heart...

Since someone dragged this from the depths.......I laugh when people say "mouse gun" or "It's too small to do any damage", etc.

Ask the same question to a guy I know that was cut open from sternum to navel to repair damage done by a single shot from a .25 cal. that bounced around inside him. Almost killed him, sure as hell ruined his day.

Amp,

If you're actually reading this, I'm going to take a wild guess at what happened here.

You did a google search for the information you wanted. This thread magically came up in the search results. You read the page, signed up for an account, and posted your question.

In doing so, you resurrected a thread that has been dead for four and a half years about something completely unrelated to your question, and it appears that only one other person out of the entire two pages of posts after yours has realized this.

What you need to do is sniff around thehighroad.org a little more until you find the general handgun forum, and ask your question there. Or, better yet, use the search function near the top of this page. I'm sure somebody else has asked about LCP/LCR issues before, so maybe you can learn from their threads.

Welcome to the forum. Good luck getting this thing figured out. And, as the new guy, be prepared for lots of "use the search function!" responses. Some folks around here don't have much patience for pedantic questions from neophytes.

As for your question, I can't offer any help. I've never handled either gun, and they don't much interest me.

Yes, it's an old thread but people are talking! Isn't that what we're here for? To talk? What's more important, anyway, how a discussion starts or what's being discussed? As long as folks keep talking, there's always a chance some good may come of it.

Explanatory: My girlfriend told me that my nurturing could use some work.

Blame everybody whose first response to every thread is "search function is your friend."

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I have to agree there. It seems like you always have those type of answers. But if you use the search, you get fussed at for reviving an old thread. If you start a new thread, then it's a duplicate, etc., etc., etc.

5 years is a long time, there have been a few new weapons designed in that time frame. So it's always worth getting up-to-date advice, just because as something new hits the market, opinions may change.

I saw this thread the day it was rehashed, and failed to post because of the age. And because I have a couple different answers. But here it goes now, since I'm already here...

...smallest (cartridge) I'd trust for SD-7.65mm (.32ACP)
...smallest (gun) I'd trust to plink with-Baby Browning
...smallest (cartridge for a handgun)) I'd trust to hunt with-.357 Mag
...smallest I'd trust in Grizzley country-.44 mag

Wyman

I would trust a .22lr NAA, but I prefer and won't settle for anything less than 9mm.

The smallest I would trust is the .380. I like my Bersa Thunder.

Walther TPH .22, if you're lucky enough to have one. Perhaps not enough, infinitely better than nothing. One spring needs replacing from the factory, then many thousands of rounds without failure. True DA/SA action with well hidden external hammer, it's the slimest, cleanest gun I know of.

Otherwise one of the flyweight Smith revolvers, down to .32.

I USED to say, the smallest round worth bothering with is a .380, for someone who MUST have a very compact pistol. But in the last 15 years, the industry has come up with numerous sub-compact options in 9mm, .357 SIG, .40, and .45. Size is no longer an excuse.

Use what you have, but get something better.

rohrbaugh r9 9mm, my dads got one and hes put about 1000 rounds through it and he says its proven to me more reliable then his p3at has, but for 1000 bucks I'd hope so

A 380 in the pocket is better than a 45 in the dresser the new ruger lcp is a great pocket gun much more reliable than the keltec put 200 rnds through mine so far no ftf's and i got mine for 285

.32 auto.

another for .32acp.