Top 10 Concealed Carry Guns - Guns & Patriots

Mark Walters at Guns & Patriots lists his top 10 for concealed carry and I bet you'll be surprised to read his No. 1 choice.
Top 10 Concealed Carry Guns - HUMAN EVENTS
Here's my favorites, but I won't rank them or some of my handguns will get jealous and start bickering. It's hard to keep peace in the family when you're trying to decide what to carry at work at the gun shop or at play.

The one I carry most often at the gun shop is my Para P12-45, heavily customized by Cylinder & Slide. In addition having a great trigger it has several other custom features that make it a joy to shoot. And a really good single-action trigger cures my tendency to pull my shots a bit to the right, being a lefty shooter. No matter how good a double-action trigger is, a great single-action trigger is still better. And if 12+1 rounds of 230-gr. Winchester Ranger or PDX-1 won't get you out of trouble, you just ain't shooting straight.

My next most-often carried handgun is also a single-action .45 but of a slightly different stripe, unlike the P12-45, it's a single-stack with only 6+1 capacity. It's my Sig P220 Compact Elite SAO. Once upon a time I wasn't interested in single-stack pistols, but when I began to consider weight with daily carry, the trade-off for rounds vs. comfort started looking a whole lot better.

And an interesting thing happened when I shot my first P220 SAO, a full-size pistol I bought before I got the P220 Compact. I discovered I actually shoot tighter groups with better control than with any of my 1911 .45s, compact or full-size. The Sig P220 has a 5-lb. trigger pull vs. 3.5 to 4 lbs. for my three 1911s, but I just shoot the full-size and the compact P220s better. Don't ask me to 'splain it, it just is.

I also have a pair of Sig P229s in .357 Sig, one plain and one fancy, and I shoot both of them pretty fair, too, with their double-action/single-action set-up.

The first one I bought is a Sig P229 Two-Tone SAS Gen2 .357 Sig with the Short-Reset Trigger. I liked it so much I bought a plain P229R and I carry it more than the SAS, cause it's just too pretty to get skint up.

Then there's the revolvers I carry when I'm feeling like a wheel-gun kinda guy. My absolute favorite is a S&W 65 stainless .357 Magnum with the slickest double-action trigger I ever met, courtesy of the S&W Performance Shop. It's a K-frame with six holes in the cylinder, more than adequate for most social affairs.

My Charter Arms Patriot .327 Magnum with Crimson Trace Laser Grips also holds six potent rounds that are nearly the equal in ballistics of the .357 Magnum and it's get its share of carry duty.

And then there's my two .44 Special carry guns. I quite often carry them together at work. My S&W 396 Night Guard 5-shooter with front night sight usually gets main carry position in a left-hand holster.

And my Charter Bulldog stainless .44 5-shooter resides in a Galco small-of-back holster for access to my right hand, should the left be otherwise occupied.

And even if the left is not out of play, what's the quickest way to reload after you've shot one handgun dry? The late-great NYPD Detective Jim Cirillo dubbed it "The New York Reload." Shoot one dry and pull another one.

And I haven't even mentioned my two Steyr 9mm pistols, MA1 and SA1, the best striker-fired pistols from Austria that nobody ever heard of, or my Ruger LCR and Charter Southpaw .38 Specials, or my CZ P07 Duty 9mm, or my Glock 29 10mm subcompact, or my S&W M&P Compact .357 Sig, or my Kel-Tec PF9 9mm subcompact with Crimson Trace laser grip, which gets carried off-work as main and at-work as backup. So many choices and only one me to carry them all. See why I try not to play favorites so I can keep peace in the family of carry guns?

Start small and work up with handguns, or start large and go larger?

David Fessenden at Tactical Gear offers a good primer on training in the use and carry of concealed-carry guns.

I can't say I agree with everything he writes, particularly his negative opinion on starting a novice shooter on a .22 pistol.

In the NRA Basic Pistol classes I've taught, I've started new shooters on .22 pistols and shown them they can hit what they aim at, always a good start.

And from there I've moved them up to 9mm, .357 Sig and .45 ACP with no problems in the same class over the span of about four hours at the range, beginning with bench rest and moving up to standing two-handed.

But Fessenden makes some good points so it's worth your time to read what he has to say.

For the selection of a concealed carry weapon, many instructors will advise their students to purchase a .22 Long Rifle pistol and train up to a larger caliber firearm. The thinking here is that the student will adjust to the lower noise, recoil and shock of this smaller caliber handgun and will eventually be comfortable enough to move up to the larger caliber pistol with ease.

I view this as a colossal waste of time and money. I prefer to advise my students to bring a .38 Special revolver or 9mm, .40 S&W, .38 Super or .45 ACP semiautomatic to start the class. We teach the student how to properly and safely control and manage the recoil and push of the weapon, even when firing the multiple target drill. This is done with the application of proper stance and grip instruction in an acceptable period of time, usually just a few hours. Students quickly become very confident with their marksmanship and gun handling skills.

Any concerns about noise and recoil quickly are forgotten. I’ve taught many women without any prior firearms training or experience how to shoot a Glock Model 23 in .40 S&W with ease and precision, and after several hours they have openly thanked me for insisting that they start out with the weapon that will, in all likelihood, end up being their carry weapon.