The Small 9mm Arms Race

The race is on to see who can make the smallest gun that carries the most ammo!

I love the idea of a small, sub-compact 9mm with lots of ammo on board.  But everything is a compromise. 

My perfect carry gun would shoot as fast and straight as my PCCs (Pistol Caliber Carbines), have the terminal ballistics of a .50 BMG or so, hold as much ammo as a belt fed weapon, be as light as a mouse gun, and carry like my wallet or pocket knife.  Obviously, this is out of the question, so everything becomes a compromise.

The caliber compromise seems to be won as the 9mm.  No one wants to go smaller but for some reason that seems good enough.  In a 4-inch barreled gun or longer I think the 9mm lives up to the challenge and could be called the wonder 9.  When the barrel starts getting shorter and velocities get lower, we are compromising more.  We lose reliable expansion and/or penetration.  But I do like the idea of a small 9mm pocket gun because it keeps all my ammo the same.

How much ammo do you need in a small gun continues to change.  First we had a couple single stack 9mms like the Glock 43, Smith & Wesson Shield, and many others before and after.  They held anywhere from five to eight rounds in a magazine. 

Then the grips stared getting a little wider and we had stack-and-a-half guns?  The Sig P365 came out and changed the world.  It’s a great pistol and I enjoy shooting one.  It seems to shoot a lot nicer than the little Glock 43 and holds a lot more ammo.  With a flush-fit magazine of 10 rounds, and extended magazines holding 12 and 15!

Sig upped the ante with the P365XL.  A little bigger gun that held 13 rounds in a flush fit magazine and 15 in the extended mag.  While it’s the same gun as the P365 inside, outside I think it’s no longer a sub-compact and has grown into a compact sized gun with a 3.7 inch barrel and a grip I can get all my fingers on.  I have bear sized hands, so anything I can get a full grip on is no longer a sub-compact or mini gun.

Last week Springfield answered with the Hellcat that holds 11 rounds in a flush fit magazine and 13 in the extended mag! I’m not sure about the name of the gun, but I’m betting they will sell lots of them.  It looks the same size as a Sig P365 and Glock G43, but holds one more round!!!! (sarcasm here).  Is that one round really important?  If it saves your life it is.  But I’ve found few gun fights (like none I can think of) that have been saved by that last round in the magazine.  That is TV stuff.  It could happen.  Anything is possible.   If that 11^th round saves you, then what about the 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, or 50^th?  Why not.  Some where in there we hit that compromise point.

Smith & Wesson is answering this week with their M&P M2.0 Sub Compact 9mm that holds 12 rounds. To me it has about the same specs as the Sig P365 and isn’t in the same class, but Smith sells a lot of guns.  And honestly, I would like the Sub-Compact frame with a 4” barrel and slide (the same on their Compact sized guns) and a red dot.  I think that would be a great carry sized gun.  It would not fit in a pocket or be in the same class as the Sig P365 or Glock 43.  It’s just too big.

So the race to the best compromise continues.  Which one are you going to root for by buying?

Right now I want a Sig P365 and maybe it’s bigger brother the P365XL.  That might all change when I get to shoot a Springfield Hellcat.

As a side note, can we work on names here!  A hellcat… really?  And don’t get me started on the Smith & Wesson family right now.  I have to double check it every time I want to write it out correctly… the Military & Police M2.0 9mm Compact…. Blah blah blah…  I’d really rather not have either the Hellcat or Military & Police held up in giant letters at a trial where they are trying to throw the book at me for nothing. I can get past that with a good lawyer. 

But again, they sell lots of guns.  And selling guns is their business.  Companies don’t always make the best guns for consumers on purpose.  They make the guns that will sell the most.  The new Hellcat is going to sell like crazy just because of 11 rounds, one more then everyone else. We as gun buyers are not always as logical as we could be.  I like cool new stuff too!

I compromise a lot on my carry guns.  I have three guns I rotate as part of my carry depending on what I’m doing, where I’m going, and who I’m going with.  I use a 5-shot revolver (Ruger LCR) as my pocket gun, back up gun, and non-permissive environment gun.

When I’m just running to the store or out in a hurry, I like to grab my Smith & Wesson Shield (mine is old and is before they started calling it an M&P).  It’s one of the easiest guns to hide and carry I’ve ever had.  Just an IWB (Inside the Waist Band) holster and it disappears under any t-shirt.

My heavy gun is an M&P9 full size.  One of the original guns from 2013.  I’ve been carrying it almost that long and really enjoy it.  I like the way it carries, shoots, feels, and holds 17 rounds, though 18 or 19 rounds would be better.

Everything you do in life is a compromise and is a risk you have excepted.  If you go outside you have compromised your safety and taken on a certain amount of risk.  If you decide to stay home, you have decided to take on a different amount of risk.  If you carry a bazooka or a pocket 5-shot revolver you have made a compromise and taken on a certain amount of risk.

Which gun is best for you?  The one you will carry the most.  It’s that simple.  If you don’t carry it, it’s not helping you.  That $4,000 STI 9mm you keep in the safe at home, is not helping you when you go out to dinner with your family, but that pocket 5-shot revolver you always have, just might save everyone.

Get a gun that you will carry and stick to it.  Carry as your default, train with it, and live life.

Stay Safe,

Ben