Pocket handguns are not a new concept. Even in the cap-and-ball era there were small revolvers designated as pocket pistols. Looking at these guns, two things are immediately obvious: First, fast reloads were not an option, and second, pockets were apparently much larger in those days. Many of these pistols were simply single shots with no pretense of offering any follow-up capability for the user.
—By Dick Williams
During the latter half of the 19th century, when self-contained cartridges were replacing caps and balls, Smith & Wesson and other manufacturers made some very small revolvers that were the forerunners of today’s snub-nose revolvers. As we rolled into the 20th century, several companies such as Colt, and I believe Savage, offered some compact semi-automatic pistols for those choosing not to announce they carried a handgun. But the epitome of old-time pocket pistols for most Americans was the two-shot derringer with over-and-under barrels. Hollywood made these hideout guns famous in numerous Westerns, and even today, cowboy action shoots frequently feature a special event for them. If you’re willing to settle for just two shots to resolve hostilities, the old-style derringer with its flat outline and compact size offers advantages unsurpassed by many of today’s concealed-carry handguns. However, besides being limited to two shots, these derringers are single-action pistols requiring the shooter to manually cock the hammer each time before firing. They not only lack firepower, they are much slower into action than double-action revolvers.
In the 1930s, many people utilized 2-inch-barreled revolvers. Colts and Smith & Wessons filled the hands of cops, bootleggers and private eyes on the movie screens. Initially, the short barrel was the only real attempt to downsize these revolvers for hideout duty, with nothing being done to reduce frame size and further facilitate pocket carry. Both companies had six-shot revolvers with external hammers, and while the cops were sometimes shown with holsters, I don’t ever recall seeing a bad guy draw a short revolver from leather. While longer barreled revolvers were occasionally carried tucked in the waistband, snubbies emerged from a pocket or were sometimes fired from within. At that time, the nylon pocket holster had not yet been invented, and while a few really clever guys might have utilized a couple pieces of leather inside the pocket to protect their clothes and facilitate getting the gun into action, I doubt this was the case since clothes then were made of heavier material like wool, and fashions seemed to dictate a more casual look.
Smith & Wesson’s J-frame revolver reduced both frame size and capacity, giving the savvy shooter a smaller pocket pistol that carried five rounds instead of six. The smaller grip frame further helped conceal the pistol but at the expense of making the gun more difficult to control when shooting the standard 158-grain .38 Special police loads of that era. Subsequent development of more sophisticated self-defense ammunition helped alleviate this problem, but at the time the downsized frame was a decision that proved to be brilliant over the next several decades. With a couple additional refinements, the five-shot J-frame-size revolver is the pocket pistol of choice for millions today, doing double-duty as the primary self-defense gun in many homes.
One of the other favorite handguns during the early 20th century was the Colt 1911. You couldn’t classify it as a pocket pistol, but its flat profile made it more comfortable to carry tucked into a waistband or belt than a revolver. Colt picked up on this market and began producing the Commander. With a slightly shorter barrel and an alloy frame, it was lighter in weight and less bulky than its all-steel big brother, and knowledgeable gunnies capitalized on its virtues. Some cursed the Commander, claiming its alloy frame wouldn’t take the abuse of continuous full-power loads. Perhaps someone destroyed a Commander in prolonged firing under a controlled and monitored test program, but I don’t remember reading about it. Several clever gunsmiths recognized the advantages of customized 1911s and began chopping them to make them more concealable. Ultimately, manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon, and the result is an array of incredibly compact and durable 1911s with 3-inch barrels and lightweight frames made of exotic metals.
Late in the 20th century, a couple of major developments occurred in the handgun world that would bring about a new class of pocket pistols. One was the semi-auto that accepted double-stack magazines, and the other was the use of lightweight polymer frames. Beretta’s winning of the U.S. military handgun contract cemented the high-capacity pistol’s place in the market, while Glock revolutionized handgun design with high-tech materials. Other companies started manufacturing both wide-body and synthetic-frame pistols, and many produced downsized guns intended for the pocket. While some of these have been quite successful in terms of sales, none are as well suited for pocket carry as the compact revolver, at least in this old dog’s opinion. With that thought, let’s start by looking at the revolver pocket pistols available on today’s market.
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Spinning Wheels
Smith & Wesson has long been the master of the small revolvers, and its current offerings have never been better. The top of the company’s line is superb. I’m talking about its scandium wheelguns that reduce weight to 12 ounces while still providing the power of .357 Magnum loads. In my mind, Smith & Wesson’s quintessential pocket pistol is the Model 340PD, a 12-ounce masterpiece with a 2-inch barrel and an internal hammer. With no hammer to cock, it can only be fired double-action, which is the proper technique with a close-quarters, self-defense revolver. It can be fired from within a jacket pocket with minimal chance of malfunctioning. This technique is not recommended, nor is it suitable for achieving pinpoint accuracy, but for hostile encounters occurring at touchy-feely distances, it’s something that could save your life. If you draw the revolver before firing—the recommended technique—the hammerless design minimizes the possibility of snagging the pistol on pocket edges or linings. A compromise between hammerless guns, or rather those with internal hammers, and guns with external hammers are Smith & Wesson’s Model 638 (an alloy-frame .38 Special +P) and Model 649 (a steel-frame .357 Magnum), both of which have a small, rounded portion of the hammer protruding through a slot in the top of the frame. The company calls this the “Bodyguard” frame, and it minimizes the possibility of snagging the hammer during the draw, but still allows the revolver to be cocked single-action to make a precise shot.
The downside of scandium revolvers is their cost, which is nearly double that of a similar alloy-frame gun and saves only 3 ounces in weight (12 ounces versus 15 ounces). Stepping up to a comparable pistol in steel takes the weight from 15 ounces to 23 ounces but does reduce felt recoil. Smith & Wesson’s Model 60 has been around for decades and was, in fact, the company’s first stainless steel pistol. The version available today can handle full-power .357 Magnum loads, and housed in a pocket holster that masks telltale bulges, the 2-inch workhorse is still an outstanding pocket pistol. When shooting full-house .357 Magnums, none of these small revolvers offer a pleasant experience, but practice ammo can be tailored to your tolerance for any of these. In addition, some of the .38 Special self-defense loads on the market are designed for settling serious social disputes.
Taurus has stepped into the pocket pistol void created when Colt ceased production of its double-action revolvers. Like Smith & Wesson, Taurus offers a variety of pocket pistols in both steel and alloy so the weight of a gun with a 2-inch barrel ranges from just under 16 ounces to 25 ounces. While the majority of the company’s sales in this style of revolver are .38 Special and .357 Magnum, it also makes a pocket pistol in.32 H&R Magnum. The latter handgun with its 2-inch barrel weighs less than 20 ounces and holds six rounds. Although the.32 H&R Magnum is considered by many to be too small for self-defense, it is not to be trifled with and it offers a degree of parity to those with the kinds of injuries or infirmities that prevent them from mastering the .38 or .357. On the upper end of power, Taurus offers a 21⁄2-inch-barreled Model 415 chambered for .41 Magnum in its Tracker series of revolvers. This big boy holds five shots and weighs 30 ounces. It tends to exceed available dimensions of the pockets on most street clothes, but if you have a bulky jacket and can carry the weight, go for it. Amongst learned pistoleros, a.41 Magnum round, even modestly loaded, provokes very little debate on stopping power. A couple of other interesting Taurus options include factory porting and some soft grip materials to tame recoil. Nowhere on my list of things to do is there an entry for firing a ported revolver from inside my pocket, but porting is certainly an appreciated accessory during range sessions. For those who prefer to compromise with a shrouded hammer design, Taurus makes the Model 651 and Model 851.
Charter Arms, which has been in and out of the market, is back with a couple of unique ideas. It now makes a left-handed revolver—chambered in .38 Special +P—called the Undercover Southpaw. This mirror-image gun holds five rounds, has a 2-inch barrel and weighs 12 ounces. It has an all-aluminum, one-piece frame with a three-point cylinder lockup system. Righties need not panic. The revolver can be fired with either hand, but the cylinder-release latch is on the right side of the frame. The cylinder swings out on the right side so a left-handed shooter can hold onto the gun with his shooting hand while reloading with his support hand. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, unless you’re left-handed.
Demonstrating a rather clever bit of marketing nomenclature, Charter Arms has named its snub-nose.32 H&R Magnum the Undercoverette. It has a regular hammer and 2-inch barrel, holds five shots and weighs 19 ounces. An Off Duty model, while competing in weight with the Smith & Wesson scandium revolvers at 12 ounces, will handle .38 Special +P but not .357 Magnum. And Charter Arms would not be Charter Arms without its trademark Bulldog revolver. This is a very serious self-defense handgun that holds five rounds of .44 Special, has a 21⁄2-inch barrel and weighs 22 ounces. There are a variety of excellent hollow-point loads for the .44 Special today, making the Bulldog rival the 1911 in everything except round capacity and reloading speed. Welcome back Charter Arms.
Secretive Semis
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That brings us to the semi-automatic handguns. Over the last five years, Shooting Illustrated has done a number of articles on 1911s, including some on the ultra-compact .45 and 9 mm pistols. Considering the incredible popularity of the 1911, one would have to consider the small versions as pocket pistol candidates. But as much as I love these guns, I would not select one as my first choice for pocket carry. Having a cocked-and-locked 1911 with its short trigger pull loose in my pocket, particularly a trouser pocket, would make me very nervous. Even a pocket holster doesn’t seem to offer enough constraint given the typical body movements one generates in a normal day. In fact, the thought of any semi-auto with a short trigger pull in my pocket gives me chills. That said, there are some I would consider for pocket carry.
Last June, I reviewed in my “Handguns” column a couple of polymer-frame pistols from Kahr and was particularly impressed with the CW9. I’ve always liked the steel-frame Kahr pistols, but they are rather heavy for the pocket. The polymer CW9, however, weighs less than 16 ounces, putting it in the class of alloy-frame revolvers. Even lighter and more suited for pocket carry is the company’s PM9 with a 3-inch barrel and an overall length of 5.3 inches. That’s more than an inch shorter than Smith & Wesson’s 340PD. The PM9’s standard magazine that sits flush with the bottom of the grip frame holds six rounds of 9 mm and keeps the height of the semi-auto to just 4 inches, but the gun also comes with a seven-round extended magazine for those having a little more room in their pockets and the need for someplace to rest their pinky during firing.
Width is an important factor to consider when you are looking for a pistol to carry in your pocket, and with a slide that is a slim .9 inch wide, the PM9 rides nicely in its hiding place without being bulky. The PM9’s steel slide has several near-vertical serrations that facilitate manual slide operation, but the edges are relatively smooth to minimize the possibility of snagging the gun while drawing it from the pocket. Like the rest of the pistols in the Kahr lineup, the PM9 is double action only and utilizes the locked-breech design with an internal striker and no external safety. It keeps the pistol streamlined and makes it fast to fire—just pull the trigger—but there is no second-strike capability. If your first round fails to fire, you’ll have to manually rack the slide to cock the action. Molded, rather aggressive checkering on the frontstrap and backstrap along with stippling on the grip sides help hold the pistol still in the pocket while offering good control during firing, but since these surfaces are covered by the shooting hand during the draw, there is little resistance when removing the gun. The PM9 is a potent little pistol that will fit comfortably in almost any pocket.
Kel-Tec makes some interesting and very economical handguns that offer great potential as pocket pistols. Featuring a steel slide and barrel, an aluminum frame and polymer grips, the locked-breech, double-action-only PF-9 weighs slightly less than
13 ounces, is chambered for 9 mm and has a magazine capacity of seven rounds. Kel-Tec’s P-11 is made like the PF-9, but weighs 14 ounces and holds 10 rounds of 9 mm. Both have 3.1-inch barrels. The PF-9 is less than 1 ounce heavier than the scandium-frame Smith & Wesson and the P-11 weighs an ounce less than the alloy-frame Smiths. If you have tiny pockets, Kel-Tec makes an 8.3-ounce pistol that holds six rounds of .380 ACP and a 6.6-ounce pistol that holds seven rounds of .32 ACP. While neither of these calibers are near the top of the list of self-defense handgun cartridges, the P-3AT and P-32 housing them are certainly in the proper size range for a pocket pistol and may offer as much power as some shooters can handle. If concealment is one of your primary goals, Kel-Tec deserves a good look before making your decision.
Taurus has a line of semi-autos called the Millennium Pro that bears consideration. Available chamberings go from .32 ACP up to .45 ACP with all the in-between cartridges you would expect. Weight doesn’t vary much with the .380 ACP hitting the scales at less than 19 ounces, and the .45 ACP at 22 ounces. Capacity of all guns is high due to their double-stack magazines, but you pay for the firepower in increased size that may take the guns beyond pocket dimensions.
At least one candidate in the guns I have mentioned should fill your need for a pocket pistol. I apologize if I’ve missed any of your favorite handguns, and if you find your solution somewhere else, my feelings won’t be hurt. The important things are to stay safe and to take care of yourself and your loved ones, and the means to do it can fit right in your pocket.
