Pistol Size Matters

Once upon a time I thought full-size handguns were the way to go for "duty" carry. You know, law enforcement, open carry in the woods, home defense, and end-of-the-world. Longer sight radius, better grip, more capacity in say a Glock 17. Heck, when I started buying my own guns I was still under the impression of my agency's Sig P226s.

Well as it turns out full-size guns aren't great concealed (or open) carry pieces. They're big, heavy, and the long grip likes to bang into stuff. You sit funny in cars. That's why police cars have "special" seats from the factory in some cases (not sure what's so special about them). That grip length is unnecessary.

There's a reason that special forces gravitate towards the compact Glock 19 and why it's so popular with detectives and concealed carriers. Even a lot of uniformed cops carry them. The grip length is just short enough not to be obtrusive when sitting but long enough to get a proper grip.

Now we're seeing even thinner guns that grip better than the chonky Glock grip, like the Sig P365 or Glock 48 (half a G19). The short grip lengths of the original P365 or the Glock 26/43 aren't ideal for shooting, so we see people really enjoy the longer grip modules that create a kinda inverted L shape.

It's interesting to see how taste has evolved regarding form in guns and how that bigger isn't always better. All of this change and innovation has been driven by concealed carry—the civilian market—whereas before it was all about cops, soldiers, and competition shooters. Nice to live in the time we do.

Review wise, I'm enjoying carrying and shooting the P365 in lieu of the thicker G26 (width is another factor I didn't touch on much here). More practical data when the weather warms up.