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Mr.F
MemberPAPosts: 89 Member
Pocket carry: semi-auto or revolver?

I was looking for something I could carry in my hip pocket . The best options seems to be either a .380 semiauto or a 5 shot .38 revolver . Caliber & capacity aside , I was wondering which you fine gentlemen would consider to be best for pocket carry in general ???
Jermanator : You might talk about Tauruses around your wife, but that just doesn't fly in my house.
Replies
Luis
The Walther PPK or My personal favorite, the Colt Mustang in .380 acp....
A semiautomatic handgun is flatter in the pocket and is easier to re-load and less fumble prone than a revolver, in the dark too, it is easier to find a magazine well, than it is to load a speed loader into a revolvers cylinder, if you are under stress, that adds to the difficulty.
Obviously you also need pants with big enough pockets too, My father recommended replacing the pocket material with longer lasting denim or coin bag cloth.
There are plenty enough tailors out there that can do that.
If you're definite on hip pocket carry, consider the little Ruger and Kel-tec .380s. As small and as light as some .25s, but not much fun to plink with.
You would need more than a T-shirt as a cover garment as the grip will be out of the hip pocket and T-shirts like to ride up.
Whichever one turns your crank...pick one...
A semiautomatic handgun, is better, now that sub compact light weight reliable models ( in good calibers, 9mm -40 S&W- .45 acp ) can be had for a reasonable price, I adore revolvers, but why would I step back in time ???
In your opinion only....there in NOTHING that is outdated about a revolver...and why in heavens name would I discard a perfectly good firearm just because the uninformed,uneducated, and unwashed have stuck an expiration date on them...
Jerry
A semiautomatic handgun is easier and requires less dexterity to re-load.
That is why I prefer it over a revolver.
This is not just My opinion, many others have voiced that opinion before I ever did, and FYI, as a LEO, I have carried revolvers extensively, sometimes a couple or even three at a time, however not exclusively, I like a semiautomatic as a BUG, like many others, you may or may not know or even like Me personally, but I sweated and bled My own blood etc... to earn My credentials and knowledge and expertise, which no one can deny or call into question, so with all due respects Sir,
.......
Thank you.
Just sayin'...
There are some good quality pocket autos out there, but for something that small I prefer a J-Frame Smith & Wesson.
I carry a pocket gun on my weak side (left) as a back up to my regular carry piece, don't really like them for a primary role.
The way I see it, if I'm going for my left hand gun, it's because I've got a hold of somebody with my right hand. In that case I want something that I can press into them and take multiple shots with. Because of the cycling of the action, you can't do this with an automatic. Just my $.02, YMMV.
Now where's the green bunny avatar? :tooth:
Welcome back Amigo.
As to the ease of reloading issue, I don't consider it to be a huge factor in this case - these are pocket guns which you carry simply to have a gun for day-to-day operations. If you are actually expecting trouble, you'd probably still carry it - but as a BACKUP to a real fighting pistol. The general idea with these little things is to either solve the problem quickly, or empty it and run for the hills. Better in my opinion, to be firing a round substantial enough that you don't HAVE to empty the gun to accomplish the task at hand.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
My light weight BERSA MiniFireStorm, perhaps not as recognized a name as some, but has been a flawless performer, never a FTF or FTE, since I fired the first round in Maryland.
Pretty lucky as they let Me trade in My cracked LLAMA 1911 as an even exchange, the LLama was no longer Maryland approved.
While as Teach / Jerry says, it is not the best way to carry, many times that gun resides in an ample uniform pants pocket while I pump gas and do other work.
Light and flat it affords Me 8 rounds of .45 acp in a compact package, around the same size and weight as a PPK.......
Have you seen my left hand.......it's tiny and carny like........errrrr, I mean it's normal sized.......for certain plant based life forms, ya know. :tooth:
:roll2:
Nope, my opinion on the whole "support side" or "reaction side" is sorta like your opinions on the "tactical reload" or "speed reload"......It's a very .....blah, blah, blah!
I have two sides, comparatively speaking, one of them is going to be weaker than the other. No getting around it hermano, that's just the way it is. Now while I can run a lead slinger with my left hand almost as good as I can my right, I'm still a bit weaker on that side. :thumb:
Well that's fine, stud, but what if your strong side is also weak? (Dontcha love these semantics games?:tooth:)
I'm pretty sure that when the old English shortened the Latin (Greek?) word "gymnasium" to "gym", it was originally spelled "gyme". It always seemed like a four letter word to me. . .
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
But in general, Pocket carry sucks (in my opinion). Hard to get to, does not work well when sitting (which we do a WHOLE lot more than standing), and I carry a whole lot of other needed crap in my pockets.
Personally, belt carry works much better for me.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
Front pocket is another story----much easier and less pull your trousers down in the rear effect.
This is one of the best quotes I've read on this forum, by far!
Although, for the purpose of a slim profile I do feel there is a slight advantage to a .380 of some sort, ala the Kel-Tec P3AT, over a J frame style .38 or .357 revolver.
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
And I would prefer a 9mm over a weak .380 acp now that so many are available in the same size / weight ratio.
Bwahahaha!!!
I like that little radioactive bunny......kinda missed him. :roll2: