by Mark Bunch,
Royal Gorge Gun Club, Lincoln Park Pawn
Part 2
Choosing your Combat
Handgun
I confess to loving all things gun related, but there are great, good, ok, and bad choices that can be made in choosing a tool to defend your life with. While I have quite the collection of revolvers in all sorts of calibers, using a revolver for a combat handgun is going to put you at an almost certain disadvantage. If you choose to use your concealed carry pistol as your combat handgun, choose wisely, grasshopper.
Obviously concealed carry handguns are generally smaller, lighter, easier to conceal and to have with you when you need them which oftentimes is the name of the game. Just remember, the smaller you go, the more training you will have to do and your results will likely be ‘just ok’. The tiny .380 auto pistols such as the Kel-Tec P3AT, Ruger LCP, or Smith & Wesson bodyguard are a 7-yard maximum combat handgun. Yes, you can hit something further than 7 yards with one of them, but the effective combat range of this class of firearms is 7 yards and that is only IF you as the shooter have spent enough time practicing and learning your weapon system.
Some in this class of .380 concealed handguns don’t even have sights on them for God’s Sake, LOL. The upside to this class of concealed weapon is comfort and portability. You will likely have it with you if you need it, and as the old saying goes, the best gun to have in a gun fight is the one you actually have with you at the time, lol.
What I recommend to my students and customers is to pick something in the middle. Some manufacturers call this mid-sized, some call it compact size. In essence you are choosing a full power round with a high capacity magazine that is smaller than a full size battle handgun. A little easier to carry and conceal, and still up to the task of defending your family or yourself against a hostile threat or multiple threats. Popular guns in this class are the Glock 19 in 9mm, or the Glock 23 in .40. The Beretta Storm Compact in either caliber is a good choice, although the magazines are simply death to have to reload by hand. The new Sig P320 Compact is a spectacular weapon for a concealable combat handgun. If you desire more stopping power you can always go with .45 ACP or 10mm. I love both cartridges but I do not recommend either for a mid-sized platform because they have a reduced round count and are more difficult to control under stress. I have several 10mm’s including a very cool Glock 29. If I had to defend myself with that, especially at night, after the first round I am not going to be able to see the end of my nose from the blast, let alone the nose of anybody else I am shooting at.
Springfield XD series are also very good, and the new Smith & Wesson 2.0 M&P are very good too. Striker fired guns at this point in combat handgun development are definitely the way to go if you are considering choosing a new combat pistol. There are some double action combat handguns floating around that are pretty good including the Beretta Storm in the C model. I would pass on buying a D model, as these are double action only, with like a 12 lb trigger pull, which is absolutely atrocious. Think loosening a lug nut off a tractor wheel, lol. In fact, you should never purchase or own a double action only pistol; it only increases your chance of getting shot in a gun fight.
Moving up in size and effectiveness to .45 acp or 10mm pistols you have literally a plethora of choices. The old venerable 1911 in .45 and, these days, also in 10mm, has earned its place among other legendary firearms. Simple, effective and deadly accurate, and it’s tough to beat that. Single action but can be carried cocked and locked if you have the skill set high enough to not shoot yourself or someone else accidentally trying to get it out of your holster. These full power rounds are much better suited in a full-size combat weapon and if you wish to choose a full size weapon for your main combat handgun, consider using these two cartridges first, and then .40. Obviously 9mm will work, too, but if you are going to go up in size for a combat gun, it is hard not to recommend that you also go up in power.
To paraphrase all of that for readers, your best choices in a medium sized combat pistol are semi-auto high capacity, either striker or double action fired pistols in 9mm or .40. Your worst choices are revolvers of any make and caliber, tiny POS pistols made by such loser companies as Raven or Jennings in .25 acp or any other caliber they attempted. Once, years ago, I had a customer come into my Pawn Shop and ask if I had any small Lorcin or Raven .25 autos for sale in the back. Before I could even reply, another one of my customers said that a .25 auto wasn’t even good for shooting a poodle if it had teeth. The first customer replied, are you saying that a .25 auto won’t even kill a poodle?? The second guy rolled up his pant leg and showed us the scars he had on his leg, lol. While I have no idea of knowing whether that was a true story or not, I certainly agree with the premise of it, lol.
If you must shoot a revolver for ease of operation, or if you have manual dexterity concerns, ie weak hands, arthritis, or missing digits, you are best sticking with a medium weight or heavier gun. If you choose to use a full size revolver in either .38, .357 mag, or larger, you can pretty much throw concealability right out the window. While I do not recommend carrying one for self-defense in the city, if you go into the mountains hiking, camping, ATV or horseback riding, a good quality revolver in a powerful caliber makes good sense because the predators there will likely be four-legged and have teeth.
I will also make note that the best man-stopper ever, is in fact the .357 magnum in 125 grain JHP load. The Ed Sanow testing of one-shot stopping power was conducted back in the 1970s and 1980s. However, there have been substantial developments and improvements in defensive bullets in .355 or 9mm caliber, .40 and .45 acp. The air weight models from Smith & Wesson or Taurus are absolutely ferocious, firing full power loads. The Colt Cobra or Ruger LCR are much more forgiving and controllable. I like the Colt Cobra because it is a 6-shot model where most mid-sized revolvers are going to be only 5-shot. Carry a couple of speed loaders with you and knowing how to use them and being able to use them under pressure could very well be critical to your survival.
Combat Sights
Once you have decided on your combat handgun and caliber, you need to make sure you also add tritium night sights and or a laser. If you have never actually fired a handgun at night, you need to put that on your short list, as the overwhelming majority of law-abiding citizens using firearms to defend themselves against attackers and home invaders, almost always occur when it is dark.
For the past several years at the Royal Gorge Gun Club, we have held Halloween matches after dark, complete with road flares, eerily lit pumpkins, reactive steel targets, and bleeding zombies. Shooters who do not have tritium night sights or laser equipped pistols are at a clear disadvantage shooting against those who do, and within a couple of shots they see first-hand how difficult it can be to hit your target at night. While you do not necessarily need both tritium night sights and a laser it is my recommendation that you get at least one of these for your combat pistol, and then practice after dark. Your laser will be just like a scope on your rifle, it needs to be zeroed first before you can bet your life on it.
(The author, Mark Bunch is an NRA Certified Law Enforcement Combat Handgun and Police Firearms Instructor and has taught over 2,000 students in his career as a Firearms Instructor. He owns and operates his own gun and pawn shop Lincoln Park Pawn with his partner and gun club VP John Hudson and 1 mile gun range in Cañon City, Colorado. Mark, John, Sam and Myra Smallwood, Jon and Donna Hoff, Bill and Linda Herlth, Mike Konty, Steve Rando, Jock and Pat Harmon and Buddy Moore are also the Fremont
County NRA as well.)