Though bigger guns are prefered for most tasks, especially learning, smaller guns certainly have their place. They are easier to conceal if your wardrobe or circumstances require a smaller footprint. They can be a good choice as a backup gun, if that is a requirement for you. And that’s about where the benefits of a smaller gun end.
When I was a uniform cop, I carried a G19 as my duty gun, and a Kahr 9 (later a G26) as my backup. The Kahr was a wonderful shooter, but the G26 just made more sense as it took the same spare mags I was already carrying for the G19, and it reduced the amount of training time I needed to spend on my second gun.
In a non-uniform capacity, I have occasionally carried a J frame, LCP or P32 as a backup, often in a pocket but occasionally in an ankle holster. Ankle holsters have never worked well for me, so pocket was the usual choice. I have experimented with other locations as well, but none are as long term livable.
When it comes to carrying a smaller gun as a primary, as many heretics do, I prefer the largest most shootable version I can manage. Today, that means the HK P30SK. I am continually amazed how this G26 sized gun shoots about the same as the larger P30 does. It gives up a little velocity, which means that ammo selection is more critical, but that is not too hard to do these days. It also gives up purchase. Purchase for a draw and purchase for weapons retention, so both those aspects need to be trained a bit more. In that regard, the shorter barrel does aid in weapons retention in that it gives an attacker less purchase on his end as well.
One real flaw of smaller guns is that they are never going to be as reliable and durable as a larger gun. In the Glock lineup, the G19 is more reliable than the 26 and the 17 is more reliable than the 19. The longer barreled guns also tend to last longer, with more rounds between spring changes and the like. The difference isn’t always meaningful though, especially in the case of the 26/19/17.
When you drop to the stack and a half and smaller guns, reliability takes a pretty big hit, as do almost all the other metrics we have talked about. I know some guy out there is going to chime in with the fact that his 43X has been perfect for x number of rounds. I’m happy for him, but when you look at large quantities of that gun, and especially when you formally test it, it simply doesn’t do what the bigger guns do. That’s why it is a CCW gun and not a duty gun. It might be “good enough”, but it isn’t objectively great.
As much as I like to malign the poor souls who carry small guns (it’s not the guns fault its small, its the owners fault for carrying it), the truth is that for civilian self defense in America, the size, capacity and shootability of the gun is actually not that important most of the time. Situational awareness trumps gun size any day. Good tactics trumps the size of your gun. A moderate amount of skill trumps guns size most days. Having the gun on you all the time certainly trumps a bigger gun left in the range bag.
At the end of the day, that last bit there is why small guns can be great. Having a gun on you is way more important than which gun it is. In fact, assuming a proper caliber choice, the only area where a small gun is truly at a functional disadvantage over a larger gun is in training. Please, bring a full size gun to training, either at a class or on your own. I appreciate training with what you carry and that is very important, but learning to shoot better is hampered by these small guns.
My idea of proper training with a small carry gun looks like this: I shoot the bigger gun as much as I can and at the end of every training session, I shoot a few rounds through the smaller gun. Depending on which gun it is, that might be 3 magazines worth, 3 cylinders worth or maybe even one magazine or one cylinder. I’m simply trying to take the skills I have developed with the bigger gun and transfer them to the smaller gun, while at the same time, making sure the smaller gun still works and hits where I want. I am also acclimating my hand to the smaller gun, both for the draw and recoil control. This method has worked very well for me for the past 3 decades and I have not seen a reason to change it.
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