Originally Posted by
Chuck Haggard
I'm noting a lot of dudes in this thread, and more than a few I know to be full sized dudes, and a dearth of ladies posting.
Many chicks, I'll include my oldest daughter and a cop friend in the KCMO area, like to dress like chicks and not little dudes wearing the 5.11 catalog. I get it. Many dudes working in a true NPE while wearing business clothes will find themselves in a similar situation as far as gun size vs concealing the gun. Craig's TPI site has an epic thread on this subject, with worthy comments from folks like Claude Werner and some of the ladies on that forum.
Anyway, both my daughter and friend ended up with LCP sized guns backed up by small folders. Cop chick friend uses her FlashBang bra holster almost daily while off duty. She is not a top heavy gal and yet the gun is still undetectable. A P32 would serve the same purpose and have less recoil.
Personally, I'd prefer a good person have a .22 or .25 and some smarts than just smarts.
Ref ".25acp ammo": in my observation it depends on the ammo. I've crono'd .25acp from a Beretta at anywhere from the low 600fps range to the high 900fps range. That makes a substantial difference IMHO. I've seen some of the ".25 don't work" cases on the street, but I've seen more than a few where it did work, shockingly well. I recall one case where a head shot was a through-and-through, another where a cross torso below the diaphragm hit killed dude dead very quickly.
In screwing around at the range and shooting the brand new 55gal steel drum that was going to be used for a burn barrel, I noted the slow .25 rounds would bounce off the side and hit me in the shins, the fast .25 rounds, and .22s such as the Stinger or Velocity from a snubby, would punch both sides of the drum. That's not Doc Roberts level of testing, but methinks that level of performance will make a difference when you have to shoot a bad guy in the head.