What factors / objective performance standards went into your carry gun decision?

[okie john]

I thought this might be a good place to ask for opinions and learn what people are carrying and why?

And as a follow up question, if you were to do a pistol class with one of the famous trainers... would you use that carry setup?

My first criterion is that the make/model in question must have been tested, adopted, and retained by a major LE agency or military unit. That thins the herd quickly.

Beyond that, I’m in the “carry what you shoot best” camp. After decades with the 1911, I went to a Gen 3 G19 based on advice from folks I trusted. I got a good baseline with that, then tested a dozen or so others over a period of a couple of years.

Testing meant buying the pistol and a good Kydex holster/mag carrier combination, then shooting that rig exclusively for a couple of thousand rounds, starting with slow fire and load testing out to 50 or 100 yards to baseline accuracy. Then I’d move to timed and scored drills like El Pres, Hack Standards, etc. Then I’d make the drills harder, shooting them in the dark, in the rain, while moving on broken ground, or as many of those factors as I could combine. (I live in the Pacific Northwest, so rain and darkness are easily had six months out of the year and gravel pits provide the broken ground and distance from humanity needed for shooting on the move, etc.)

One or two pistols were somewhat easier to conceal and one or two shot better in slow fire at extreme range. None were as easy to conceal or to shoot well as the Gen3 G19. Some were especially good on one drill or another, but none were as good all around as the G19, though the VP9 came very close. My issue with the VP9 was that while it grouped tighter than the Glock in almost every test, when I threw a flier with it, I REALLY threw it. Like into the next time zone. I imagine that if I were to shoot this same series of tests with my current Gen5 G19, the accuracy difference between the it and the VP9 would vanish but I'd still throw flyers with the VP9.

I shot Glocks when I took classes with Ken Hackathorn and Pat McNamara, and the VP9 for an LAV class. I also shot Glocks when I was involved in IDPA. After I learned the ropes, I routinely finished in the top 3 in local club matches for a couple of years but that probably says more about my local clubs than it does about the pistol or my skill with it.

At this point, I’ve moved from Gen 3 Glocks through the Gen4s and into the Gen5. I’m pretty sure that I’m done looking.


Okie John

[DC_P]

I don't know who wrote this line but it makes a lot of sense to me: If you need a gun to go to the grocery store, you don't need a gun, you need a new grocery store.
.

I don't know by who or when that quote is from, but my guess would be by someone who (like most of us) never envisioned the world 2020 brought us to.

[JCN]

Bumping this up for updated opinions.

I’ve gone to pocket revolver most of the time.

I can pass the semi-auto COF for Bakersfield with a snub pocket revolver including reload step, so I guess I feel decently comfortable in my ability and the relatively low risk of violent attacks in my neighborhood.

I guess I tend towards picking the most convenient selection that I can still pass an objectively rigorous standard with.

If I required a full size gun to pass the standard, that’s what I would carry.

[UNM1136]

Biggest concern: what I can get approved at work. I am one of four guys in the FTU, all of which get a vote, with any ties decided by a LT (not in my chain of command other than FTU)who won't talk to half of the FTU for info. Because, pals,

Second biggest...What BBI said. But I run Glocks. I trust my boogerhook after lots and lots of training. And experience. High risk, high stress arrests. Having SWAT dudes and JSOC retirees compliment my trigger finger discipline under close observation (and video) SIM runs in high stress, decisional shooting environments. The transition from S&W M19 to Sig P229 DA/SA to 1911 to M&P and Glock were laughably short.

I like 2000 round tests for reliability and familiarity of manipulations. Except for my LCR. Current preferred excuse for the exception: revolver. No data, no trials, no nothin. Just did not want to put 2K rounds into an abusive little beast that gets carried a couple of handful of hours a week in very specific environments. I have a wife that meets those conditions, thank you very much...

pat

[feudist]

Bumping this up for updated opinions.

I’ve gone to pocket revolver most of the time.

I can pass the semi-auto COF for Bakersfield with a snub pocket revolver including reload step, so I guess I feel decently comfortable in my ability and the relatively low risk of violent attacks in my neighborhood.

I guess I tend towards picking the most convenient selection that I can still pass an objectively rigorous standard with.

If I required a full size gun to pass the standard, that’s what I would carry.

Damn, that's legit! Which one of your motley crew? Please say Taurus View...

[FNFAN]

My primary factor is that I'm issued a G23.4 with no other options. Armed off duty, all classes and usually IDPA are shot with a G19.4 with the same sights and large backstrap as the work gun until I retire again, then I'll go strictly to the EDC X9S or a standard size X9 (the only guns that could have gotten me to put away my Springfield Pro.) I want any training or competition to carryover and benefit handling skills with the work gun. Off duty probably 80% of the time I have a 642 in an Aholster with a speed strip and 20% the G19.

[JCN]

Damn, that's legit! Which one of your motley crew? Please say Taurus View...

Haha. No, but close. It was the Taurus 380 revolver because moon clips and short cartridge length for reloading. For me, moon clips and short cartridge lengths are the only way I can hit semi-auto reload step times.

[JAD]

Cold and consistently, sub 2.5 seconds for 2 rounds in 2” at 7y, with a step. Consistently, that’s a G17 or a 1911 (including the CCO). I think I can get there with a P229.