Today is annual firearms maintenance day. This is the one day of the year that I spend going over each firearm in the gun safe, making sure it is in working order, and then placing them back into the deep sleep until they are needed, or until next year, as the case may be. Are the night sights still bright? Are all batteries either removed or working? Does the firearm need cleaning? It takes 4 or 5 hours to give all of them the once over. If a firearm needs repairs that take more than 10 minutes or so, then it gets red tagged and goes on the ‘to do’ list. With that out of the way, here is a filler post about firearms:
Choosing an EDC is a personal, opinion driven choice. Each of us has that one handgun that we like to carry, and none of them are wrong, because it’s a matter of opinion. Unless you carry a Taurus Judge, but even then, I know a woman who shot a rapist 5 times with one. He was found by the cops, dead in the bushes about 100 yards away. That’s a story in itself.
The only bad handgun choice is the one that is so poor that you leave it at home and wind up not carrying anything.
All handguns are a tradeoff. They have low power, short range, and don’t have as much firepower as a long gun like an AR-10 or an AR-15, as well as not having as much punch as say, a shotgun. We carry handguns because we aren’t sure whether or not we will need one, but it is useful to have one just in case. The chief advantage of a handgun is that it isn’t inconvenient to carry- not like a long gun, which is a pain in the ass to carry everywhere.
Remember, you carry a handgun in case you might be in a gun fight. If you KNOW you will be in a gun fight, endeavor to not be there. If that is impossible, bring a long gun and bring a friend with a long gun, if possible.
There is no such thing as “knockdown power” in a man portable firearm. Any firearm that produces enough force to “knockdown” a target will also, thanks to Newton’s laws, knockdown the person firing it. With that being said, there are a number of considerations that went into me selecting a firearm. The most important of them (in order of importance) are reliability, how accurate I am with that firearm, concealability, capacity, and the caliber.
I have owned a good variety of handguns. According to my logs (yes, I keep a log of every gun that I have owned in the past 20 years, but sadly don’t have a list of anything from before that time.)
- Beretta: Tomcat
- Colt: Combat Commander
- Glock Models 17, 19, 26, 27
- Kimber Pro Carry, Eclipse Custom, Ultra Carry 2, Raptor
- Para: 1911 Black Ops
- Ruger: P-95
- Smith and Wesson: Models 59, 5906, 4506, 4566, 4586, 637, 642, 686. M&P models 22, 9, 9c, 40, 45, 45 2.0, Shield models 9mm, 40S&W, 380ez, 45, Shield plus, Bodyguard
- Sig Sauer models 220, 226, 229 in 9mm and in 357 Sig, the Mosquito
- Taurus: PT45, Millenium
If a handgun has any sort of failure- whether it is a soft primer strike, a failure to feed, eject, or any other failure more than once in every thousand rounds, it isn’t a carry gun that I will rely on. It becomes a safe queen that is fun to shoot on range day, but won’t get close to EDC status.
Reliability
I found the 1911s to be too finicky, requiring customization and a good amount of work, and even then they weren’t reliable enough to bet your life on. Some of them are jamomatics- they jam every 50 to 100 rounds. Others are better, jamming only every 250 rounds or so. That still isn’t good enough. I’ve heard tell of 1911s that are good shooters, but most of those are $5,000 or more custom jobs, or the owners are constantly fussing over them, replacing springs and such. Still not good enough.
The Smith and Wesson Model 59 (my very first handgun) was not drop safe. I dropped mine once and it went off, shooting a hole through my dresser and into the wall.
The Third Generation Smith and Wessons are all of the ones with 4 digit model numbers- 4506, 5906, etc. They had a nasty problem- there were times that you would pull the trigger when the hammer was back, and nothing would happen. The hammer would stay back and not move. I don’t know why, but it would happen periodically. That was it for the Third Generation Smiths. I stopped carrying them after that happened a couple of times. This problem bugged me so much, that I didn’t buy another Smith and Wesson handgun for 15 years, and that one was a revolver.
Accuracy
The Glocks are good handguns, but I just don’t like to shoot them- they don’t feel good in my hand. I still have a few, but they just don’t go into the EDC rotation. The Ruger felt like holding a brick. For those reasons, I am just not as good at shooting them as I am others.
Concealability
The full sized and even compact handguns just aren’t concealable enough in Florida’s casual, hot weather dress. For that reason, we are limited to the subcompact and smaller handguns most of the time.
The Sig Sauers are great handguns, and I put a few trophies on the wall shooting IDPA with them. I loved shooting the 229 in 357 Sig. Hitting targets was almost intuitive with them. At one point, I was buying the Black Stainless version of them 2 or 3 at a time at a steep discount from CDNN, but that was so long ago that I was getting 357Sig ammo for $125 for a 1,000 round case. The 229s are no longer available from there. Still, they are a bit too large to be concealed very well, so you don’t see me carrying them very often.
Likewise, the Smith and Wesson 686 is an L frame revolver. It’s as hard to conceal as a full sized auto. I have toyed with getting a shoulder rig for it, but never have. That large of a handgun with only 6 shots is just a non-starter for me. It’s fun to shoot, but I likely will never carry it.
Capacity
The 642 is a five shot revolver. I don’t like carrying it unless there is no other choice. Still, it’s better than carrying one of the 380s, which I will also do from time to time.
The Shields in 45 have only one round more at a capacity of 6, unless you carry the extended mag to get 7. Now the extended mag makes it easier to shoot for a person with large hands, so it’s still a contender.
The Shield 40 has the same issue as the 45, bit with less power. So it’s largely out.
Caliber
The Beretta Tomcat was only a .32ACP. I got this one in a trade, where I traded a S&W 642 with a customized trigger to her because her hands would hurt using the Tomcat. I only carried it when nothing else would do. Since it wasn’t really suitable for carry, I eventually sold it.
The Sig Mosquito and the M&P 22 are not of a caliber that is suitable for carry. They are out.
What’s Left for EDC
For those of you keeping track, we are now left with the Smith and Wesson Shields and the 642, a J-frame revolver.
Those are the handguns that are in the EDC rotation. They meet all of the criteria that I have for an EDC handgun. The 642 is one I carry in either a pocket holster or an ankle holster. It was my favorite to carry when I worked night shifts on the ambulance. Strapped inside of my left ankle, it met all of my criteria and it was comforting to know that I wasn’t an unarmed target carrying valuable drugs in a bad neighborhood. This handgun was also written about my Marko when we were discussing whether or not the J-frame revolver was still relevant.
My favorite is the Shield Plus. The one l like is the ported Performance Center model that has a red dot on it. There will be a post on that tomorrow. It’s main drawback is how hard it was to find good leather for it. I went with a custom holster from Milt Sparks, but there was an 8 month wait to get one.
Even so, each of my handguns gets an occasional test drive, and some of them do get carried from time to time, but the 642, and one of the Shield Pluses are my main EDC handguns.
