Innehållsförteckning för Concealed Carry 2023 SIP #1 från Gun Digest

I get asked gun questions all the time—from friends, from GDTM readers—you name it. It comes with the title, I suppose … and it’s actually one of my favorite things about this job. We know guns so you know guns, and I take that responsibility very seriously. “What do you think about the new pistol from Brand X?” is a pretty common query, likely surpassed in volume by “What defensive ammo do you run in your carry gun?” Those two are pretty common, as are holster questions and my recommendations for practice drills … from bolt-action work for hunters to pistol skills for everyday armed citizens. But, this is the question I get more than all others combined: What pistol would you recommend for concealed carry? And, oddly enough, that’s…

01 Anderson Kiger-9c Compact Best known for affordable AR-15s, Anderson Manufacturing is taking its first foray into pistols. Shake hands with the Kiger-9c. A polymer-framed striker-fire 9mm designed for concealed carry, the 3.91-inch barreled 9mm is essentially a Glock clone. However, it has a few huge selling points—its affordability and compatibility with G19 Gen3 components. A few of the fine points on the Kiger-9c, its frame features aggressive texturing throughout and the gun boasts an extended beavertail, an undercut trigger guard, front and rear slide serrations and, of course, a standard Picatinny rail for accessories. The magazine well is also beveled to assist with reloads, and the gun feeds off a 15-round magazine. MSRP: $429 02 Canik Rival SFx Rival-S Steel-framed from Canik? Yes, you heard right. The Rival SFx…

John Browning’s 1911 pistol design might be more than a century old, but that doesn’t mean the design is archaic—or obsolete. In the 11 decades since his pistol made its debut, there have been plenty of subtle changes over the years. However, Springfield Armory has moved in a bold new direction with their latest take, in a design called the Prodigy. That might sound like quite a statement for a single-stack, hammer-fired pistol chambered in .45 ACP—except the Prodigy is chambered in 9mm with a double-stack magazine, hence the DS designation in the product name. The concept isn’t new. We’ve all seen pistols by companies like STI (now Staccato) and Cosaint Arms with this profile and even the older Para Ordnance 1911s. Yet the Springfield Prodigy DS offers a little…

There’s no shortage of shooting drills that can be used to evaluate and train for concealed carry. There are several reasons for this. Most drills are conceived to focus on an individual or just a few specific skills related to shooting a defensive handgun. This allows you to focus your attention on these individual skills so that you can evaluate your performance and flag specific performance elements that need improvement. Otherwise, drills become more of an overall assessment of your abilities, and it becomes more difficult to identify areas where you might need additional training. The other reason there are so many defensive handgun drills is because running the same drill over and over can become monotonous and boring. For every specific skill that you want to focus on, there…

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we first started to see manufacturers affixing rails to lever-action rifles. While sacrilege to most lever-gun appreciators, the “space cowboy” trend appears to be picking up steam. The latest example, and the most radical departure from the traditional design that we’ve seen yet, is the POF-USA Tombstone. It’s a lever-action 9mm rifle that feeds from box magazines. And, yes: It has plenty of rails, too. Until now, Patriot Ordnance Factory has exclusively been a purveyor of AR-based firearms, so it’s quite a surprise to see the company branching out to lever-guns. What makes it less surprising is that the POF-USA Tombstone is far more tactical than traditional. The new lever-action rifle is chambered for 9mm and feeds from box magazines (proprietary design), comes…

HISTORICAL NOTES Introduced by Colt in 1929 as an improved version of the older .38 Auto, the .38 Super Auto is identical to the original cartridge … except that it uses a more powerful loading. It’s a fine high-speed sporting cartridge for the improved Government Model automatic pistol, but it should not be used in the older Colt pocket models. The Thompson submachine gun was once available in a .38 Super chambering. In Spain, Llama has made pistols for it. It’s not popular in Europe, but it is very much so in Canada, Mexico and South America, where pistols in military chamberings have been prohibited. GENERAL COMMENTS The .38 Super Auto was, for many years, the most powerful pistol cartridge made in the United States, from the standpoint of both…

One of the fun matches I attended was the Second Chance Combat Bowling Pin shoot. It closed in 1998, was resurrected in 2017 and is back on as “The Pin Shoot.” It’s one of the few matches you can attend where ammunition consumption can be measured by the cubic foot. And when hosing buckets of 12 gauge at the pins and plates, your bore can get seriously fouled. You’ll build up impressive amounts of plastic and lead. We used to take a packet of Chore Boy scouring pads and turn them into bore-scrubbing clumps. By tying a length of 550 cord, you could make a really aggressive bore-scrubbing tool. Follow that up with a shop cloth and another length of 550 cord, and you could clean a 12-gauge bore quickly.…

When it comes to carrying a concealed handgun for personal protection, there are many things that need to be considered. The ammunition you’ll carry in that handgun is critical because the bullet it fires is what you ultimately hope will stop the fight … or end whatever attack you’re experiencing. There’s a lot of information available from manufacturers about the bullets they offer, and there’s a lot of information on the internet where users have tested them. However, for you to fully understand this information, you need a working knowledge of bullets. Understanding how they’re different and what makes them work is part of that, but so, too, is an understanding a bullet’s anatomy. BULLET BASICS Simplified, there two types of defensive handgun bullets—jacketed and monometal—and both are generally hollow-points.…

Carrying a pistol is something many of us do daily; however, the larger majority of people don’t always give a second thought to the other items that go hand-in-hand. Life is rarely simple and, no matter how we envision a scenario playing out, things hit the fan with certainty. The issue we face isn’t a simple one, mostly because the presence of a gun and the prospect of using it results in an increased degree of lethality to both you and the bad guy. As much as we love and adore guns for what they mean to us, in a cultural, personal and political sense they are, at the end of the day, meant to keep you alive through means of lethal force. We tend to look at things through…

While not nearly as common as they once were on the hips of armed citizens, my concealed carry pistol is a Makarov. But to me, familiarity goes a long way, and what the pistol lacks in modern features it more than compensates for in time-tested reliability. However, any pistol as old as the Makarov poses a challenge for those of us looking to take advantage of leaps in shooting technology since the gun was built. While there are hurdles to modern upgrades for such guns, they’re not out of reach … you just have to know the steps to turn a classic into a modern masterpiece. EVALUATING SHORTCOMINGS Like many old pistols, especially military surplus models, the Makarov lacks in certain departments. While its mechanical accuracy is better than most…

Many shooters stupidly ignore their eyes and ears: too often they take them for granted. That’s partly understandable. Eyes and ears are kind of like hands and feet; you use them so frequently and without conscious thought that they’re just part of your everyday life. Their use doesn’t seem special. Oh, but they are. I’ve been at this shooting game for a long time … long enough to have intense hearing impairment—possibly from my time on the tank range in the Army—and to have experienced near disastrous eye damage. I’ve had multiple incidents with handguns that could have been blinding had I not had my eyes protected. So, I’m going to give you some advice. It’s expensive advice, but it’s good advice, and advice that might allow you to see…

The gun world is rife with marketing jargon and gimmicks. Bullets that are more this or barrels that are more that. Much of it is hyperbole, even if some companies actually deliver on the promises that they make. “A subcompact that shoots like a full size”—that’s what the Shadow Systems CR920 is marketed as. In many ways, this is not the hyperbole that I just outlined. This is likely one of the most shootable subcompacts you can buy. It is flat shooting, optics-ready in a discreet package that has a very respectable magazine capacity of 10 rounds in the flush-fit model, and 13 rounds in the extended flavor. But you can also get that type of capacity from a Glock 26 or Sig P365. One of the most remarkable things…

I grew up immersed in the car culture. Brands, models and trim packages were all background information to me, as well as the relative sizes of the models. When I got old enough to drive, that information was important, because it gave me a clue as to what I could fit into. At 6 feet 4 inches, some were simply impossible. (A friend once offered to give me a lift. I took one look at the Karmann Ghia he drove and said, “Got something in a 42 long?” He didn’t get the joke until I tried to get in.) Well, handguns come the same way, if in a different direction. There might be something too big to carry concealed. Let’s take a stroll through the racks and see what sizes…

You’re a right-handed shooter, heading fast toward a target building. Shifting left, you’re the first man coming up on an alleyway, and you need to protect your teammates behind you. What you do next can determine the outcome of the mission. Do you transition your weapon to your support side? Will your sling even let you? Is your communications switch attached to your left shoulder? Can you effectively reload off your kit, support side only? Or do you eat sh*t, take the alleyway with your strong side and expose 50 percent of your body? The answer that you should be able to give is to transition the weapon to your support side, because your sling is properly adjusted and your kit and all its attachments allow the manipulation of both…