THE DIET OF A POCKET GUN

Things tend to get a bit spooky when we start talking about tiny carry guns and their performance, but small carry guns are all the rage today. Unlike full-size pistols, micro-compact guns haven’t only had to overcome the ballistic deficiencies of short barrels, but they also had to compensate for poor handling and subpar cartridges for their assigned role.

The old days saw guns having to resort to shortcomings to appeal to their buyers. Most were small versions of existing designs, while others were original creations often centered around an established cartridge. The former here usually resulted in funny-looking sawn-off pistols, and the latter in guns questionably suited for their ammunition. At the base of this problem was reliability—something that small guns usually lacked.

The original means to ensure reliable performance was to go simple, such as in the case of the small-frame revolver. For most of the 20th century, the little five-shot was the standard for performance and reliability, most notably the Smith & Wesson J-Frame. This revolver and its