Best Concealed Carry Gun

If you’re one of the countless Americans who has taken the important decision to take your life into your own hands and carry a handgun, you are to be commended. It’s not an easy decision and one that normally comes after either a close run-in with disaster or after the chilling realization that in an emergency, you’re on your own and no one is coming to save you.

Congratulations, you just made the most difficult decision of this process, but now you have to get into the more granular aspects. In particular, what gun are you going to carry? And as much as I’d like just to list a single gun and finish this guide in the next sentence, the real answer is much more complicated. Not only that, the decision is deeply personal and depends on budget, shooter size, strength, and experience. So, with that in mind, let’s dive right into it.

The biggest category to tackle is the most simple: revolver or semi-automatic. For the overwhelming majority of shooters, the answer is going to be semi-automatic. But let me explain why.

If you’ve decided to carry a gun at all, you’ve basically decided to run the numbers and mitigate potential risk. Carrying a gun isn’t very different from owning a fire extinguisher and placing it in your kitchen. Odds are, you’ll never need either of these items. But if you do, you really do.

This is why I recommend semi-automatic handguns to most shooters. They allow a shooter to fire multiple rounds at a threat quickly and replenish that ammo supply in short order with a detachable magazine. This means that a shooter - with training - is equipped to deal with a wide variety of threats that could pop up, including multiple attackers. Not only that, but semi-automatic handguns tend to get back on target faster since their trigger-pulls are shorter and lighter. This is doubly true if the revolver is being fired in single-action mode, where the shooter will lose their sight picture with every shot.

Think of it this way. Would you want a tiny fire extinguisher only capable of putting out a cigarette carelessly tossed into a trash can or a full-sized one that can deal with a much larger fire? What if both extinguishers were the same price and size? That’s the issue with running a semi-automatic pistol versus a revolver.

Most snub-nosed revolvers only hold five rounds in a cylinder, and reloading them takes much more practice and time than simply slapping a fresh magazine into a handgun’s mag well. Plus, if you’re running a dedicated carry revolver, it’s likely double-action only, so learning to shoot it accurately will take even more time. Not to mention that unless you go with a .357 Magnum revolver, your rounds are less powerful than the standard 9mm ammo most handguns are chambered in today.

Does that mean there’s no place for revolvers as concealed carry pistols? No. If you have severe arthritis, racking the slide on a semi-automatic pistol can be difficult or even excruciating! If that’s the case, five or six rounds of .38spcl or .357 Magnum are vastly superior to a pocket knife or even a bat.

But just like with a fire extinguisher, if you don’t dedicate time to practice with your carry gun - whether it’s a revolver or an auto-loader - it won’t do you any good when you need it. After all, the time to worry about your proficiency with a pistol isn't when you find yourself in a life-or-death situation.

There are hundreds of thousands of internet experts who dedicate countless hours to the endless debate about which caliber is “best.” When it comes to concealed carry, we aren’t looking for the best caliber, but the most powerful caliber we can reasonably handle and conceal that still affords good magazine capacity.

After all, the ideal carry caliber is one that 100% stops a threat with a single hit, regardless of shot placement. It should also be so small you can hold a whole box of it in the magazine of a pistol that can be concealed in a vest pocket.

Unfortunately, no such caliber exists.

Instead, your concealed carry pistol will fire a relatively weak caliber bullet (compared to rifle rounds) that will make small holes in a soft target. Expanding ammo and bigger calibers simply mean larger holes and higher velocities translate into better penetration. But at the end of the day, unless a vital organ or major bone is struck and substantially damaged, your shots are only going to make your attacker mad.

That said, there are some guidelines as to which calibers are generally accepted as too anemic for self-defense use. As a rule of thumb, .380 Auto should be the absolute minimum caliber a shooter uses for self-defense. Personally, I wouldn’t go lower than 9mm. 

Yes, you can shoot a man through the eye with a .22lr and put him down, but in a self-defense scenario with your heart pounding and adrenaline pumping, unless there’s ice in your veins, you won’t be a modern-day William Tell.

My personal recommendations are 9mm luger for semi-automatics and .357 Magnum for revolvers. I chose 9mm because it strikes a perfect balance of good terminal ballistics and magazine capacity. Modern micro 9mm handguns can hold up to 15 rounds of the ammo in a flush-fitting magazine!

As for revolvers, the reason I recommend .357 Magnum is because you’re realistically limited to five or six shots in most carry revolvers. If you only have a handful of rounds to send at an attacker, you might as well send the biggest round you can tolerate. Plus, if you buy a revolver in .357 Magnum and find that it’s too much recoil for you, a shooter can just load .38 special +P (or regular) rounds in that same revolver.

Speaking of endless debates online, the one between optics and iron sights is just as contentious as those about caliber. In the most general sense, iron sights are vastly more reliable. They don’t require batteries, they’re much harder to damage than optics, and they’re vastly less expensive. 

The downsides of iron sights are that they’re slower to align than optics for the average shooter, and they don’t work as well in poor lighting. That makes sense; if you can’t see your sights, they don’t really do you any good. 

For red dots, the biggest advantages are speed and simplicity of use. Once zeroed, a shooter places the glowing red dot on the intended target and pulls the trigger. Assuming quality ammo and good form, you will hit your target. Even if you’re not concerned about speed, keep in mind that most people panic when faced with a potentially lethal threat. The fewer things to remember, the better. It’s the same reason that manual safeties have fallen out of favor with many police departments and concealed-carry firearms. When things go sideways quickly, it’s easy to forget the basics and make mistakes.

In my professional opinion, the best solution is to have your cake and eat it too. Namely, a red-dot-equipped handgun with backup iron sights that co-witness or see through the optic itself. That way, if the battery dies or the gun is dropped on its optic, you still have a functional aiming device.

With all the aforementioned statements in mind, I have three personal recommendations for concealed-carry guns. These aren’t the only guns that fit the parameters above, but they are three that I personally have a ton of experience with that have proven themselves reliable, accurate, and easy to conceal. 

The Glock 43x MOS as I’ve written before, is an all-around solid concealed carry piece in its own right. But add PSA’s expanded capacity steel Dagger magazines, and you’ve got a world-class handgun that conceals easily and still holds an incredible 15 rounds of ammunition. If you want an ultra-reliable Glock in 9mm that conceals easily, is optics-ready, and is still affordable - look no further than the G43xMOS. 

If money isn’t an issue and you want the softest shooting micro 9mm handgun on the market, go for the SIG P365 X-Macro with a micro-frame. The X-Macro is the latest version of the P365 and incorporates both an optics cut and an integral compensator. Giving shooters a blasty-but-controllable handgun that holds 12 rounds in a flush-fitting magazine. The SIG is a solid handgun that’s a little more ergonomic than the Glock and has the option for a manual safety for shooters who want one. The only downside to the gun is that it’s a little pricey. 

If you’re one of the shooters I mentioned above who lacks the hand strength to rack a semi-automatic pistol’s slide, the .357 Magnum model 640 is your ticket. Available in both stainless and black, the double-action-only hammerless snub-nosed revolver from Smith and Wesson easily disappears in a pocket or small holster.

Overall, the best concealed carry gun depends on too many factors for anyone to offer a universal best solution. But with a little research and some time at a rental range, shooters can get the best option for their needs in no time.