A lot of people have a $600 check in their bank account now that they should first use for necessities.
But if you are one of the blessed individuals that has kept their job and is now looking to put that stimulus check to good use, I highly recommend getting a new concealed carry option. Or a shotgun…
Even if you already have one, it’s always smart to have a second one because you can alternate carrying them and increase the life of both.
It’s very difficult to define what is a good concealed carry gun.
There are a ton of great options out there too. I just chose the firearms that felt the best to me personally and were small enough to conceal easily. When I carry, which is pretty much all the time, I typically carry on my hip, almost to my back. I guess you would say like 4:30 on a clock…
That’s the best way I can describe it. But I took into account a lot of people that like to carry appendix for concealed carry. I would carry that way if it didn’t hurt because of my full-size Sig I carry.
Maybe one day I’ll move into one of these. I just have other financial goals I have to accomplish before I can spend more on firearms.
That being said, I also figured that smaller round size proved to be the smartest way to go. I don’t feel too confident in much smaller than 9mm, so I went that route with these options.
I did some research. I went to a lot of gun ranges. I tested a bunch of 9mm conceal carry handguns. I then went home and organized my thoughts into this list right here.
These guns aren’t in a particular order because people will always have differing opinions. Basically, my stance is that any of these 9mm pistols would be a great option.
Glock 43x
A lot of people are total Glock fanboys.
I’m not one of them. I think they are aesthetically a little ugly.
That is incredibly easy to put aside when you have a firearm as smooth as this. There is so much to like. Let’s dig into the specs.
The Glock 43x is the upgraded version of the popular Glock 43. It, like every other firearm on this list, is a 9mm. It’s able to hold 10+1 into a tiny frame somehow. Even then it only weighs a whopping 16 oz. The barrel comes in at 3.41 inches, but that proves to be more than enough.
I don’t fully understand how, but Glock was able to take the 43 and improve it for concealed carry. The Glock 43x is one of the top conceal carry firearms out there.
Glock 48
The Glock 48 is a little bit of a bigger option than the 43x, but it maintains all the same quality.
The Glock 48 is absolutely iconic. I remember pulling up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with my friends and all we wanted was to get the fully automatic G48 akimbo and wreck some fools.
Sadly, I wasn’t actually that good at that game. Which means I was the one that was getting wrecked more than doing the wrecking.
A lot of people love the Glock 48. I can also say that it performed smooth as butter.
It comes in as a 9mm with a 10+1 magazine. Unloaded it weighs almost 21 oz. That means it’s kind of heavy, but it also absorbs some of the recoil. That means it is so much easier to shoot then realign for the second shot. Plus, the 4.17 inch barrel is nothing to scoff at. It improves the accuracy dramatically compared to the 43x counterpart. Which could, or could not, come into play in a CCW drawn situation.
Hopefully nobody ever has to experience that though.
Sig Sauer P365
Sig Sauer is a known manufacturer of high end firearms. I trust my and my wife’s life on the company’s reputation by each of us having one.
The P365 is the best striker fired polymer option they’ve offered. It’s on the high end of the spectrum, typically coming in right at $600, but it’s very worth it.
Sig Sauer had the P320 that was a striker fired firearm they’ve had, but the P365 took everything they learned making that and improved on it.
The Sig Sauer P365 is a 9mm offering that typically comes with a 10 round magazine, but they also have a 12 round option. It’s pretty light weighing just under 18 oz. The 3.1 inch barrel was surprisingly accurate. The gun is a straight pointer, as my father-in-law would put it.
He says that there are some guns that just point right where they should. Others you have to work to line up the sights, but most Sig Sauer firearms just point.
S&W M&P Shield M2.0
As you know, at Shield Republic we stand firmly behind all our armed forces. This includes all of America’s police officers too.
Smith and Wesson is a company that felt the same as Shield Republic. The difference is that they are a firearm manufacturer. Where Shield Republic donates a lot of money, Smith and Wesson created what they would deem as the perfect pistol for police officers.
S&W created the M&P Shield as a workhorse for police officers. Then they took the feedback they got from that firearm, which was already really good, and made improvements.
That’s when they came up with the second iteration: the S&W M&P Shield M2.0.
This is a gun that can take a beating and keep coming consistently. I shot a pretty worn version from the range I went to, and it did not show it in the performance.
The S&W M&P Shield M2.0 would be an excellent concealed carry firearm for a civilian as well.
It comes in with the 9mm option having a 7 or 8 round magazine. The firearm is easy to conceal and weighs only 18.3 oz. The lighter weight and 3.1 inch barrel makes it almost identical to the Sig Sauer P365. It’s no wonder that the Shield M2.0 has flown off shelves and become pretty difficult to get your hands on these days.
Kimber Micro 9
I’ve been getting sentimental lately since my parents came down with COVID-19. My mom was in the hospital and my dad got turned away due to lack of beds.
I’m not a pessimist by any means; in fact, I’ve been called optimistic to a fault.
That didn’t make me less worried and I became more and more sentimental to the things I’ve learned and got from both of them.
My dad’s carry choice is the Kimber Micro 9. I tried to convince him to get a Sig Sauer, but he loves the look of Kimber and is a 1911 fanboy. Naturally, I suggested the Sig Sauer P238 and the Sig Sauer P938, but he shot those too and still went with the Kimber.
That alone was a big statement to me because Sig Sauer makes a freaking amazing firearm.
Then I got a chance to shoot it.
Holy cow. That thing points…
It also shoots!
It’s a great firearm if you’re into the 1911 platform.
Typical 1911 handguns will go for as much as multiple thousands of dollars. Plus, most 1911 handguns are just too dern big to conceal.
Kimber solves all those problems with the Micro 9. It’s a 9mm option that comes with a 6 or 7 round magazine. It somehow weighs less than the freaking Glock 43x at just 15.6 oz. It also has a barrel a little longer than the P365 at 3.15 inches.
Just like any handgun it can come in many different flavors, making the price a little variable. I’m linking to a stainless model with black grips and accents because it just looks clean to me.
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