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I used to hate pocket pistols, but over the last couple of years, I’ve really come to love and appreciate these humble guns.
It turns out the trick was finding the right combination of gun and caliber to make it work.
I’ve been doing a ton of experimenting with pocket pistols, holsters, calibers, and it’s time I share the knowledge. Specifically, I want to share with you what I think are the best pocket pistols on the market.
So, I rounded up nine total pistols that I felt might be good options for pocket carry, took them to the range, and tested them side-by-side.
Keep reading as I run you through the specs and their performance!
Smith & Wesson Model 432 UC
The most obvious answer is to shoot a lot of pocket pistols, specifically against a time and accuracy standard.
There aren’t a whole lot of pocket pistol drills, but there is one that’s easily adaptable to the pocket pistol. It’s called the Wizard Drill. Ken Hackathorn invented it, but Claude Werner introduced me to the idea of using it as a pocket pistol test.
I shot a wide variety of guns through this test and picked the models that consistently met the Wizard Drill’s accuracy and time standard.
The Wizard Drill is simple and requires five rounds, a silhouette target, and a shot timer. It has four phases. Each phase has a 2.5 second par time.
That’s it, it sounds easy, but you have to give it a try. I’m shooting the Claude Werner pocket modification of the drill. I start with my hand in my pocket, gripping the gun. The pre-staged draw position is one of the biggest benefits of pocket carry.
It allows you to look relaxed but be ready to draw. I used this test to evaluate how easy and quickly you could draw a specific gun, how easily you can place an accurate shot on a target quickly.
Outside of the shooting factor, concealment is a big deal. Pocket pistol doesn’t have a clear definition. Pocket pistols vary in size, and the pockets on my pants are a lot bigger than the pants on my wife’s pants. With that in mind, I factored in both her pockets and mine to evaluate their concealment potential.
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
Good Lord, the P32 is one of the most underrated concealed carry handguns of all time.
I had to buy a second because my father-in-law borrowed the gun and it never came home! The little P32 is a very modern polymer frame .32 ACP pocket pistol.
The little gun feeds from a single-stack magazine, which holds seven rounds in the mag and one in the pipe for a total of eight rounds. We get a gun that weighs only 6.9 ounces and is ¾ of an inch thick. In terms of concealment, it disappears in your pocket and in my wife’s pocket.
It’s super comfortable to carry, conceals easily, and is all about convenience. The little gun shoots fairly well. It uses a short recoil operation, so its recoil is not much more than that of a .22 LR.
This translates to a very easy-to-shoot gun. The first shot was 1.01 on target. The gun remained well under two seconds to the last stage. At 10 yards, the two shots took me 2.4 seconds. The lack of easy-to-see sights resulted in a slower to acquire sight picture at 10 yards.
Low recoil made it easy to drop both shots once I acquired the sight picture. I’m thinking about adding a little finger nail polish to the front sight to create a higher visibility design. KelTec went with the DAO trigger design, and its surprisingly light. We do get a long trigger pull, but its light and won’t cause you to suffer too much.
Overall the P32 might be the best overall pocket pistol for a wide variety of users. It’s low recoil, easy concealment, and good performance make it a great all-around choice.
Want more deets? We have them in our full review of the KelTec P32!
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
The Beretta 30X is the latest in the Tomcat family. It’s one of the few new production .32 ACP pistols in the modern era. The little 30X is everything you know and love about Beretta. It’s got the DA/SA action, the exposed barrel, and more. It looks like a shrunk Beretta 92FS.
The 30X series keeps the famed tip-up barrel design that I’m personally enamored with. Hit a button, and the barrel pops up. You can load a round into the chamber or clear the gun without a problem. This system allows folks with weak hands to easily operate the gun without the need to work the slide.
This does mean we get a blowback action with some increased recoil. However, the gun scored quite well in the Wizard Drill. The first shot from the pocket was in less than a second. Follow up phases never broke two seconds.
Firing two shots rapidly was easy, and the gun’s recoil was nothing. A set of big sights makes it easy to get on target and place .32 ACP pills right where you want them. The downside is that, like most tip-up guns, my big hands had some slide bite.
Beretta shined up the trigger, and the double action was downright impressive. The single action offers a light and quick pull that’s far from challenging.
The 30X has a magazine that extends below the grip, and the beautiful wood grips make the gun a bit thicker than necessary. This limits concealment. In my pockets with a Desantis Superfly, it was fine, but its a no go in my wife’s pockets.
Overall, it’s all kinds of cool, but does lack in the concealability department.
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
My wife’s favorite gun is the Ruger LCP II in .22 LR. She’s quite the shot with it and feels quite comfortable with the weapon. It was the first gun she ever felt comfortable enough to daily carry and it’s an all-around excellent pocket pistol.
Heck, Ruger even includes a pocket holster in the box. As you’d imagine, the little gun fits my wife’s pocket fairly well. It’s almost too big, depending on the pants, but most of the time, she makes it work. It disappears easily in my pocket and can be very convenient to carry.
Ruger went with a standard blowback action, which is necessary with a .22 LR semi-auto pistol. We still get super low recoil and a gun that’s easy to fire quickly with confidence and with a single hand.
The gun went through the Wizard drill with ease. Ruger saw fit to included nice sized sights on the gun, I’ve tuned those sights up with a paint marker to make the front sight easier to see. The first shot was less than a second.
I never exceeded two seconds. At 10 yards, the two shots took 1.75 seconds, and that was as slow as it got. What we did run into was a failure to eject on the snapshot at 7 yards. I fired the shot and landed the hit, but the gun didn’t eject the cartridge.
This illustrates the problem with rimfire cartridges. They tend to be less reliable than centerfire guns, and malfunctions are far more common. Better quality ammo tends to help, but rimfire is never as reliable as centerfire.
Check out more in our Ruger LCP II review!
Smith & Wesson Model 432 UC
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
The Smith & Wesson 432 UC changed my mind about snub nose revolvers. I used to dislike them from a practical perspective. However, after a fair amount of time with the 432 UC, it became my daily pocket-carried gun.
The 432 fires the criminally underappreciated .32 H&R Magnum. We get six .32 H&R Magnum rounds instead of five. The .32 H&R Magnum packs a good punch and a lot less recoil than the .38 Special.
S&W and Lipseys teamed up with two revolver experts named Bryan Eastridge and Darryl Bolke to produce the best concealed carry revolver on the market. Every feature is designed to provide you with an easy shooting, accurate, and awesome revolver.
Revolvers tend to be well suited for pocket carry, at least for big pockets. It’s a bit too big for smaller pockets. The design of the revolver features a cylinder that pushes the gun away from the body, this makes it easy to access the grip since it doesn’t sit flat against the body.
This makes it easy to get a grip and get the gun into action. The S&W 432 UC delivered the fastest first shot on target at .94 of a second. Over and over, it proved to be the second fastest gun at every phase.
The big grips, light recoil, and excellent sights make it easy to shoot, accurate, and capable. Unfortunately, it’s just a bit too big for many shooters. This is my personal favorite, but I can understand why some shooters will take a different route.
You can dive in further in our review of the S&W 432 UC.
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
The Seecamp LWS might be the smallest semi-auto pistol on the market. It’s remarkably tiny and, without a doubt, very easy to conceal.
This small champ comes in .32 ACP and .380 ACP, but I suggest avoiding the .380 variant. It’s twice the recoil without the benefit. With the .32 ACP and the chamber ring delayed blowback, we get very light recoil for such a small gun.
The little Seecamp conceals with ease in anyone’s pocket. It slides in and disappears with ease, providing a little pocket rocket that’s surprisingly easy to shoot. What makes the gun tough to shoot is the fact is lacks sights.
It is as smooth as a Ken doll across the top. That means it’s a point-shoot pistol, and you’ll have to guess where the round goes. Kind of. Surprisingly, I passed the Wizard Drill, but barely.
I passed as long as we counted a shot in the neck as acceptable for the seven-yard headshot. The two body shots were also far apart compared to every other gun. At ten yards, I barely passed the ten-yard portion at 2.43 seconds.
Our real benefit comes from the concealment of the gun. It disappears in your pocket. Ludwig Seecamp was a genius who created a truly unique design. It’s impressive how small he designed this gun and how well it works.
Prices accurate at time of writing
408 stainless steel coil Prices accurate at time of writing