The concept of concealed carrying is almost as old as the firearm itself. While there can be nefarious purposes for concealing a firearm, a vast majority of the time firearms are concealed for personal protection purposes and so that they don’t draw attention to the carrier. There have been a lot of recent advancements in concealed carry handgun design and technology and as a result the CCW (concealed carry weapon) market is almost oversaturated with options for the customer. I’ve had the opportunity to try out dozens of different concealed carry handguns over the years and even lived through some of these changes and today I’ll give you my Top 5 concealed carry handguns you should consider for yourself.
1. The Gock 43x/48
Glock has a penchant for being boringly reliable. When it comes to something that is going to be the best bang for your buck and doesn’t relent on its unquestionable reliability, you can’t go wrong with virtually any Glock handgun. In particular the Glock 43X and the Glock 48 present the user with a compact 10+1 package that is much easier to wear inside of a waistband due to its slim slide and frame design. At the time of its introduction, the Glock 43X and 48 also boasted a great standard capacity of 10 rounds, but when combined with the flush-fit Shield Arms magazines, The Glock 48 and 43X surpass even other concealed carry options on this list. My personal Glock 48 is always in my carry rotation
2. The SIG Sauer P365
The SIG Sauer P365 was released around the same time as the Glock models mentioned above but broke the newly formed “micro-compact” scene with an unprecedented 12+1 capacity in a package that took up the smallest footprint we’ve seen to date. Personally, I think the SIG P365 has a slightly more “spongy” feel to it, but the sheer compactness of the gun combined with its great standard capacity makes it one of my favorite concealed carry pieces.
3. The Taurus GX4
Taurus has had a pretty bumpy reputation when it comes to its semi-automatic firearms. However, when they released their own addition to the Micro Compact concealed carry market, I was quite impressed and I still think to this day it has one of the better triggers for its class even when compared to legendary names like Springfield, SIG Sauer, and Glock. The GX4 has a standard capacity of 11+1 rounds with flush fit magazines, has a great clean and crisp trigger, and is once again one of the smallest concealed carry options on this list even beating out the SIG P365 in terms of size and maybe more importantly for some - price. If you’re in the market for a CCW firearm and are on a tight budget, this is probably your best option.
4. The Mossberg MC2sc
I was quite trepidatious about the introduction of a new Mossberg handgun. Mossberg had been out of the handgun game for so long that I thought that the MC series of handguns might fall into relative obscurity quickly. However, a couple of years later and we have the optics-ready 11+1 Capacity handgun. This Mossberg entry has what I think is hands down the best trigger for its class. In addition, the MC2sc doesn’t give into the trend of putting hyper-aggressive grip texturing on its guns but instead uses grip texturing in specific areas to provide a very comfortable handgun to shoot and train with.
5. The Smith & Wesson M&P Shield or Shield Plus
My second concealed-carry handgun was the Smith & Wesson M&P Shield which at the time of its introduction was one of the slimmest striker-fired concealed-carry handguns on the market. This handgun had a 7-round capacity which made it barely better than most revolvers in terms of capacity but still offered the user a much more concealable semi-auto package. Fast forward to 2021 and Smith & Wesson introduces the new Shield Plus which is virtually the same size as the first generation Shield Design but adds an additional 3 rounds of capacity for its 9mm variants. The Shield Plus is an upgrade to the standard M&P Shield in more than just capacity, it also adds a much better trigger and of course, slide-mounted optics capabilities. So if you were ever a fan of the Smith & Wesson M&P Shield, this would be the one to get to bring it up to modern capacity standards if your state allows for it.
What do you Carry?
These are just my top 5 recommendations. All of these handguns I consider to be reliable enough to carry on your person concealed but the final decision on what you carry is going to be ultimately up to you. You should really consider optimizing for whatever firearm you shoot best rather than what is most affordable or what has the highest capacity or best feature set. Ultimately, no matter what you choose, you should make sure to save room in the budget to practice with it! We’d of course like to hear what all of you out there carry and why, let us know what your go-to concealed carry handgun is!
