Paul's Top 5 Handguns (Updated for 2020)

[Music] so all right we're not on the range today so you shouldn't have to put up with too much gunfire in the background and what i'm talking about today are my top five handguns for concealed carry personal protection home defense to which you might ask why i've already got two versions of this well a while ago i did this presentation and people asked me to redo it because there was so much noise in the background so that was version number two and today we're doing number three for a few reasons primarily two one because i have new and different handguns available to me and two and this is by far the more important because the situation has changed and we'll discuss the situation in more detail in a few minutes but today's presentation like so many others comes with a litany of disclaimers first and foremost being that these are my top five handguns and nothing i say today should be inferred as a recommendation two a lot of what i'm going to say today are my opinions and my opinions are based on my training my education my experience and different people have different experiences so they have different opinions and i make no claim that my opinion has its origin in the mind of greatness three i'm only going to demonstrate today the handguns that i'm going to select and why i am not in any way trying to tell you what handguns you should have nothing i say today should be inferred as a recommendation and four many of the presentations i do have a boring part where i talk today will be no exception except today i'm going to start with the boring part so if you don't want to sit through the boring part i invite you to skip ahead to where you see me in the low ready with a handgun okay for those that are still here let's get to the boring part where i talk and what i'm going to start with is five of the criteria that i use in selecting handgun for concealed carry personal protection home defense the first one being handguns that are available to me legal in the jurisdiction in which i live available at the local stores have a reasonable price i'm not going to pay two thousand dollars for a handgun available to me second is that it has to be a handgun that i can use safely and efficiently i like to think i'm a fairly good handgun shooter but there are some makes and models of handgun that i can't shoot very well it has to be something that i can shoot efficiently three it has to be a handgun sufficient to the task i'm not going to carry a target pistol with a nine inch barrel and four and many people would say this is an invalid criteria but it is going to influence my decision and that is that i like the classics i like 1911's i like smith and wesson model 10 or model 36 i like the classics and that's going to be part of my decision and five and this is a very important one it has to be a handgun that fosters program compliance now different people have different terms for the same thing kentucky patriot calls it consistent carry but program compliance means that it has to be a handgun that's convenient enough to carry that someone will actually carry it it won't get left at home or in the glove box and i want to discuss that in a little more detail and i have two handguns that will help me illustrate this the bursa thunder and the ruger lcp now both are caliber 380 acp both have a similar price tag and both are a nice pink color but the bursa because it has a longer barrel can give me more power out of the same cartridge it also has an eight shot magazine compared to a six and because it has a longer siding plane and much bigger higher visibility sites and a bigger grip i should be able to shoot it more accurately now let's put that to the test so i've got two dirty bird splattering targets and i'll shoot from 10 yards and i'll shoot the one on your left with the lcp the one on your right with the burst of thunder and let's see how the groups [Applause] compare [Applause] and we see two things here one with the bursa i am able to hold a little bit tighter group and two because the bursa has adjustable sights i'm able to adjust it to where i want as where this particular lcp hits a little bit left for me so we see the bursa is a little more accurate and with a longer barrel it's a little more powerful and it has a capacity of eight plus one instead of six plus one and nine is more than seven so it would appear that the burst is the clear winner which brings up the question if the burst is the clear winner why would anyone carry an lcp and that's where the concept of program compliance comes in for some people depending on how they're built and where they live and how they dress there are many occasions where for some people the lcp will be on their person while the bursa gets left in the glove box someone in arizona in the summertime was wearing flip-flops walking shorts and a t-shirt he might be able to stick the lcp in his pocket and off he goes while the bursa just wouldn't work but when i talk about the advantages that the bursa has such as it's a little more powerful and a little more accurate and has a little more capacity are those really advantages well yes they probably are but are they enough of an advantage to make a difference let's see if we can break that down first in terms of accuracy you saw that with bursa i did hold a tighter group but i'm shooting a half-sized silhouette at 10 yards and although legitimate self-defense shootings do occur at 10 20 even 50 yards they're rare but they occur by far what's going to be more common is distances of 7 yards or less and we see that with the lcp shooting a half sized silhouette at 10 yards has still kept all the rounds on the target so it would appear that although the accuracy is a little less it's still perfectly sufficient now in terms of power that's an interesting topic while we're talking about 380 acp we've done several presentations on 380 acp ammunition selection what we found is there's some good ammo and there's some very poor ammunition and that little bit of difference in barrel length sometimes can make a great deal of difference in whether or not you get hollow point expansion there are some ammunitions that work just fine in the longer and shorter barrel some that will work fine in the longer barrel not the shorter some that won't work very well in both so the longer barrel in terms of power in this particular caliber does give you an advantage but you can make the shorter barrel work if you make wise choices in ammunition on a lot of other calibers like 9x19 and 38 special as you go to a shorter barrel you will lose some power but in almost all the ammunition you buy even in the shortest barrels you'll get sufficient hollow point expansion so the longer barrel giving you more power is not that much of an advantage now what about magazine capacity well eight plus one is certainly more than six plus one but how much of an advantage is that really that's a topic worthy of a great deal of discussion the importance or lack thereof of magazine capacity is a topic that i have discussed at length on several previous occasions if you want to watch our presentation on double action revolvers for concealed carry personal protection and home defense part 3 you can see a very long very tedious monologue on the subject but for today the short version goes like this if you're going to ask the question how many rounds is enough how important is magazine capacity you have to answer that by first asking the follow-up question which is how many rounds does a citizen typically fire in a legitimate citizen-involved self-defense shooting well statistics are very easy to get accurate statistics are nearly impossible to get but from what i've been able to put together from those few sources that i would consider reliable i've come to the conclusion that the great majority of the time a self-defense shooting is favorably resolved for that citizen with less than six rounds and so on my top five list of handguns for concealed carry and personal protection although some of them are autoloaders with a capacity of 15 or more some of them are snub nose revolvers with a capacity of five because the great majority of the time five is enough and even if it isn't you can reload and in those situations where citizens shoot more than five you'll find that most of the time shot 8 10 and 12 are unnecessary and legally highly questionable after the perpetrator is fleeing and someone keeps shooting at them unnecessary and legally highly questionable but in doing all of that we have to look at the situations that citizens are likely to get into now there could be thousands of different circumstances and scenarios and we can't prepare for all of them but we can prepare for those that we would consider to be the most likely and those are situations such as getting robbed when you're at the atm or being in a convenience store when it gets robbed or stopping at a red light and having one or two perpetrators try to pull you out of the car to steal your car or being at home and having someone break into your house because they thought you weren't there then they discover that you are and they decide to do something violent to you instead of run away or there's that situation where you're at home and a mentally ill person comes to your door thinking that your house is actually their cia safe house those type of situations are what i would consider most common there's also a couple of others and they can happen to anyone but women especially when you've got that creepy abusive ex-boyfriend that's declared that if he can't have you no one can and he comes over to your house to try to do something violent to you or just the local pervo rapo murderer is sometimes quite a threat to you and those are the situations that we prepare for because traditionally those are the things that are most common for citizens to get in however i said earlier that the situation has changed well today's presentation should air in august of 2020. and over the last few months what we've seen is although all those situations that have been around for years still are we're now seeing others things like instead of one or two perpetrators trying to pull you out of the car and take your car and perhaps the best thing to do would be just hand them your keys and comply with that now we're seeing large gangs of thugs pulling people out of the car for the purpose of just assaulting them they don't even want to take the car and you don't even have the option of complying those are the types of things we're seeing now rioting and looting and what people are politely calling civil unrest not only are we seeing those but i'm of the opinion that the situation will get worse before it gets better so although all of these are still happening we now have to concern ourselves with those as well and all those criteria i talked about a few minutes ago such as what's legally available to me in my local area and what i can shoot and program compliance and so forth those things are still important but now magazine capacity has taken on a whole new importance of its own and that will be reflected in my new list of top five handguns for concealed carry personal protection home defense so after all of this let's actually take a look at some of the handguns i'm talking about first on my list is something that won't surprise anyone the beretta 92fs caliber 9x19 it's got a capacity of 15 plus one it's a double the single action autoloader it's accurate it's supremely reliable and sometimes i'll give the advice of go for what you know this is what i know let's shoot it let's take a look at the target not bad now i'll put up a couple of new targets and we'll take a look at another pistol next on my list is a pistol that also won't surprise anyone the sig sauer m17 now there's been some safety concerns about the sig 320 in my opinion the ambidextrous manual safety on the m17 eliminates just about all of those the m17 is a striker action caliber 9 by 19 with a 17 plus 1 capacity and 21 shot magazines are readily available it also has big high visibility sites with tritium illumination and a rail system let's shoot it so let's take a look at the target and again not too bad let's take a look at another pistol i said i like the classics here's one of them the steyr gb it's a double the single action auto loader caliber nine by nineteen with a capacity of eighteen plus one we have a presentation specifically on this handgun if you'd like a more detailed analysis of it but for today there's something interesting about this magazine i want to show you let's take a close-up look here's the steyr magazine and you can see that it stays double stacked all the way to the top so instead of pushing the rounds down and back you just push them down like you're loading an ar or an ak magazine so let's shoot it let's take a look at the target and again not too bad let's try another pistol next on my list is the beretta m922 in terms of disassembly reassembly size weight and function of the firearm it is virtually identical to the 92fs the major difference is instead of a 15-shot magazine of 9x19 you have a 15 shot magazine of 22 long rifle let's shoot it let's take a look at the target and here's our groups and not too bad now the question comes up why a 22 there are several reasons remember the situation has changed and right now there are at least some places where 22 long rifle is more available and significantly less expensive than other calibers like nine by 19 40 smith and wesner 45 acp also i foresee the possibility that i might be in a predicament where i need to get out of it by making a long foot movement and in that case 22 long rifle ammunition is significantly smaller and a lot lighter than nine millimeter here's a hundred rounds of nine millimeter and here's a hundred rounds of 22. you can see that the 22 is a lot smaller and it's a lot lighter next on my list is the ruger 5 7 caliber 5.7 by 28 it's a single action autoloader with a 20 shot magazine we have a separate presentation on this handgun specifically if you'd like more details you can watch that like the 22 this handgun has the advantage of ammunition that's small and light although not as small and light as 22 it is more powerful but it has the disadvantage of ammunition that's expensive and it can be hard to find let's shoot it let's take a look at the target and again not a bad group now i've got one more handgun i want to show you and this one may surprise you sometimes you need a smaller gun and to fit that niche i'm going to use the sig sauer 365. it's a striker action caliber 9x19 and it has a 10 shot magazine and 12 shot magazines are readily available it also has nice big high visibility tritium sights let's shoot it not too bad now if there's one piece of advice i would give anybody is that if you're going to get a gun like this get the kind with the manual safety now let's take a look at the target and again not too bad now i am going to show you one more handgun and yes it really will be just one more the last handgun on my list is a ruger blackhawk now that might not make sense but give me a few minutes i think i can make it make sense and i'm going to start with explaining a little bit about how this handgun works it's a single action revolver with a loading gate so the cylinder is locked open the loading gate and that free wheels the cylinder and you'll line up one chamber load one round rotate line up one chamber load one round until you have all six loaded then you'll snap the loading gate shut the cylinder locks it's a single action revolver so you have to [ __ ] the hammer with each shot and after you've fired your six you'll open the loading gate to freewheel the cylinder and then you'll line up that chamber and eject that empty casing with your ejector rod right here then you'll load in one round line up another one eject the next empty load in one round line up the next one eject that empty load in one round until you have all six loaded again now some people will say well you should eject all six before you start reloading all together that might be faster but by ejecting one and loading one then i immediately at least have some more rounds in the gun so while i'm loading if i get interrupted i can snap the loading gate shut and shoot and at least have a few rounds in it so why would i select a handgun like this for a couple of reasons let me show you one of them so i've got my target set up and i'll shoot this with the blackhawk from a distance of 25 yards so this is me shooting five shots off hand at 25 yards and the one that's low that's just a flyer that's just me and yes that is very annoying but the first reason this gun is on my list is because i can shoot it fairly accurately the second reason this revolver is on my list takes a little bit longer to explain and it goes like this traditional revolver cartridges like 38 special and 357 magnum are rimmed casings and they need those rims so that when you load those into a double action revolver the ejector can grip that rim and kick out all six empty casings at once when you load what would traditionally be an auto loading cartridge like a 9 by 19 or 40 smith wesson into a double action revolver you need moon clips because those cartridges have recessed rims and so the ejector wouldn't be able to grip the rim guns like the blackhawk because of the way the ejector rod is designed can shoot what would traditionally be auto loading cartridges without the need for moon clips ruger made a blackhawk i don't think they still do but at one time they made a blackhawk that was caliber 357 magnum but it came with an interchangeable 9x19 cylinder really added to the versatility of your firearm and that brings me to the reason why i like this particular blackhawk because this one is chambered in caliber 30 carbine which is not only a pretty good handgun round but it makes this blackhawk an excellent mate for my m1 carbine rifle which is one of the rifles on my top five rifles for the current situation that we're in but that's a topic for another time so until then let's recap the top five were the beretta 92 fs the m17 the steyr gb the beretta m922 the ruger 5 7 and the sig 365 and then add last but not least the ruger blackhawk now there's a couple of things to add and i do not like talking about politics there's lots of other people talking about politics yankee marshall likes to talk about politics johnny b likes to talk about politics and he's good at it but there's a couple of things i have to say the situation that we're in as i said earlier i perceive that it will get worse before it gets better and with our presidential election coming up in the very near future i perceive that no matter which way that election goes it's going to lead to a great deal of what we're now politely calling civil unrest and i hope i'm wrong but that's what i perceive is going to happen so i'm hoping to in the near future switch back to my old top five handguns but for the near future these are going to be my top five so as always don't try this at home on what you call a professional and thanks for watching the paul's top five handguns video [Music] you

Channel: Paul Harrell

Views: 685,438

Keywords: paul harrell, paul harrell top 5, paul harrell top 5 hanguns, top 5 hanguns 2020

Id: 6S0HnA4oLxk

Length: 23min 3sec (1383 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/superjared]

What are your top 5 handguns (whether you own them or not)?

[u/adirondack_chairs]

I actually watch his videos for the boring part where he talks. The parts where he’s shooting aren’t as interesting. Shoots through a chronograph and announces the reading... ok. Also love all the disclaimers and redundant stuff he says.

Never change Paul.