Best Pocket Pistols for Concealed Carry

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!

Pocket Pistol Comparison Chart

How We Tested the Best Pocket Pistols

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.

• Phase 1: 3 Yards - Draw and fire one headshot with your dominant hand only.
• Phase 2: 5 Yards - Draw and fire one headshot with both hands.
• Phase 3: 7 Yards - Draw and fire one headshot with both hands.
• Phase 4: 10 Yards - Draw and fire two body shots with both hands.

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.

Best Pocket Pistols

1. KelTec P32 - Editor's Pick

Editor's Pick

KelTec P32

$289

at Classic Firearms

Prices accurate at time of writing

$289 at Classic Firearms

Kygunco (see price)

Guns.com (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: .32 ACP
• Barrel Length: 2.7 inches
• Overall Length: 5.1 inches
• Width: 0.75 inches
• Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Capacity: 7 rounds

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!

2. Beretta 30X - Best DA/SA Pocket Pistol

Best DA/SA

Beretta 30X Tomcat

$431

at GrabAGun

Prices accurate at time of writing

$431 at GrabAGun

Midway USA (see price)

Battlehawk Armory (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: .32 ACP
• Barrel Length: 2.8 inches
• Overall Length: 5.3 inches
• Width: 1.36 inches
• Weight: 16.29 ounces
• Capacity: 8 rounds

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.

3. Ruger LCP II .22 LR - Best .22 LR Pocket Pistol

Best .22 LR

Ruger LCP II .22 LR

$314

at Palmetto State Armory

Prices accurate at time of writing

$314 at Palmetto State Armory

GrabAGun (see price)

Kygunco (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: .22 LR
• Barrel Length: 2.8 inches
• Overall Length: 5.2 inches
• Width: 0.81 inches
• Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Capacity: 10 rounds

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!

4. Smith & Wesson 432 UC - Best Pocket Revolver

Best Pocket Revolver

Smith & Wesson Model 432 UC

$689

at Kygunco

Prices accurate at time of writing

$689 at Kygunco

BattleHawk Armory (see price)

GrabAGun (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: .32 H&R Magnum
• Barrel Length: 1.88 inches
• Overall Length: 6.31 inches
• Width: 1.3 inches
• Weight: 16 ounces
• Capacity: 6 rounds

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.

5. Seecamp LWS - Smallest Semi-Auto Pocket Pistol

Smallest Semi-Auto

Seecamp LWS .32 ACP

$549

at GrabAGun

Prices accurate at time of writing

$549 at GrabAGun

Guns.com (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: .32 ACP
• Barrel Length: 2”
• Overall Length: 4.25”
• Width: 0.725 inches
• Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Capacity: 6

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.

6. Sig Sauer 938 - Best 9mm Pocket Pistol

Best 9mm Pocket Pistol

Sig Sauer P938

$699

at GrabAGun

Prices accurate at time of writing

$699 at GrabAGun

Kygunco (see price)

Palmetto State Armory (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: 9mm
• Barrel Length: 3 inches
• Overall Length: 5.9 inches
• Width: 1.1 inches
• Weight: 16 ounces
• Capacity: 7 rounds

The Sig Sauer P938 is the only 9mm on the list. This micro-sized 1911 wannabe is about as small as a 1911 can get.

It's smaller than the P365, and while the width is listed at 1.1 inches, that's due to the rubber wrap-around grips. Chopping them off and replacing them with smaller grips would fix that.

It's little, but it's still going to be big for pocket carry. Anything larger than this would be too big for most shooters. It fits in the pockets of my khakis but feels tight in jeans. At 16 ounces, it's heavy, but that's a benefit for the 9mm round.

Recoil is stiff but not punishing. It did lead to a 2.04 on the last stage of the Wizard drill. With its big, easy-to-see sights, it performed well in the single-shot drills. What slowed it down was the need to disable the rather small thumb safety.

That's necessary for the single action trigger. Plenty of folks won't like a light single-action trigger for pocket carry, but with a manual safety, I don't see any real risk.

While the gun's large and has stiff recoil, it does offer us 9mm ballistics. That means increased penetration, excellent expansion, and cheap ammo to practice with. The .32 ACP, .32 H&R Magnum, and even the .380 ACP cost more than the 9mm cartridge.

A weapon you're well-trained with beats anything else for pocket carry or any type of defensive carry.

Read more in our review of the P938!

7. Walther PPK/S - Best High-End Pocket Pistol

Best High-End Pocket Pistol

Walther PPK/s

$750

at GrabAGun

Prices accurate at time of writing

$750 at GrabAGun

Palmetto State Armory (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: .32 ACP
• Barrel Length: 3.3 inches
• Overall Length: 6.1 inches
• Width: 1 inch
• Weight: 19 ounces
• Capacity: 8 rounds

I'm not a fan of the .380 ACP series of Walther pistols since the blowback action makes for way too much recoil. However, Walther wisely released a new series of .32 ACP pistols in the classic PPK and PPK/S stylings.

I have the Walther PPK/S, but the Walther PPK would be a slightly smaller option. The PPK/S has a slightly larger grip and does hold one additional round. It’s fine for my pocket but a bit big for my wife's.

A 19-ounce .32 ACP handles a lot like a kitten. It's purring as you shoot it and only mews as you shoot. It's super soft shooting and easy to fire rapidly. If the sights were a bit easier to see, this thing would be unstoppable. The longer grip makes it easier to grab, and the extra weight is nice.

With the Wizard drill, the gun was quick and easy to shoot. It delivered two shots on target from 10 yards in 1.70 seconds, putting it in third place for this particular drill. At 3 yards, I just cracked a sub-second draw to first shot at 0.99.

The PPK/S delivers excellent accuracy, and the headshots land very close to one another. Fixed barrels certainly have advantages. Its longer double-action trigger should provide plenty of comfort when carrying the gun. Enough so I'd carry with the manual safety in the off position.

Walther’s PPK/S is a very expensive gun, and with an MSRP close to a grand, it will be a tough sell for some, especially compared to other, more modern options.

You can read more about the PPK/S in our full review!

8. Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 2.0 - Best Modern Pocket Pistol

Best Modern Pocket Pistol

Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 2.0

$398

at GrabAGun

Prices accurate at time of writing

$398 at GrabAGun

Palmetto State Armory (see price)

Kygunco (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: .380 ACP
• Barrel Length: 2.75 inches
• Overall Length: 5.5 inches
• Width: 0.88 inches
• Weight: 9.88 ounces
• Capacity: 10 or 12 rounds

I have a personal favorite in the S&W 432 UC, and a gun that I think is best for deep concealment with the P32, but the best overall performer was the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 2.0.

The funny thing is that I hated the original Bodyguard, its the gun that made me despise the idea of pocket pistols, and specifically .380 pocket pistols.

However, the new Bodyguard, the 2.0, changes the game. It ditched the hammer-fired design and went with a striker-fired design, which lightened up the trigger a fair bit. We no longer have to deal with a heavy trigger mixed with a tiny grip.

S&W went with a micro-compact magazine and a micro-sized grip. Somehow, through some kind of ancient magic, they fit ten rounds of .380 ACP into a design that's essentially the same size as the original Bodyguard .380.

We get a grip that's slightly longer, which improves control. This is shown in the final drill, where the double tap is applied to the body. A time of 1.57 seconds made the S&W Bodyguard 2.0 the fastest performer in the final drill.

On top of the gun, there is a great set of iron sights. The front sight catches the eye with ease, and the wide open rear sight makes it easy to find the front sight, align the sights, and start shooting. Every other drill was either the fastest or tied with the fastest in that category.

The S&W Bodyguard 2.0 is still a very pocket friendly pistol. It's not as small and as thin as the P32, but it works quite well with most pockets, some smaller pockets might feel tight, but it fits. Ultimately, this is probably the best pocket pistol on the market if I take an objective stance.

9. NAA Mini Revolver - Best Mini Revolver

Best Mini Revolver

North American Arms Mini Revolvers

$207

at GrabAGun

Prices accurate at time of writing

$207 at GrabAGun

Sportsman's Guide (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: .22 LR
• Barrel Length: 1.13 inches
• Overall Length: 4 inches
• Width: 0.88 inches
• Weight: 4.6 ounces
• Capacity: 5 rounds

The NAA Mini Revolver is the smallest gun I own and is the most concealable. I could carry this thing in a Speedo if I needed to. It's certainly comfortable in everybody's pocket.

My NAA is a .22 LR, and it's just a fun little gun all around. The NAA Mini Revolver holds five rounds and is a single-action-only design.

The sights are technically there but are largely useless. I failed every course of the Wizard drill, namely because I had to unfold the gun to get it into play. That killed the time. In terms of accuracy, it's…well, it's not very accurate at all.

I made the 3-yard headshot! But I missed the 5-yard shot but somehow made the 7-yard shot. I made both the body shots, but it took over six seconds.

While the NAA excels for concealed carry, it sucks everywhere else.

We reviewed a couple of NAA revolvers, so get more info in our article!

By the Numbers: How the Best Pocket Pistols Compare

Accuracy

Pocket pistols and accuracy are an interesting pair. They are often at odds with each other, but accuracy matters regardless of the size of the gun. Let's look at the nine-pocket pistols and see how they compare.

We rate based on a scale of 1-5, where one represents that the gun shoots unpredictably and experiences unacceptable levels of accuracy.

Reliability

Any weapon trusted for self-defense needs to be a reliable option. We rate based on a scale of 1-5, where one represents a failure rate of 50% or more.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics refers to the weapon's controls, it's ease of use, how it handles recoil, and how it generally feels in your hand. A one represents a weapon that's uncomfortable and painful.

Value

Your money's precious, and sadly, smaller guns aren't just cheaper due to their size. The price point is weighed against its performance, its features, and reliability. A one represents a pocket pistol priced extremely high without the features and performance to justify it.

Why Trust Pew Pew Tactical

Pew Pew Tactical author Travis Pike led the research and testing for this article. Travis has spent a lifetime shooting as a kid and later joined the United States Marine Corps where he spent five years as an infantryman. In the middle of his Marine Corps career, he began writing and never stopped. He has thousands of articles to his name with a variety of publications, including Pew Pew Tactical. In addition to a long history of testing and reviewing guns and gear, Travis is also a concealed carry instructor.

Editor-in-Chief Jacki Billings runs our experienced team of reviewers. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, ACES: Society for Editing, and the Professional Outdoor Media Association. Jacki has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and has worked as a media professional for close to 20 years, specializing in gun media for almost 10 years. With 2,000+ articles to her name, she uses her professional journalism and editing experience to set testing protocols and editorial standards for Pew Pew Tactical. Jacki has regularly used a Sig Sauer P238 (the baby sister of the aforementioned P938) as her pocket carry pistol.

Final Thoughts

While there are certainly more tiny pocket guns, these are some of the best ones I’ve found that (mostly) pass the test.

What are your favorite pocket pistols? Let us know below! Want more CCW action? Check out our round-up of the Best Concealed Carry Pistols.

Latest Updates

• Dec. 2024: Complete re-write with all new models after hands-on, range testing.
• Jan. 2024: Removed Ruger LCP II & Beretta Pico, Glock 43, Sig P365 SAS & Added Ruger LCP Max, Sig Sauer P238.