Doe, a Deer...

Yesterday we were talking to friends and when questioned about wildlife we mentioned that in the fall we see bachelor mule deer, but never a herd. As if on cue, a small mulie herd dropped onto our patio this morning to pick through what's left of my Sweetie's flower garden. Alf the Wonder Beagle, being of course a free-range beagle, went ballistic...I believe visions of venison danced in her head. Apparently the deer didn't see Alf as an apex predator, so they nibbled a bit and wandered on.

A note on pocket pistols...there's always a place for pocket pistols (in the pocket...LOL!). Yesterday, for example, we had bunches of errands, but no public time. The LCP ended up as my only carry gun for the day. An LCP is in my pocket now, and when I take the Wonder Beagle for her hike, I'll stuff it in the left-hand pocket when I holster up.

The Once And Future German King?

You know what's funny to me? I sort of like the idea that the .380 pistol is evolving back into what it was. In no time at all, I'll be touting the Walther PK380 (wasn't that the first of what we might think of now as a lightweight "mid-sized" .380s?), or, heck, even the PPK/s as the ideal carry guns...easy to shoot, as long as you have the newer versions, etc. Okay, let's go whole hog, to the Browning BDA .380 or Beretta 84! Twelve + 1 rounds of pulsing .380 power!

Joking...joking! But a PPK/s is about 22 1/2 ounces, a little over 6 inches in length; the Beretta 84 a little bigger, but in that weight range. That brings them to about Glock-sized in all but weight. Granted the New Gen .380s are lighter, which is a good thing for CCW, but they're still holster guns.

Sig P232

I guess you could split the baby and go with an absolutely classic Sig P232, a little bigger, but lighter than the Walthers or Berettas/Brownings (with fewer pew-pews, of course). The 232s I've shot have been wonderful guns and super accurate (I shot them with ball)...I think the finger-groove rubber grips on recent ones suck, but that's just me. Brigid at Home On The Range did a fairly extensive review of the P232 a while back, BTW. I liked the P232s better than the P239 9mms, which were the first Sig dedicated CCW guns back in the back when. If you're good with that looooooooooong trigger — which is not as big a deal to me as some have made it out to be — I guess you could add the P250 .380 to that list and get the 12 + 1 .380s in a Sig-ish package.

Not saying that back to the future is going to be a big trend, but once you make the decision to carry a larger .380 in a holster, you might as well have a good look around the "mid-size" .380 universe. I'm obviously A-OK with the cartridge (Cor-Bon DPX 80-gr, if you please), and I don't think the mid-size .380 is an irrational idea. The mini-9mm can be nasty little bastards to shoot, and you probably couldn't force a mini-.40 on me...the only one I have that's even close is an ancient brickbat of a Star FireStar .40, which I keep around to remind me not to pay attention to "experts" (which means, of course, you should take what I say with a massive grain of salt!).