I have read your post and commented on the Kahr. But now have to ask, and to not mean do be anyway insulting, but simply inquiring. How much actual experience to you have with firearms (Pistols).
I do not have any experience with the LC380 but quite a bit with the LC9 and the LC9S, LCP's and other small guns.
But I personally would not advise you to get any smaller gun at this point especially with a huge ammo shortage. Small barrel guns are great. But they take due diligence in time and ammo to shoot with competency. And that means ammo.
Hard enough to get 9mm and 380 is insane to get right now. And a shame because I love shooting the small pocket guns, (Kahr, Pico,LCP, etc.)
I would not have one clue as to what would make a good first time firearm in today's world. How much money are you willing to invest in ammo? Normally I would say go to the range and try out many guns before relying on the internet and you tube. But that is easier said than done and expensive as well.
I am guessing maybe something larger like a Glock 19. a Ruger Compact like the SR9 or Taurus G3 or similar. But you still need to shoot often.
I have never owned the Smith and Wesson Governor, and never cared to own one, but now rethinking them for new shooters for close range with the 410. defense ammo.
I wish you luck, not a good time for new gun owners, (not a good time for the rest of us either.)
Hi Carl the Floor Walker
Thanks for you advice. I am not new to guns at all. I own like 18 to 19 guns( never really count). I have from Freedom Arms 22 magnum, Beretta 950BS 25ACP, Walther PPKS 380, S&W659 9mm to Colt Gold Cup 45ACP and many 22, 38 and 357 revolvers. I used to go to the range twice a week for years for the whole afternoon. I have been out of shooting for 30 years, I won't have got back into this not for the political climate and all the riots, lootings and burning. I just bought a Glock 26, never shoot it yet.
I don't believe anything is harder to shoot than the Freedom Arms 22magnum, not only it's so small to hold, it kicked really hard as it's only about 4oz!!! I definitely have enough experience in shooting all different size guns. It never bother me on the kick and the size of the gun. So the small one is harder to shoot, you just shoot more and get used to it. Learn how to hold the gun. Like I said, shooting the Freedom Arm is another level of difficulty, I shot them smoothly with one hand.
More importantly, I got into gunsmithing. My S&W659, Walther PPKS and Colt Gold Cup were all unreliable before, I worked on the gun, reshape the extractor, ejector and polished the feedramp and ejector port to make them all reliable. I even worked on revolvers to improve the DA trigger. So I am very familiar with guns. I even acurized the Gold Cup for competitions. The Gold Cup were made very sloppy, I have to squeeze the slide to take up the slack, change the link to make the barrel fit tightly to the slide when locked by finding the right link.
I spent a lot of time watching the youtube videos on assembling and disassembling all the guns, looking at the constructions, the shape of the ejector and all to look for potential issues from my experience.
I am impressed the LC380 uses a hold metal frame assembly in the frame, it does not compromise the critical part, the slide rail are all in one single piece and the rest of the non critical frame part are glass filled nylon. That's the reason it's not the smallest nor the lightest gun. Reliability, light weight and compact doesn't go together. the lighter the slide and small the gun, the feed ramp path has to be steep, recoil spring has to be stiffer to compensate for the light weight slide, this make it very hard to control the consistency of manufacturing. That's the reason some people get lucky and get a reliable Kahr, some just buy a lemon.
Narrowing down to LC380 is an educated decision. I am not at all worry about how they shoot, I just believe choosing the gun for the occasion and get use to it. I got used to the Freedom Arm 22magnum, I doubt I can't get use to any guns.
I really think people are making too big a deal on the kick of the small guns, my wife went with me shooting her small snubies every time I went shooting, that was our hang out place and weekend activity!!! She shot so much she wear out her Charter Arm snuby. When I said wearing out, I mean I actually open the gun up and look at each component, the SA notch on the hammer almost wear out and become unsafe!!! We got rid of the gun. That's how much she shot with the snubby. She never once complain of the kick. Here, you see people complaining how hard to shoot snubbies!!! You practice and get over it. Choosing the size is the most important, then get use to it by shooting more.
Thanks