Backup/Secondary weapons is a subject often fraught with a lot of personal opinion.
From my own perspective, I don't feel the need to carry a secondary weapon now that I'm retired. I can control where I travel for my activities and I'm not being constantly sent to questionable places to interrupt the lives of folks suspected or known to be troublesome and potentially dangerous. That's just me and my perspective on secondary weapons at this time in my life.
Now, as to the general nature of the backup/secondary weapon?
Well, that can often involve trying to determine where compromise is acceptable in any number of areas ... reliability, manipulation & function, size, weight, safe-yet-accessible carry methods, ease of concealment, etc.
Personally, I tend to arrange my priorities starting with reliability. The inherent reliability of a design in general, and then further considered from the perspective of how well it performs under "less than ideal" conditions.
It's one thing to be able to experience reliable feeding, firing & functioning when comfortably standing on some firing line and taking the time needed to establish a perfect grip, and then firing the gun slowly and taking plenty of time between shots. That's on the range, though, under safe and ideal conditions.
How about desperately grasping for the gun under stressful and perhaps physically strenuous conditions? Maybe while trying to fend off an attacker? Resulting in maybe a less than ideal grip and wrist lock? How easily can the gun be properly fired under conditions which really degrade motor skills?
I've seen at least my fair share of diminutive pocket-type pistols chambered in calibers ranging from .22, .25, .32 & .380 experience feeding & functioning problems on qualification ranges, and that's when the owners have the chance to draw and present the guns under only the minimal stress of being timed and having to engage known threat targets in a manner that meets a minimum standard. Nobody has hit them, knocked them down or other wise injured them while trying to wrest their "primary" weapons away from them, attempting to inflict immediate seriously bodily injury or death on them.
Grip instability (limp wristing) issues which might adversely affect slide velocity and feeding ... especially of JHP's ... might not happen under ideal, carefully controlled range conditions ... but what about other times? Is your choice of gun sensitive to less than ideal grip techniques when it comes to feeding & functioning? Does it feed your choice of defensive ammunition consistently well?
Dunno. You decide for yourself.
I don't make it my business to try and dissuade folks from choosing whatever it is they may desire, or are authorized to choose, but those are just my own thoughts.
When I carried a secondary weapon I chose a S&W J-frame. It was one which had been inspected by a qualified armorer for proper fit & function and I had demonstrated the ability to make accurate hits in ever changing courses of fire designed around larger duty weapons. Nowadays I have a handful of J-frames from which to choose, and as a S&W revolver armorer I can inspect and maintain my own revolvers (and am in some small demand for some of our folks who are discovering the practicality and usefulness of the ubiquitous S&W J-frame for the first time ... or rediscovering it, as it were
) .
Nowadays I often choose on of my J-frames as my normal retirement weapon. Sure, I have any number of pistols ranging from subcompact to full size from which to choose, and which I use for training, practice & quals when helping out as a firearms instructor ... including 5 different 1911's ranging from 3 1/2", 4 1/4" to 5" guns ... but it's the little J-frames that I reach for when wanting a retirement CCW.
It's the J-frame I'd choose if I felt the need for a secondary weapon.
Okay, there have been a very few number of times when I've even carried 2 J-frames while motoring around the valleys & hills on my bike.
This is one of those individual decisions that really needs to be made by folks after careful deliberation and consideration of their own unique needs and situations, though. I can't give anyone else the answer.
What diminutive handgun would
you be willing to unexpectedly stake
your life, or the lives of your family, on during a chaotic, rapidly changing, physically & mentally taxing situation that is going to occur at a time not of your choosing, in a location and set of conditions not of your choice ... which might well involve unstable footing, bad light and maybe even environmental restrictions affecting freedom of movement.
A watch fob pistol of popular acclaim may be nice to carry, but will it work for
you when
you need it, under the worst possible conditions?
Okay, I've rambled on about my thoughts ...
