Wow, I meant to come back to this when I spotted it a couple of days ago.
First off, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody!
Secondly, to the OP, can you tell us what pistols you don't have trouble shooting? I ask because I've owned a couple of Glock 26s over the years (and am contemplating a Gen 4 as a third one, I'm a slow learner...) and the little things really do shoot almost as easily and at least as well as the Glock 19s and 17s. It's not a pocket pistol, at least for me (I'm 5' 8" and 150 and built pretty much like a professional bicyclist) but they do conceal and carry a lot easier than the full-grip versions. 25 yard headshots on an IDPA or IPSC silhouette with a G-26? Check. 50-yard hits against the torso of the same targets? Yep, can do. I shot a couple of our local informal IDPA-type matches with them too and it honestly wasn't that much different than running a full-size pistol.
Now I have had a Kel-Tec PF-9 and gotten to shoot a Kahr MK-9 and a Kel-Tec P-11. All of these are noticeably smaller and more compact than the Baby Glock. But all of them suffer on the shootability scale. For me, in my hands, the PF-9 was too much power in too small of a gun and had reliability issues. The P-11 had a trigger that could be measured with a truck scale and a yardstick and also had reliability issues. The Kahr wasn't too bad as a shooter, being an all-steel gun, but I only got to shoot one magazine through it and it felt equally as heavy as my G-26s.
But I've come to peace with my limitations on the power-weight-compactness scale for handguns. A Glock 26 is the smallest 9mm I want to shoot on a regular basis. A Lightweight Commander is the smallest and lightest .45 I'm comfortable running. And a K-frame .357 Magnum is the smallest and most powerful revolver I want anything to do with. If the guns get much smaller, I'm stepping down in caliber. (Oh, and I fired a .45-70 Encore pistol once. THAT was exciting!
)
First off, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody!
Secondly, to the OP, can you tell us what pistols you don't have trouble shooting? I ask because I've owned a couple of Glock 26s over the years (and am contemplating a Gen 4 as a third one, I'm a slow learner...) and the little things really do shoot almost as easily and at least as well as the Glock 19s and 17s. It's not a pocket pistol, at least for me (I'm 5' 8" and 150 and built pretty much like a professional bicyclist) but they do conceal and carry a lot easier than the full-grip versions. 25 yard headshots on an IDPA or IPSC silhouette with a G-26? Check. 50-yard hits against the torso of the same targets? Yep, can do. I shot a couple of our local informal IDPA-type matches with them too and it honestly wasn't that much different than running a full-size pistol.
Now I have had a Kel-Tec PF-9 and gotten to shoot a Kahr MK-9 and a Kel-Tec P-11. All of these are noticeably smaller and more compact than the Baby Glock. But all of them suffer on the shootability scale. For me, in my hands, the PF-9 was too much power in too small of a gun and had reliability issues. The P-11 had a trigger that could be measured with a truck scale and a yardstick and also had reliability issues. The Kahr wasn't too bad as a shooter, being an all-steel gun, but I only got to shoot one magazine through it and it felt equally as heavy as my G-26s.
But I've come to peace with my limitations on the power-weight-compactness scale for handguns. A Glock 26 is the smallest 9mm I want to shoot on a regular basis. A Lightweight Commander is the smallest and lightest .45 I'm comfortable running. And a K-frame .357 Magnum is the smallest and most powerful revolver I want anything to do with. If the guns get much smaller, I'm stepping down in caliber. (Oh, and I fired a .45-70 Encore pistol once. THAT was exciting!
)