In this post I'm going to make a side-by-side comparison of
three pocket pistols; a vintage Iver Johnson revolver in .32 S&W, a Raven
.25 auto-loader, and a Ruger LCP in .380.
All of these firearms are very small in size, hence the term pocket
pistol. Let me say from the start that I
am no fan of pocket pistols. For home
defense my choice is a shotgun. For a
vehicle carry weapon my choice is a hand gun of at least 9mm with a long enough
barrel to give a good sight plane. But with
that being said, I can conceive of some instances where a pocket pistol might
be called for. Many law enforcement
officers carry a small pistol as a back-up weapon, and I can think of instances
where a lady might like to have one in her purse, but in general I don't think
that there's much place for these guns. Pictured below: on the top an Iver Johnson chambered for .32
S&W, bottom left a Raven .25 auto, and bottom right a Ruger LCP chambered
for .380 auto.
Now, why would anyone carry a pocket pistol? Well, I think that the obvious answer is that
they feel like they may need it to protect their life. So, if your life may depend on it, don't you
think that it makes sense to carry the most accurate and reliable pocket pistol
that you can find?
So let's run these three pocket pistols through a few tests
and see what the results are. We are
going to do four tests. First we will test for accuracy by firing five rounds with
aimed fire and with the first round already chambered. Since pocket pistols are intended for very
short range use, we will do our shooting from twelve feet. We will then test for accuracy from the same
range but this time we will start with the pistol loaded for safe carry, then
ready the pistol and fire three rounds in five seconds. We will test for reliability by running three
magazines of ammo through each pistol.
And finally we will test for power by measuring the penetration of each
round into a phone book from ten feet.
Test 1 - Five Rounds Slow Fire
The targets pictured below show the results of the slow, aimed
fire test. On these targets the center
bull is 10 points, the next ring out is 7 points, the next ring 5 points, and
the outside ring is 3 points. The Ruger and the Raven fired comparable
groups. Both had two in the 10 ring, two
in the 7 ring out and one in the 5 ring.
The Raven shot a little tighter group which was a real surprise to
me. The Iver Johnson was only a little
less accurate with one 10, three 7’s, and one 5.
Test 2 – Three Rounds in Five Seconds from Safe Carry
Safe carry is different on all three of these firearms. The Ruger holds six rounds in the
magazine. It has no safety and always
has the hammer down. Every shot is
double action with this pistol, so it is safe to carry with a round in the
chamber. But the long double action pull is a little disconcerting. I have to admit that it is a smooth pull, but
it is just not what I expect to feel with an auto loader.
The Raven holds six rounds in the magazine. It has a safety but I would only feel
comfortable carrying it with an empty chamber.
This means chambering a round before the first shot. Not something I would want to have to do in a
hot situation.
The Iver Johnson, being a revolver is probably safe to carry
with the hammer down on a round, but I just can’t do this with a revolver. I always carry a revolver with the hammer
down on an empty chamber. Just an old
habit, but it is deeply ingrained in my shooting habits. Since the I J only holds five rounds, this is
a severe limitation as far as fire power goes.
An empty chamber under the hammer means that you only have four rounds
to use.
The Ruger and the Iver Johnson were virtually tied in this
test. The Ruger shot a 10 and two fives
for a total of 20 points. The Iver
Johnson fired a 10, a 3, and a 7 for a total of 20 points. The Raven was out of it on this test, firing
only two 5’s. Time expired before the
third round could be fired. The problem
was that the Raven put itself on safety after ejecting the second round. This occurred several times in the course of
firing this weapon. I don’t know if it
is just this particular gun or if this is a problem with Ravens in general, but
it is a definite deal breaker if this firearm is intended for self defense.
Test 3 – Penetration
For this test we fired a round from each handgun into two
telephone books that were taped together and counted the number of pages that
each slug penetrated.
Big
surprise!! The Raven .25 had the best
penetration. Not by much, but it did win
this one.
The Ruger .380 penetrated 1342 pages. The jacketed slug was slightly flattened on
one side of the nose. Needless to say,
the greater mass of this slug did more damage than the .25, and the friction
generated by the larger slug is probably why there was a little less
penetration than the smaller .25.
The Raven .25 penetrated 1375 pages. Its jacketed slug was pristine. No expansion at all, and hence not as much
damage.
All I had for the Iver Johnson .32 were unjacketed
rounds. It only penetrated 623 pages;
less than half of the other two firearms. As you can see in the picture below,
the slug was mashed in all along one side.
The heavy, unjacketed slug sitting on top of a relatively light powder
charge greatly reduced the penetration of this round; but, here again, shock
would be much greater than the .25. Pictured below: On the left is the .380 slug, .25 in the center, and .32 S&W on the right.
The Ruger and the Iver Johnson had no problems cycling
rounds. The Raven, on the other hand,
put itself on safety two different times while we were running rounds through
it. Not a good thing.
I guess, on the whole, the Ruger came out on top in this
little comparison. It’s a good little
gun with only a couple of drawbacks. It
is so light that the recoil of the .380 feels pretty extreme. Don’t buy one of these for your wife unless
she is used to managing recoil. Also, I
am told by two different owners that breaking the Ruger down for cleaning and
then re-assembling it is not an easy task. Pictured below: Ruger LCP
The Raven is fun to shoot, and it is surprisingly accurate,
but if the “unintentional going onto safety” problem can not be solved in my
shop then this will never be a gun that I carry. Pictured below: Raven .25
The Iver Johnson is a fun little gun, but it has low
magazine capacity and the ammo is expensive and hard to find. I think I’ll leave this one on the wall. Pictured below: Iver Johnson .32 S&W
Truth be told, if I am going to depend on a handgun to save
my life, I’m going to carry my Taurus PT-92 9mm.
It’s larger than a pocket gun but it holds 15 rounds, it has
tremendous knock-down power, and it has never misfired. These are all a good trade-off for the little
extra weight and size as far as I’m concerned, but that’s just me. Pictured below: Pocket pistols compared to Taurus PT-92 in 9mm
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