When it comes to picking out your first handgun, there are a lot of choices to make: hammer-fired or striker, single stack or double, manual safety or not. But before you can decide any of that, you have to decide what size pistol you want.
Each comes with its own advantages and drawbacks. Larger guns offer longer sight radiuses, larger capacities, and are generally easier to use. Smaller firearms are easier to conceal, though, and for many users concealed carry is the entire point of owning a handgun.
Below, we’ll take an in-depth look at the variety of factors that go into choosing the size of your first handgun.
Full-Size Pistols: Pros
Full-size handguns offer quite a few advantages over their pocketable counterparts. The first and most obvious is that being larger, a full-size pistol is going to offer a larger grip than a compact model. For many users, this can be the difference between being able to get your entire hand on the firearm and leaving your pinky dangling beneath the magazine.
The ability to get your entire hand on the pistol tends to make your marksmanship both more comfortable and more effective. While users will often become used to a partial grip that excludes the pinky finger over time, untrained users will nearly always benefit from a full grip. The larger grip and the surface area of your hand that it interacts with often slightly reduces felt recoil as well, by way of spreading the force across a larger area.
This brings us to our next advantage: reduced recoil. Larger handguns tend to weigh more in addition to spreading force across a larger area, both of which reduce felt recoil.
Larger frames and grips also often, but not always, mean more room for ammunition. Full-size 9mm firearms will offer higher magazine capacities than compact ones if both are double or single-stack. Compact 9mm double-stack firearms such as Sig Sauer’s ever-popular P365 series can actually have higher capacities than some full-sized single-stack guns, though, so capacity can often come down to single stack vs double stack rather than compact vs full-size.
Full-size firearms also tend to offer longer slides, and therefore, sight radiuses. This can make it easier to fire precisely when using iron sights. But, if you intend to mount a red dot to your pistol, sight radius quickly becomes irrelevant.
All of these factors translate into a package that is easier and faster to engage targets with. The larger frame affords a superior grip, which works in concert with the increased weight to moderate recoil, all while the longer sight radius provides a more precise sight picture and the increased capacity reduces the need for reloads.
Full-Size Pistols: Cons
Of course, all things come with tradeoffs. The primary one for full-size pistols is always going to be concealability.
While many users can and do carry full-sized pistols lawfully concealed every day both covertly and comfortably, the process is always going to be more difficult than with a micro-compact 9mm. Larger pistols generally require a greater effort to “dress around the gun”—that is, modify one’s wardrobe to provide greater concealment for the gun.
These sorts of changes might involve buying slightly oversized clothes to allow more room for your firearm or switching from fitted shirts to roomier ones.
One thing that is universally required to carry a full-size pistol is a good gun belt. The best gun belts for concealed carry deliver far greater stability, security, and support than a standard leather dress belt, keeping your firearm in its place throughout the day and fighting sagging. It also provides a stable platform to pull against on the draw, making your presentation much more efficient.
Equally important with a proper belt is a good holster. While there are many types of holsters, full-size firearms will often (though not always) necessitate the use of an IWB or AIWB holster.
Inside-the-waistband or IWB holsters carry the firearm inside of the user’s pants, which helps to conceal the longer barrel of a full-size firearm. Appendix inside-the-waistband gun holsters do the same, but instead of being worn on the hip like a traditional holster, they are worn on the front of the body, generally slightly toward one side—roughly sitting over where your appendix is located. An AIWB holster can be a good choice for full-size handguns with shorter barrels, as they do an excellent job at concealing a large grip, but can become uncomfortable with longer barrels.
Lastly, while a dedicated user can carry a full-size firearm daily by dressing for concealed carry, it becomes exponentially harder the smaller the carrier is. A large man may not struggle to hide a Glock 17 with the right equipment, but a petite woman is going to have a much harder time, as the firearm will be proportionally larger compared to her frame. As such, if concealment is a priority, a full-size gun may not be a good pistol for small women.
One other minor drawback of a full-sized handgun is the increased weight. We mentioned this as an advantage above for its recoil-reducing effects, but it’s a double-edged sword. Heavier guns can also be more difficult for some users to hold steady and increase fatigue during longer practice sessions. However, weight is highly variable between models and influenced by many factors besides weapon size.
Compact Pistols: Pros
Compact pistols are a large category encompassing everything from classic compact models like the Glock 19 all the way down to micro-compact pocket guns like the Ruger LCP. As such, there are relatively few generalizations that cover the entire class.
But, one thing that will always hold true is that generally, the smaller a firearm is, the easier it will be to conceal. Shorter grips stick out less, thinner frames are less prone to press against fabric and create printing, and shorter barrels don’t stick out as much.
Smaller firearms also offer greater versatility in how they are carried. While full-size firearms are generally limited to IWB and OWB belt holsters and perhaps shoulder holsters, compact guns can utilize ankle holsters, pocket holsters, and more. This can make them an ideal option for someone with unconventional concealment needs.
The best self-defense handgun is always going to be the one you have on your person, so while the merit of increased concealability may seem small compared to the many benefits of a full-sized firearm, it really should not be undervalued. Should you ever need to defend yourself, a micro-compact .380 in your pocket will do a lot more for you than a full-sized 9mm at home in your safe.
Another side benefit of compact pistols, particularly common ones, is the ease of finding holsters for concealed carry. Full-size firearms often have many or most of their holsters geared towards duty and competition use rather than concealment, and so those who want to carry them will often have to order something custom to do the job.
With a common compact single-stack 9-millimeter like a Glock 43, most users will be able to find a decent concealed carry holster on the shelf of their local gun store.
Compact Pistols: Cons
The drawbacks of a concealed pistol are essentially the inverse of the advantages of a full-size pistol. Their reduced size and weight offer users a less secure grip and they generally have snappier recoil. Their short sight radius and overall small size also tend to make accurate marksmanship more difficult—particularly so for novice users.
Their magazine capacity will be reduced at an amount corresponding to their size—i.e., a larger compact like a Glock 19 carries slightly less ammo than a full-size gun like a Glock 17, but a micro-compact such as a Glock 43 carries significantly less. This ratio is somewhat defied by high-capacity micro-compacts such as the Sig P365, Springfield Hellcat, and S&W Sheild Plus, but even then the principle holds true within each individual series; the P365 offering less capacity than the larger 365XL, which offers less than the 365 Macro, for example.
In sum, compact pistols will be more difficult to use quickly and accurately and offer fewer rounds in a magazine than larger pistols.
Which Should You Buy?
There’s no single right answer to this question. Instead, it’s primarily a question of what properties you want to prioritize first, and whether or not you intend to buy more firearms later on.
It’s relatively uncommon to buy a single firearm and then never purchase another, but it does happen. For those who want a single, do-all, jack-of-all-trades gun, we recommend a compact on the larger end of the spectrum.
This class of firearm offers a good balance between concealability and shootability, as well as a respectable amount of capacity. While it won’t be quite as easy to use as a full-sized firearm or as easy to conceal as a smaller compact, it will usually fill both roles sufficiently.
On the other hand, for those who are buying their first pistol, but intend to add one or two more down the road, a jack-of-all-trades pistol is suboptimal. Rather than one gun that does many jobs adequately, it’s often better to have multiple firearms that each do one job excellently.
For those who resonate with this approach, we recommend starting with a full-size handgun. A full-size gun will be the easiest to learn the fundamentals of marksmanship with and will help you build the soft skills needed to run a sub-compact to its fullest potential. It’s still possible to carry for most users who are willing to put in the effort, so you won’t be left entirely without a concealed carry option.
Then, when you’re ready to make a second purchase, you can add a dedicated concealed carry firearm—a compact or subcompact of your choice. At this time, the full-size gun can be relegated to competition use or repurposed as a dedicated home defense firearm.
Conclusion
In the choice between full-size and compact firearms for a first handgun, there are no wrong conclusions. Either can be a perfectly suitable option; it only depends on your priorities.
Full-size guns are best for those who know they will add other firearms down the road, while larger compacts are ideal for users who want a single gun to fill as many rolls as possible.
