Carry Piece for $250

Posted on May 3rd, 2007 in Guns by Justin

Today I was asked what would make a good carry pistol if you could only spend about $250 on it. I gave a crappy answer, and I know that person reads this blog, and I feel this information could be useful to others, so let’s take another stab at it.

My first recomendation would be a Makarov. The Bularian variants, last I checked, could be had for about $150 at your local gun show.

Don’t let the price fool you — these are not cheap pistols. Inexpensive, yes, but not cheap.

On the plus side they have going for them: All steel construction, a fixed barrel making them very accurate, they’re very simple to field strip as are most Russian designs, they’re very slim, and they come in 9×18mm which is a decent cartridge.

Not optimal, but decent, which means it’s not something people would term a “mouse gun” like .22LR or .25ACP.

What they have working against them: They’re heavy because they’re all steel. The sights are horrible. The trigger leaves a lot to be desired, but, they are quite workable. The magazine release is a European style heel release which isn’t the fastest mechanism in the world. Finally, you won’t walk into too many shops and find 9×18mm ammo, but, honestly, if you’re looking to me for gun advice then you might as well just resolve yourself to the fact that I’ll always recommend you buy a bulk lot of 500-1000 rounds of ammo when you get a new caliber.

It’s probably the best pistol you can buy for $150 out there, which is why I have one and absolutely love it. Yes, I have better pistols than the Makarov, but none of them cost anywhere near $150.

My 2nd choice was the Kel-Tec P3AT. Longtime readers might know that I purchased one of these a couple of years ago. I’m not sure what they cost these days but I got mine for $230-ish.

The pros on this one are obvious: New construction, made in America, fantastic warranty, very light, very small, and .380 is a common enough caliber.

The cons are also obvious: Too damned small to shoot comfortably, and, in my opinion that awesome warranty is necessary because so many of their pistols come out of the box with problems.

Now, on that last point I must admit that I keep hearing that Kel-Tec is getting better and better at quality control. They also continually fix problems with their designs as they learn about them.

However, the P3AT that I purchased seemd to be riddled with problems. I believe I have worked them all out, however, without the use of their warranty. I went into the purchase knowing that there was a chance that it would need some work, the shop warned me about that, and I have no problem at all with what Kel-Tec sells.

You might get a lemon from them, and if you do they will make it right, and by taking that risk you get a pistol that nobody else is selling. The closest thing to a P3AT out there in dimensions is probably the Roughar 9mm which is admittedly a much higher quality piece, and chambered in a higher pressure cartridge but that’s going to run you $1000, not $230.

That said, the Kel-Tec P3AT (and the P32) are much better suggestions for people looking for an actual pocket gun, not just another gun, a primary gun, or a carry piece. They’re not for everybody.

Now, if you bump the price constraint up a bit you can get into their 9mm models. We’re talking just shy of $300 here if my memory is serving me correctly. With those I’m going to simply say that you’re going to deal with the same shit (good and bad) but in a different caliber. I could be wrong on this. However, if you’re willing to entertain the almost $300 Kel-Tec 9mm guns then you just opened yourself up to the Bersa line!

While I’ll probably never own a Bersa gun myself they come highly recomended to me, and after fondling them in the gun shop I’m left with a rather confident feeling that they will, and do, live up to their reputation. Now, the only reason I wouldn’t go with a Bersa gun is because I’ve already got pistols that cover that area and I like them a lot. If I had bought one earlier in my life I figure I’d be quite happy with the purchase.

Now, back to cheap military surplus guns that I cannot really say much about as I don’t own them we have:

  • The Hungarian PA-63
  • CZ 82
  • CZ 83

As of this writing all of them can be found on AIM Surplus’ webpage for less than $200.

So there’s my roundup of cheap pistols that one could carry for under $250. Take it for what it is worth.