Handguns

The revived S&W 396 Night Guard in .44 Special promises the perfect middle ground between snubnose carry and full-size shootability. It starts strong, shoots well, and then delivers the kind of reliability failure that turns nostalgia into frustration fast.

The best micro compact pistols cram serious capacity, real shootability, and everyday carry comfort into guns that almost disappear under a shirt. From the SIG P365X to the Wilson Combat SFX9, these five tiny carry pistols prove small does not have to mean helpless.

The S&W 617 Mountain Gun looks like the .22 LR K-frame woods revolver a lot of shooters have been waiting for. It shoots well, carries the right Mountain Gun attitude, and then trips over the kind of quality-control problem that makes a man shake his head twice.

The Taurus RPC brings roller-delayed 9mm softness, full ambi controls, suppressor-ready hardware, and PDW-style swagger to a price point that should make MP5 fans uncomfortable. We ran 300 rounds through it to see what this little blaster is, what it is not, and whether you should grab one before they vanish.

The Cimarron U.S.V. Artillery brings the Colt SAA Artillery legend back with .45 Long Colt punch, Rough Riders history, and old-school sixgun swagger. It is part history lesson, part range toy, and part reminder that sometimes the old ways still hit hardest.

The Stealth Arms Platypus already brings 2011-style performance with Glock magazine practicality, but this custom build takes the platform into dream-gun territory. With Impact Machine Flatty Platy porting, Rising Creek Customs Cerakote, a Vortex Defender-ST Enclosed, and the exact options I wanted, this pistol turned into the flat-shooting, hard-running custom handgun I had been chasing.

The Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 10mm brings serious thumper energy without feeling cartoonishly huge. With optics-ready capability, stout woods-load performance, and M&P ergonomics, this 10mm makes a strong case as a backcountry pistol that still behaves like a modern fighting gun.

A .22 LR handgun is easy to dismiss until you carry one all day, shoot it well, and watch it punch deeper than expected. For hunters, trappers, and everyday carriers in the woods, the humble rimfire sidearm still has teeth.

The plain SIG P365 still earns its place as a daily carry pistol because it balances concealability, capacity, shootability, and trust better than almost anything in the micro-compact 9mm world.