Winning Handful: Sig Sauer P290

Those of us who have been in the gun culture a long time have to keep reminding ourselves that a lot of the gun people we now find ourselves surrounded by are new to this. Compared to just a handful of presidential elections ago, the number of CPL holders is 10 times what it used to be. Those new shooters will be, and are, going through the same progression we did back in “the day.”

That is, when they get their new carry permit, they will immediately hurry to the local gun shop and cast about for the biggest gun they can manage. After all, isn’t that what all the gunwriters recommend? And when the fun of lugging an anvil wears off (and it quickly does), they swing to the other extreme: the most compact whatever that they can depend on. A few practice sessions with it and they get a bit less enamored of pocket guns. Easy to carry, yes. But deucedly difficult to shoot.

Maybe they bypassed the big gun and went right for the compact first. Now that they are accustomed to noise and recoil, they want something that produces braggable targets at the range. You know, identifiable groups, not a random scattering of holes in paper. Although those micro-guns do make small groups tough, it isn’t simply the pistol’s fault. It’s the combination of a short sight radius, small sights, a heavy trigger and small grips—all combined with a new shooter.

click for video