What Constitutes A "Full Sized" Handgun.

[Trunk Monkey]

A recent thread asked what percentage of firearms owners actually carry a full sized handgun.


http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=792659

My question is how do you define "full sized"?

Is a Glock 19 (Glock's "mid sized" 9mm) full sized? What about a Glock19 with a Glock 17 magazine? What about a S&W Model 915?

Is it frame size? Capacity? Is an M9 (15 rounds) full sized and a Glock19(also 15 rounds) not?

Thoughts?

 

[M-Cameron]

so far as im concerned...without a magazine installed, and as it comes from the factory:

if you can establish a full grip, and have ~1/8" to 1/4 " of the grip left sticking out from the bottom of your hand....you have a full sized handgun.

if you can establish a full grip....but your pinkey is half off the grip....you have a compact handgun.

if you can only establish a 2 finger grip....you have a sub-compact handgun.

 

[cfullgraf]

It's not magazine capacity.

The M1911 with 45 ACP is considered a full sized handgun but with only a7 round capacity magazine.

The Beretta M84 has a 13 round capacity magazine and I do not think it is considered a full sized pistol.

 

[justin22885]

i say for automatics, 4.5" barrel or greater with a flush fitting full capacity magazine (generally 17 rounds for a doublestack 9mm, 8 for a single stack 45acp, etc) these include the 1911 government model, beretta 92fs/M9, glock 17, etc

and for revolvers, id say anything that can hold at least 6 rounds of 357 mag with a barrel of at least 4 inches is full size, these would include the colt python, smith 686, ruger GP100.. and of course just about every 44 mag

but thats just what i consider, actual definitions may vary

 

[AStone]

Whatever fits your hand.

For me, Ruger SR9c.

 

[bannockburn]

I would go along with M-Cameron's designations based on hand to frame size.

 

[TruthTellers]

IMO, full length grip and barrel 4" or longer.

In that definition I consider a Glock 19/23 to be a full size gun. Taurus PT111 is... about full size. I like it's full, Glock 19-ish grip and shorter, Glock 26-ish barrel length.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I realize definitions tend to change over time, but the old standards were based on commonly available guns and manufacturer's labeling:

For semiautomatics the standard has long been the 1911, so...
Full size - Government model; 5" barrel
Compact - Commander; 4.25" barrel
Sub-compact - Officer's ACP; 3.5" barrel

Glock started a bit shorter with their line
Full sized - G17; 4.5"
Compact - G19; 4"
Sub-compact - G26; 3.5"

Then (discounting the G17L) they went to the 5.3" barrel with the G34 and called it a Long Slide; which I would take to imply a full sized gun with a longer slide, as opposed to a different sized gun

Revolvers are usually easier as modern S&Ws started with a full sized gun and than downsized to accommodate other uses; size is usually determined by frame and cylinder size
Full Sized - N-frame
Compact - K-frame
Sub-compact - J-frame

When they up sized the K-frame to the L-frame, the common designation was Mid-sized.

Colt sizes differed a bit from S&W
Full size - New Service
Mid-sized - I-frame (Official Police, Python)
Compact - D-frame (Police Positive, Diamondback)

Ruger went the other direction in size introductions:
Compact - Security-Six
Full-sized - Redhawk
Mid-sized - GP-100
Sub-compact - SP-101

 

[JohnKSa]

I'm going to post my answer before reading the rest of the answers.

I'd say that if the barrel is over 4" in length and the grip has ample room for all three fingers of an average sized hand, the handgun would likely be considered "full-sized" by most folks.

 

[jcv]

Is there a designation for something bigger than full sized, like the old "horse pistol" that was too big for belt carry?

 

[9mmepiphany]

Didn't we used to just call them Hawg Legs?

 

[ROAshooter]

Ifin your a midget....does that make a "pocket gun" full size?

 

[Onward Allusion]

No hanging pinky or fingers off the grip (without mag) for an average (5'10" 190lb) size guy.

 

[9mmepiphany]

for an average (5'10" 190lb) size guy.

I believe average is 20-40lbs lighter

Ifin your a midget....does that make a "pocket gun" full size?

Well, this is my grip on a Kahr CW9, which could be a compact

[resize=500] [/resize]

...and here is my 10 year old daughter holding the same gun

[resize=500] [/resize]

 

[cc-hangfire]

I'm adopting M-Cameron's definition in post #2 above. The different types - full, compact, subcompact - are on a continuous scale with no clean break points if you consider all manufacturers. I realize his definition depends on hand size, but the functional grip definition is easy to remember and to explain to someone.

 

[Bobson]

for an average (5'10" 190lb) size guy.

I believe average is 20-40lbs lighter

If the average adult man weighs 150 pounds, our "obesity epidemic" is being seriously blown out of proportion.

 

[MEHavey]

EZ:

1911 for an auto
Model-19 for a revolver
Everything for either class is either same-as, bigger-than, or smaller-than

Simple

 

[9mmepiphany]

Model-19 for a revolver

So of the 5 frame sizes S&W offer, you'd list the second smallest as the full size

...even when it is smaller than the model referred to as their "Mid-sized" (L-frame)

 

[MEHavey]

Yup.






As my Dad used to say....
"It matters not what little Johnny down the street gets to do, standards are standards"
And the Combat Magnum is undeniably that standard -- ever since I first held one almost 60 years ago now.


.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Undeniably might be a bit extreme.

As a famous teacher used to say, "They do not know, what, they do not know"

Historically the original .357 Magnum, built on the N-frame, was the standard. The Combat Magnum was built on the K-frame, which was designed for the .38Spl, to make it easier to carry on the belt all day and for shooters with smaller hands. It was never intended to be shot extensively with the magnum cartridge.

That is why the first service revolver they chambered for that magnum cartridge was the M-28...which was just an economy version of the M-27

My first full sized revolver was a Colt Python and another was also my first duty gun. During the time that LE protocol was to qualify and practice with full power magnum ammo, I saw many M19/66 go down while my Python just kept perking along

 

[MEHavey]

Well.... "undeniably" is always in the eye of the beholder. [Double ]

But then....

That popular handguns have "grown" in weight/size over the last 65 years or so is undeniable. That we have to move the term "full size" in a sliding scale as things grow to the right, however, is problematic. [The "average of a J-frame and an X-Frame is what ? )

When I first handled that Model-19 so many years ago, my Dad also had a Python. But it was the 19 that went with us to Guatemala when he became the (US) Air Mission Chief. It was the 19 that went into his shoulder holster the first night in the hotel when he came back from the embassy check-in to find the communists had just assassinated the president. It was the 19 that stayed there for the next four years -- including occasional trips to the coastline boondocks where he and the Guatemalan Air Force Chief Staff would sip scotch on the beach and shoot at sharks off shore. It was the 19 that was part of his life from then on, and mine, and now my son's after five trips to the Sandbox.

So while the average has shifted to the right, the "standard" never has. It never needed to. It found its Goldilocks place on the table and is sticking to it.






(It does look awfully small next to my 500 though)

 

[W.E.G.]

I'd say its anything close to the size of whatever is on the MP's hip.

No need to split hairs.

 

[jrdolall]

I think the term "Full Sized" in today's world is a marketing term. I consider a basic 1911 to be full sized.

Micro, pocket, compact, sub compact, blah, blah. I have relatively small hands.

 

[Coyote3855]

For those who calibrate pistol definition by hand size, find a copy of "No Second Place Winner" by Bill Jordan and look at the picture of him on the back cover holding a Colt SSA. The dude has hands the size of baseball mitts. Looks like he could get two fingers and part of his little finger on the SSA grip, but I would not say that makes the SAA a compact.

 

[M-Cameron]

For those who calibrate pistol definition by hand size, find a copy of "No Second Place Winner" by Bill Jordan and look at the picture of him on the back cover holding a Colt SSA. The dude has hands the size of baseball mitts. Looks like he could get two fingers and part of his little finger on the SSA grip, but I would not say that makes the SAA a compact.

2 things...

1) handgun size is relative......a G17 to me is a "full sized handgun".........but to Andre the Giant, its probably the size of a "sub compact".........

so if Andre were looking for a gun to fill the roll of a "sub compact" gun......he would be buying a G17, not something like a bodyguard, because to him, a bodyguard wouldnt fill the roll of a "subcompact" pistol.

2) i never meant it to be "the end all be all definitive list of everything".....just a general guide.......and it works for the majority of people.......if you have bear paws for hands, thats an abnormal situation and shouldnt be applicable to most "standards"