By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The late John Taffin described the “Perfect Packin’ Pistol” as “a handgun — either sixgun or semi-auto — with an easy handling barrel length between 4″ to 5 ½ ″ chambered in a cartridge capable of handling anything you may run into.”
I’m a little more flexible on this. Based on years of experience in places far off the pavement, and even well beyond cellphone reception, the Perfect Packin’ Pistol would be the sidearm you happen to have at the moment you really need it. Been there, done that and probably even still have a stained T-shirt in a drawer somewhere to prove it.
Although a couple of my favorite sidearms just happen to be semi-autos, it has become something of a fact of my life that the gun I had at the time it was needed was a wheelgun; you know, a revolver, round gun, sixgun, smoke wagon.
I have used two different wheelguns—both in .41 Magnum, and not necessarily by coincidence—to finish off wounded deer, or on one occasion stop a buck in its tracks when I simply couldn’t get a rifle quickly, load it up and fire. In the latter case, it was a Ruger Blackhawk with a 6 ½-inch barrel, and it happened to be there when it was needed.
Taffin also mentioned in his writings that the “PPP” had to be a gun which could be carried comfortably for long periods, and I concur with that stipulation 100 percent.
I’ve got a stash of photographs of various revolvers pictured with fully-loaded cartridge belts. The not-so-subliminal message in all of those images is the necessity of having ammunition for whatever hogleg you happen to be carrying at any given time. On my treks into the wilds, where there is no gun shop or sporting goods store handy, I always have a belt filled with spare cartridges, and this applies to ammunition for my rifles, as well.
I once had a lady ask why I loaded a handgun I had just finished cleaning, and the answer was blunt: “They don’t work worth a damn if they’re empty.” Perhaps it was rude, but it happened to be matter-of-fact.
Another important aspect of this conversation is that the PPP must be reasonably accurate. I’ve managed to encounter some handguns which were so poorly-sighted that out-of-the-box they would shoot low or high, and sometimes right or left, they couldn’t be depended upon to produce a reasonable five-shot group at 10-15 yards. On the other hand, I’ve carried sidearms which, especially off a sandbag rest at 25 yards, could put ‘em all comfortably in the black. There really is no experience quite as satisfying as being able to bounce a tin can around with a handgun, using a two-hand hold at beyond 25 yards. It translates to being able to competently hit something much larger if the occasion called for it.
The importance of coupling your handgun with reliable, consistent ammunition is paramount. This is probably the main reason so many of my contemporaries load their own ammunition. While I’m presently experimenting with a couple of different bullet types and propellants just to see if I can get better results, I know from experience that a particular load will work well in one of my .41 Magnums, and, likewise, a different specific load has worked repeatedly in a .357 Magnum. But in both cases, the gun/load combination works.
Presumably, this all boils down to having confidence in the sidearm and ammunition one has at any given moment, and being competent enough with this or that gun/cartridge combination to make it work.
This is what makes a “Perfect Packin’ Pistol.” It has to be reliable, and it has to be there, which brings us around to what happens when a handgun is not reliable, or at least you feel it isn’t, and therefore it is left at home to gather dust, and will not be there when it is needed.
There are lots of good handguns out there, and what may be perfect for one person might not be perfect for the next person. I’ve been fortunate enough to find guns which have worked for me time and again. I guess that’s what defines the PPP. In my book, that’s the most important factor.
