SO AT THE RANGE THE OTHER DAY, I SHOT THIS Smith & Wesson 9mm folding carbine. I’ve never owned a pistol-caliber carbine, unless you count my grandfather’s WWII M1 Carbine, made by IBM. But this one has gotten a lot of buzz, so I put a box of ammo through it.
Thoughts: Easy to handle and shoot. Pretty accurate at the short ranges I was shooting at the indoor range (I shot at 10 and 25 meters). Stock has two holders for spare magazines. It comes with one 17 round and two 23 round magazines, so fully loaded you’ve got 63 rounds to hand. Removing a mag from the holder in the stock was a bit awkward at first — the release is like a rocker switch, and you press down on the side that’s above the magazine you’re not trying to remove. Easy once you know, but not intuitive. Each round put a puff of smoke in my face so that I smelled noticeably like cordite in my car afterward. The stock is one-size-fits-all (it looks like it should telescope, but it doesn’t.), and it was a bit short for me, something I didn’t notice at first, but was definitely noticing by the end.
As a 9mm carbine, it uses pistol-caliber ammo, which is cheaper. But the big appeal, of course, is that it folds. With the stock folded it’s short enough to keep in a backpack, and it’s safe because it can’t fire in that position. (As the linked review says: “The design offers a couple of advantages: It’s perfectly safe when folded because the action cannot go into battery, and the bore is easily accessed for cleaning.”) I guess the appeal is that you could keep it as a “truck gun” (or a “trunk gun”). That’s not something I typically carry, but some people do. I don’t like to leave a gun in my car as it’s just something someone might steal. At best I’m out the price of the gun, and if it’s a fully loaded and ready-to-rock gun then it’s likely dangerous in the hands of whoever would steal it. Under circumstances of civil disorder I might do differently, but if things reach the point that I have to go strapped against rioting mobs, I think I’d either carry an M4 or just stay home.
Still a cool little gun, uses relatively cheap ammo, usefully accurate out to 100 meters or so, and not terribly expensive.