Top Handgun-Carbine Combos

Although once nearly forgotten as a relic of the Old West, the value of handguns and rifles that shoot the same cartridge has been rediscovered, especially for self-defense. Today, there are actually more options than there were in the cowboy era, and the performance from cartridges like the 9mm Luger, 45 Colt, 38 Special, 44 Magnum, and others is better than at any time in history thanks to improvements in bullet construction and the use of modern propellants. Let’s take a look at some of the best handgun-carbine loads and guns available now.

The Right Carbine-Handgun Combination For Defense

Lever-action, semi-auto and even bolt-action carbines all work for self-defense, and there are several of these available in handgun calibers. Some popular autoloader choices are Ruger’s LC and PC autoloading carbines, which are available in 45 Auto, 9mm Luger and 5.7x28, as well as Smith & Wesson’s 9mm and M&P FPC and Kel-Tec’s SUB2000, another 9mm. Smith & Wesson, Henry, Marlin and Rossi all offer lever-action rifles available in handgun cartridges, and Ruger even offers bolt-action rifles in 357 Magnum and 44 Magnum.

Handgun/rifle combination choices are largely a matter of personal taste, but lever-gun cartridges typically function in revolvers and semi-auto rifles and handguns typically use the same cartridges. This is because cartridges for revolvers and lever guns like the 327 Federal Magnum, 357 Magnum, 45 Colt and 44 Magnum feature a rim that helps them function in both lever guns and revolvers. Rimless cartridges like the 9mm Luger and 45 Autos are more popular with autoloading guns.

The Advantages

Having a handgun/rifle combination in the same caliber offers many options, and one of those is that a rifle offers more range, better accuracy, and more energy even with the same load when compared to a handgun. The rifle’s added barrel length increases velocity, which directly increases kinetic energy, and this results in a more effective defensive weapon. For example, Speer’s Gold Dot Carbine load firing a 135-grain hollow point bullet reaches 1,170 feet per second from carbine-length barrels, but shoots well from a pistol as well.

That illustrates an important point: You don’t have to buy ammo that is specifically designed for one platform. Yes, Gold Dot Carbine is optimized to perform in longer barrels while Gold Dot Carry Gun is designed for short barrels, but I’ve had great luck with standard 124-grain Gold Dot ammunition in both my 9mm rifles and handguns. If you want to tweak ammunition to obtain peak performance out of your rifle or carbine, you can do so, but if you’re simply interested in reliable performance, then you can buy one load and shoot it through both guns.

Incidentally, most people are quite surprised by how far they can accurately shoot a pistol caliber carbine (PCC). On my range, we have steel set up at 200 yards, and while I struggle to hit anything at that distance with a handgun, I can routinely strikes steel at that range using a PCC loaded with Gold Dot 9mm ammunition. The heft of the larger gun platform also helps absorb recoil.

Another benefit is that oftentimes the rifle will use the same magazines as the pistol. This makes range time more efficient because you can load up several magazines in advance. This is also a good tactic for self-defense since you can keep multiple magazines loaded with Gold Dot ammunition.

Always Ready

Ultimately, you must choose the right ammunition for self-defense, and that’s why Gold Dot has become the standard. Most homeowners won’t be called to shoot through barriers, but barrier-blind ammunition like Gold Dot offers yet another layer of performance you can rely on when you need it most. In the vast majority of home-defense scenarios, shots will be close and fast. Having a reliable pistol caliber carbine or lever gun will offer a distinct advantage if you need to make a longer shot down a hallway, and in the event your carbine stops functioning, you have a backup gun immediately available that fires the same ammunition—and maybe even uses the same magazine—as your now-defunct long gun.