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Last Updated: Aug 28, 2009 - 10:45:21 AM |
They sing of Yancy Derringer on every danger trail
In riverboats and manor house and now and then jail
They say that Yancy Derringer has ruffles on his wrists
Brocade and silver buckles
And iron in his fists
— Theme from television show “Yancy Derringer,” 1958-59
Derringer Beauty Shots...
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Okay, I gotta admit it, until I met Greg Bond, I pretty much thought of derringers as the punch line of a old joke…”or are you just happy to see me, cowboy?”
If you’ve never handled one of Greg’s derringers, think of it as the biggest baddest Hummer of pocket pistols, a double-barreled hunk’a’hunk’a’ burnin’ love, available in calibers like .45 Colt, .44 Special, 10mm, .357 Magnum, .40 S&W or — whew doggie! — 3-inch .410 gauge with 5 #000 buckshot pellets! Join hands, brothers and sisters, and join me in shouting, “We bad! We bad!” Go to the Bond Derringer site (http://www.bondarms.com/index.htm) and download the brochure for the whole story on just how unique his beastie is.
Mustang vs, Derringer
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At first glance, my Bond Derringer in .45/.410 (I also have an extra set of 1/2-inch shorter barrels in .44 Special, because I believe in .44 Special the way some folks believe in Elvis, bless his name) seems to dwarf my usual pocket pistol, a Colt Mustang .380 semiauto overhauled by Scott, MacDougal back in the day.
But appearances can be deceiving…the Colt Mustang weighs in at 18 3/4 ounces; the Bond blaster is heavier to be sure, but not by much...2 1/4 ounces. While the derringer grip is substantially fatter than the Colt, mainly because of the really nice wood grip panels, it’s about 5/8 inch shorter barrel-wise ( one-half inch moreso with the stubbier .44 Special barrels in place) and about a quarter-inch shorter in the frame. Both are single-action pistols — the Mustang carried cocked and locked; the derringer thumb-cocked for each round.
The Bond Arms Century 2000 with extra barrels
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Now, where the rubber meets the road…the Colt delivers six 85-grain SilverTips; the Bond, your choice of 10 #000 pellets or two whopping 225-grain .45 Colt Silvertips, or, hey, mix and match. Stick the .44 Special barrels on and deliver two 200-grain SilverTips, one of my all-time favorite self-defense cartridges.
Hmmmmm…so this got me thinking about the whole concept of a “pocket pistol.” And I’m going to do something out of character, which is to take the Bond Derringer seriously as a defensive pistol. Bottom line — It works for me.
What’s the definition of a “pocket” pistol, other than the obvious, a pistol you carry in your pocket?
How about, “A pocket pistol is the gun you carry when you’re not carrying a gun.” No, it’s not original, but it’s apt. I stuff the Mustang in my pocket when I’m going to run an errand in the little town I live in or I’m driving to the overnight shipping drop box and not getting out of the car. Otherwise, I carry my “real” gun, the SIG 225, in a holster.
I'm hungry! Feed me, Seymour!
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The other time I use a “pocket pistol” is when I walk Alf the Wonder Beagle; I usually throw a J-frame .38 revolver, either an S&W Airweight or a Taurus Ultra-Lite, in a coat pocket — I’ve always found the J-frames to be a bit wide in the cylinder for pants pockets.
Okay, to sum it up, a pocket pistol is a pocket-carried firearm for low-risk situations (or as a second gun, which makes total sense). The Bond Derringer certainly works perfectly in that context. It may only have two shots, but they’re two whoppers as opposed to a magazine full of smaller pellets. Think of it this way — I *hope* those 85-grain SilverTips will do the job; I *believe* in buckshot and 200+-grain SilverTips.
One interesting thing about the Bond is that it tends to string the buckshot vertically, with a pattern of about 4-5 inches at 10 feet. Greg says the vertical stringing is by design. In our tests, using an IPSC target with its rectangular A-zone, the Bond put 10 pellets into said A-zone at 7 yards. And yes, it recoils, but not so much that you throw the gun up in the air and scream like a little baby girl. In fact, that extra few ounces helps smooth out the big boomer cartridges...the Colts whack you harder than the shotgun shells, BTW.
Two other areas worth taking a look at…
I NEVER go into the backcountry without some kind of blaster. This is because I’ve spent a lot of time in the backcountry, which is full of things with big teeth and feral people. As a rule, I worry less about the things with big teeth than the feral people. Usually, I carry concealed…for the whole explanation, buy my book, TRAIL SAFE. I usually carry a .44 Special S&W 296 Air-Lite revolver. I’m thinking the little Bond might find a way into my backcountry arsenal, especially for quickie trips. I figure the .410 loads could easily discourage either an annoying pussycat — we’re infested with lions this year — or one of the two-legged predators, which we’re unfortunately also infested with this year.
A second area is a little sketchier but bears looking into. There’s been some talk that .410 revolvers — the original and profoundly weird Thunder 5, the new Taurus or the beefalo of the bunch, the BFR single action — might actually serve well in anti-carjacking scenarios — I believe Sheriff Jim Wilson at SHOOTING TIMES Magazine was the first to toss this idea around.
The rationale is that the up-close-and-personal nature of carjackings lend themselves to a quick multiple pellet solution.
A few years ago I decided to change from my usual semiauto to a revolver for long car trips, based largely on some simulations I put together with my shooting buddy and cofounder of the local IDPA club Tom Judd. In short, we found that if we put a person in a car seat with a safety belt attached, then had them draw and fire in a number of different scenarios, semiauto malfunctions soared.
Tom and I guessed that the awkward position enforced by the car seat/steering wheel/seat belt slightly broke the shooter’s grip on the gun when the shooter turned to engage targets on either side, resulting in a limp-wrist malfunction. Glocks were the worst, followed by 1911s. Knowing that, I’ve been a lot more careful with my gun grip during car-based simulations, but in the Real World, a big bore revolver neatly solves the problem.
Bond has a very interesting South African designed-and-built driving holster, which carries the gun in a horizontal crossdraw position. I’ve ordered the holster, but haven’t received it yet. I can see utilizing the Bond as a driving gun, especially for short low-risk trips.
All in all, the Bond Arms Derringer is ‘way cool. What would make it ideal for me is a set of super-narrow Micarta grip panels (I hate to turn my grinder on the really nice wood panels provided!). And I'd like them in, say, lime green.
© Copyright 2006 by DOWN RANGE TV
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