Bond Arms of Granbury, Texas has kept the derringer concept alive for the last 30 years. The company took the legendary Remington Model 95’s basic design and perfected it into a safer and harder-hitting package that could still be practically carried. While the idea of a two-shot handgun might seem archaic, Bond has managed to make it work by producing a high-quality product that delivers two heavy hits.
Until recently, Bond’s derringers had the downside — or potential upside — of being big stainless-steel chunks compared to the ultra-concealable vest pocket derringers of old. As a fan of small, concealable handguns, I yearned for the day Bond might scale down the design. In 2020, that happened with the rollout of the Stinger and the later Stinger RS derringers. I snatched up a Stinger RS as my first Bond product and grew to love the little gun. But when Bond introduced their Stubby, an even more abbreviated version of the Stinger RS, I had to touch one off.
Features
The Bond Arms Stubby is a virtual facsimile of the Stinger RS, except it is cut down to an even smaller size. The RS has a trigger guard that is integral to the grip frame and sports three-inch barrels. The Stubby dispenses with the trigger guard in favor of a traditional exposed spur trigger and the barrel is lopped shorter.
Otherwise, the Stubby has the same stainless steel bird’s head grip frame, Zytel grips, and cross-bolt hammer block safety. Like the Stinger RS, the Stubby has an exposed hammer that rebounds to the half-cock position after each shot is fired. It also has the same scalloped appearance that is not seen on most Bond guns. The frame is bead-blasted, while the barrels are polished along the flats. The Stubby comes in at the same .75-inch barrel and frame thickness as the Stinger.
At first glance, the Stubby has the same sighting arrangement that is on other Bond guns: the notched barrel hinge at the rear and a front blade milled into the top of the barrel. But the Stubby uses an existing three-inch Stinger barrel that is milled off at 2.2 inches. This shortens the front sight considerably. Gordon Bond of Bond Arms jokingly refers to the Stubby having a 100 yard zero because that short front sight would make the Stubby print high when fired up close when lining up the sights. This pistol is one of the few made nowadays as intended to be a true point-and-shoot proposition.
With the lack of a trigger guard and very short barrels, the Stubby is the smallest Bond Arms product yet. It comes chambered in .22 LR, .380 ACP, or 9mm Luger. The .22 version comes with a thumb extractor to kick out the empty cases, while the other models have a fingernail groove as the thumb extractor does not work with the rimless .380 or 9mm rounds. The pistol is a stubby 4.25 inches long and 3.75 inches tall. Unloaded, the Stubby comes in at only 13.6 ounces. My model is in .380 ACP. Fully loaded, it weighs 14.1 ounces.
On the Range
The Bond Arms Stubby was created as an ultra-compact pistol to be deployed at very close distances, where the lack of sights and a longer barrel are not as essential as ease of carry and quick deployment. While we shouldn’t hold little guns to the same standard as a larger handgun, that doesn’t mean guns like these are point-and-shoot propositions alone. After a good cleaning, I packed up the Stubby and a few different .380 loads and headed for the range to see how it would shoot.
Although I was cautioned against it, I started my shooting with the Bond Arms Stubby by seeing where the sights hit. An experienced shooter will see the sights on the Stubby and instinctively try to line them up. After all, that is how most pistols today work. I started by setting up an 18 by 48-inch paper target at seven yards and taking shots with the Stubby from a bench rest.
Loading the Stubby is a straightforward proposition. It is accomplished by thumbing the barrel release down and swinging the barrel on its hinge to expose the chambers. Drop two rounds into the chambers and then lock the barrel back to the frame. With the cross-bolt safety pushed to the right, all you have to do is cock the hammer and press the trigger to fire a round. The barrel selector that slides vertically along the hammer nose determines if the top or bottom barrel will fire first.
I loaded the Stubby with two Privi Partizan .380 ACP 94 grain FMJ rounds, aimed for the 10-ring at the center of the target and pressed the trigger, cocked the hammer, lined up the sights, and pressed the trigger again. In a shocking twist, none of those two rounds hit the 10-ring. Both rounds struck the center head portion of the target.
To confirm the result, I decided to take some more shots. Since this version of the Stubby does not have an extractor, I had to pull the cases out with a fingernail. A machined groove that exposes the rims of each case in the left side of the barrels helps with this. I fired four additional rounds and got a group size of five inches clustered on the head of the target. A closer look at the group reveals that the top barrel prints about two inches higher than the bottom barrel.
Despite the high point of impact with the fixed sights, the Stubby shoots more accurately than it looks. After some more offhand shots, I decided to test different ammunition to see if the windage changes. In small lightweight guns like these, it is often the case that heavy-for-caliber bullets will shoot higher and light-grain loads will hit lower. I shot the Stubby from the same distance using the following loads:
- Remington Golden Saber 102 grain JHP
- Hornady Critical Defense 90 grain FTX
- Underwood 90 grain +P XTP
- Federal Indoor Range Lead Free 70 grain FMJ
True to form, when holding for the center of the target, the Remington load sailed through the cardboard above the head of the target. The 90-grain loads hit in the same spot as the 94-grain FMJ impacts. The 70-grain Federal lead-free load hit eight inches lower into the upper chest of the target.
The point of impact shift was improved but still too high for comfort with the usual sight picture. Although the Stubby technically has sights, they are not of much use. So I decided to go back to my PPU 94 grain FMJ load and try my hand at point-shooting the Stubby. Rather than looking down the sights, I indexed the gun out as if pointing my finger at the target while looking over the sights. After some dry repetitions, I found that the pistol’s front sight naturally disappeared when pointing it at the target.
I next loaded the Stubby and shot another torso target, first at three yards, then five yards, and finally seven yards. Three yards is just out of arm’s reach and both rounds hit in the center of the target, nearly touching each other. The further out I backed off, the more unsure I felt about the technique. To my surprise, I was able to place both rounds in the center of the target at five and seven yards. At the latter distance, I took a few more shots and got a six-inch group for my trouble. While using the sights produced slightly better groups, point shooting was nearly as good and it placed the bullets where I actually wanted them to go. Accuracy was better than expected, especially when compared to other .380 pocket pistols on the market out there. Part of the equation that may have helped was the trigger. It has a short, crisp break at just over six pounds.
Aside from mastering the sights, the Stubby is surprisingly easy to shoot. The .380 ACP is not known for its power, but when it is fired out of very lightweight automatic pistols, recoil can be very prohibitive to fast follow-up shooting and developing good shooting habits. But I found the recoil of the Stubby to be very manageable, whether you are shooting one-handed or two-handed. The Stubby should not be so easy to shoot. There are no moving parts or recoil springs to disperse recoil like with a conventional pistol. The Stubby pushes the bird’s head grip directly into your palm with every shot, but it is a gentle push.
If I had to speculate, I would imagine that the Stubby’s rear-heavy stainless steel frame plays a factor in taming the recoil. It may also help that the .380 comes out of the Stubby’s 2.2-inch barrel at a lower velocity than a pocket .380, which normally has a 2.75-inch barrel. In fact, from bullet to muzzle, the Stubby only has 1.25 inches of barrel travel.
At great peril to my chronograph, I fired a few rounds of Hornady Critical Defense load over my Caldwell Chronograph to check how much power was being lost. This 90-grain load clocked in at an average velocity of 787 feet per second. This same load, through my 2.75-inch barreled Ruger LCP, leaves the muzzle at 902 feet per second. The .380 Stubby certainly won’t have the same amount of power as most .380 pistols out there, but given its compactness, its bigger bullet compared to other micro gun calibers is something to keep in mind.
The Stubby is dimensionally smaller than any .380 on the market and it has surprisingly lower recoil. But the Stubby might be easier to shoot for another reason — you are limited to two rounds at a time. Instead of gnashing away through dozens of rounds, you get two rounds before you have to break the pistol open and start the process over again.
On one hand, the Stubby is downright enjoyable to load and it is easy to verify if it is loaded or not. But once the shells are empty, you have to get them out. The .380 Stubby does not have an extractor. Instead, there is a machined groove that allows you to take a fingernail and flick the empty cases out of the chambers. This is a true pocket pistol that is intended to be used and not reloaded in a hurry.
With a clean pistol, I could go through six rounds before my fingernails would no longer work to clear the cases from the pistol. After another six rounds, the case extraction process became more stubborn. After my initial sight in, I gave the Stubby a cleanup and kept a Breakthrough 9mm cleaning kit for subsequent sessions. After several rounds, I would swab the barrels with a clean cotton patch and I could keep shooting with ease.
Parting Shots
All the way back in 2013, Bond Arms released their Backup line of derringers. These are two-shot derringers that used semi-auto rimless cartridges that could be used in a standard duty pistol. The derringer could now be a true companion to a larger and more capable handgun. I believe Bond Arms missed a marketing opportunity, as the Stubby is perhaps better suited to the role. It is the smallest handgun in their lineup and it is smaller than most pocket pistols out there. It is also the most reliable of a category of handgun that seem to become more prone to reliability issues as they grow smaller. The Stubby, despite its lopped barrel, is still a simple two-shot derringer that is easy to deploy and easy to carry.
Although the sights and case extraction are lacking, it is somewhat meant to be. The Stubby is intended to be a true backup gun intended to be carried a lot, shot up close, and scarcely reloaded. Point shooting as a whole is somewhat frowned upon by modern shooters who prefer to use the sights in order to get the hits. While a taller front sight would help round out this backup package, the Stubby is still an option to contend with compared to other handguns of its size and it is one that will stay at the bottom of my pocket for some time to come.
