The 9mm cartridge is the Bee’s Knees. Who doesn’t like this crazy efficient little round? It’s capable of self-defense, very common, super affordable, and finds its way into tons of different platforms. This includes rifles, and they’ve become common enough to elicit their own genre we call pistol caliber carbines, or PCCs. Most PCCs come in 9mm, which is great. They often share specific pistol magazines, and that makes them easily accessible. With that in mind, what if we go beyond 9mm?
What if we embraced other pistol calibers? We all know they exist, and while the 9mm is great, it’s not the be-all, end-all perfect cartridge. This is especially true in rifles with longer barrels. While it does work fine, there are some other calibers and other PCCs that deserve a special mention. Today we are going beyond the 9mm pistol caliber carbine and embracing the bigger, the smaller, and everything in between.
Let’s go beyond 9mm.
Henry X Series
I could have picked nearly any Henry Big Boy rifle, but the X Series are some of my all-time favorite lever guns. They are modern and have a quasi-tactical look, but they are also a little more modern with a few nice features. The X Series includes three different rifles, including a .45 Colt, .357 Magnum (and .38 Special), and .44 Magnum (and .44 Special). All of those are pistol calibers, or more commonly, revolver cartridges outside of the Desert Eagle.
A lot of folks often forget that a good portion of modern lever actions are still pistol-caliber carbines. These lever guns offer you bigger and certainly faster bullets in the case of the .357 Magnum. These bigger, more powerful rounds are more capable of hunting tasks with a bit more range than the 9mm. Not a whole lot more, but enough to acknowledge. These are a great option for home defense, especially if you live in a state that bans most modern guns.
Extar EP45
Extar is the sleeper hit of the pistol-caliber gun world. Technically they are large-format pistols, but I’ll let them slide. Extar started with the EP9 but has recently released the EP45. As the name implies, the gun shoots the famed, all-American .45 ACP cartridge, and yes, it takes Glock mags. These are basic blowback designs, but Extar has a proprietary recoil-dampening system that makes them a real kitten to shoot.
The Extar EP45 comes with a standard Glock 21 mag, but with this extension, you can add a whole lot of extra ammo. The Extar EP45 delivers a handy little platform for plinking or home defense. It weighs less than five pounds and is only 23.8 inches long overall. It’s complete with an optic rail, M-LOK handguard and comes in at just under $500. It’s not only a great gun. It’s a bargain.
CMMG 10mm Banshee
CMMG are the masters of the pistol caliber carbine, and I own more than one of their famed radial delayed blowback operating system equipped rifles. This radial delayed blowback operating system is the key to their success with powerful calibers like the 10mm. The 10mm is a hefty duty cartridge, and straight blowback 10mm cartridges aren’t great in direct blowback guns. The Banshee eats up that recoil due to this delayed blowback cartridge and provides a soft shooting platform in a very powerful caliber.
10mm is no slouch. It can rival .357 magnum and even .41 Magnum with the right loading. In the Banshee, you get all that power with a fast-shooting, high-performing platform. It takes Glock mags, which, again, you can extend to make it a little more capable. Toss a red dot on it, and you’re ready to roll. The Banshee comes as a larger format pistol and an SBR. Hopefully, it will join the Resolute line sooner than later.
FN PS90
The FN PS90 is the OG of PDWs. You can argue that the 5.7x28mm is not necessarily a pistol cartridge, but it’s my list, so it’s to the comments for the argument. The PS90 is the civilian version of the P90 PDW. It’s a semi-auto bullpup, and while it comes with a silly long 16-inch barrel, it’s still shorter than most full-sized rifles. It fires the micro-sized 5.7x28mm cartridge and feeds from a top-mounted 50-round magazine.
It’s perfectly suited for home defense and even small-game hunting and predator elimination. The little cartridge has very little recoil, and even though the PS90 is a direct blowback action, you barely feel it. This fast-moving cartridge offers way more range than the 9mm and a flat shooting, lower recoiling experience with more ammo in less space. Plus, it’s the gun of Stargate.
Hi-Point .30 Super Carry
The .30 Super Carry made all the headlines a few years ago, and I’m not sure if it will ever catch on, but Hi-point has adopted it. The Hi-Point carbines are some of the cheapest rifle platforms on the market, and they use the standard Hi-Point mags and come in everything from .380 ACP to 10mm. The 3095 variant is brand new and is taking on the .30 Super Carry in its latest adoption.
The Hi-Point .30 Super Carry offers you a light, easy-shooting, blowback-operated carbine that holds ten rounds of the new Super Carry ammunition. The blowback operation isn’t rough, but an internal recoil buffer helps, as does the rather low recoil of the .30 Super Carry. This gun is not fancy by any means, but they tend to be reliable, and the Hi-Point’s warranty is tough to beat. It’s certainly the first PCC to utilize the .30 Super Carry.
Kriss Vector Series
The Kriss Vector series was one of the first to take on the heavy-duty .45 ACP in a modern submachine gun platform. While modern SMGs are sidelined these days, Kriss made the right move and released the Vector as a rifle, a pistol, and an SBR for the average Joe to purchase. The Kriss Vector does come in 9mm, but also 40 S&W, .45 ACP, and 10mm. The magic of the Kriss is in its operating system.
The Super V Recoil system needs a GIF to explain properly, but essentially some magic with a nonlinear, multilink, blowback system that redirects recoil downward. The Kriss Vector also places the barrel very low to prevent muzzle rise. This cuts recoil from the most powerful 10mm cartridges. The Kriss Vector uses Glock magazines, and once more, a few extensions will help with capacity.
Ruger Deerfield Carbine
My final pick is a bit of a wildcard since it went out of production nearly 20 years ago. The Ruger Deerfield Carbine is a .44 Magnum semi-auto platform designed for hunting deer in dense environments. It’s short with its 18.5-inch barrel and light at only 6.25 pounds. The rifle uses a rotary magazine that holds four rounds, but there were some aftermarket mags that amped the capacity up to 10 rounds.
The Deerfield carbine used a gas operation system that was quite clever and reduced recoil from the hefty .44 Magnum cartridge. The Deerfield has an open action, much like the Mini 14 series. It’s a very cool rifle design, and sadly only saw production for six years. I’m hoping Ruger gets the urge to bring it back because I really want one.
The World of Big Boy PCCs
The Pistol Caliber Carbine world has exploded, and it’s mostly dominated by 9mm. That doesn’t mean if you look in the corners of the industry, you won’t find calibers outside of 9mm. Sometimes you need something larger, or maybe even something a little smaller. Who knows? Let me know below what 9mm PCC alternative you prefer.
