I get this question a lot from folks who have interest in my “pocket rockets”, aka “small pistol skills”, aka “practical practice with pocket poppers” course.
The answer is, well, it depends…
Quite a bit depends on the shooter’s hand size vs the gun. For me, at 6’2″ and size L or XL hands depending on who is making the gloves, a Glock 42, 43, 26, Sig 365, Ruger LCP, and in revolvers the S&W J frames and the Ruger LCR and SP101 all qualify as “small”. Why? because they are small enough vs my hand size that I have to modify the TTPs (techniques, tactics, procedures) that I use from those that I use for full sized service pistols/revolvers. Things like reloads and malfunction clearing have to be modified from those TTPs normally taught when the gun gets too small for one’s hands.
For me a Glock 19 is just big enough to run like a full sized gun, the Glock 26 and 43 are not. For a few of my friends who have hands the size of a catcher’s mitt the Glock 19 counts as a “small pistol”. A few of my small friends can run a Glock 43, or even a 42, with the same TTPs that I use for service pistols.
What’s a small pistol? Well, it depends…