Best Pistol Caliber Carbines & AR-9s in 2024 [9mm and Other Calibers]

Click Here to Jump Ahead to All of the Best Pistol Caliber Carbines or continue reading about their pros and cons.

The Pros and Cons of Pistol Caliber Carbines

There's a lot to love about pistol caliber carbines (PCCs), though they're not without some faults.

Pros

Here are just some of the reasons I love them:

Cheap Ammo

Pistol caliber ammunition is generally more affordable than rifle ammunition, particularly when talking about 9mm ammo. The cheapest bulk 9mm ammo cost around $0.14 for steel cased ammo and $0.17 for ammo with brass casings. By contrast, the cheapest Remington .223 (AR-15 ammo) costs around $0.20 for steel ammo and $0.28 for brass ammo.

While this may not seem like a huge difference, its a savings of around 40% per round for brass cased ammo. Over 1000 rounds of gun fun, this would save you $110.

Readily Available Ammo

9mm and other pistol calibers are incredibly popular and readily available in the civilian market. I can also almost guarantee that you already have a pistol if you're reading this, so you'd be able to utilize that ammo in multiple types of firearms if you owned a pistol caliber carbine.

They Can Use Parts & Accessories You Already Own

Some of the PCCs and AR-9 options that we'll cover below use Glock magazines. Considering Glock manufactures some of the most popular 9mm pistols and handguns chambered in other calibers, there's also a good chance you already have Glock mags and could use them for even more firearms if you get a PCC.

It's like I know all about you, right?

If you're like me and aren't the biggest fan of Glock pistols, there's still a chance you can use some of what you already own. If you go the AR-9 route, a decent number of parts are interchangeable with AR-15 parts you already own. Some typical examples include pistol grips, stocks, pistol braces, and triggers.

Small and Maneuverable

While not a rule, pistol caliber carbines are often shorter than rifles, making them a worthwhile choice to consider for home-defense.

Honestly, a lot of this comes down to whether or not you 1) Want to go through the process of obtaining a Short Barreled Rifle (SBR) or 2) Are fine with a "pistol" (basically an SBR with a pistol brace instead of a stock).

*Remember, (at the time of writing this) the minimum barrel length of a rifle is 16" and the minimum overall length is 26". This applies to pistol caliber carbines, though a pistol brace in place of a stock can circumvent this. THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. ALWAYS BE SURE TO KNOW AND FOLLOW ALL FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LAWS. We've touched on these legalities more in our pistol brace guide.

Anyway, there are also legitimate reasons PCCs and AR-9s can be shorter than say an AR-15.

I would generally not recommend choosing an AR-15 with a barrel length less than 11.5" (or 10" if you really want to push it). Below these lengths you can run into cycling issues due to too little dwell time or increased parts ware as a result of manufacturers over-gassing AR-15 SBRs to "solve" this issue. Unlike .223/.556, these issues are not inherent to 9mm or other common pistol calibers.

Another reason you can feel fine opting for a shorter barrel is that you're not sacrificing performance when using 9mm or other pistol calibers as much as with rifle calibers. For example, 9mm gets close to its peak muzzle energy around 7-10", whereas the AR-15's .223 is best with a barrel length of 18"+.

Easier to Shoot Than Handguns

I've talked a lot about pistol caliber carbines vs rifles, but what about compared to handguns. The same way rifles are easier to shoot than handguns, PPCs also give you the benefit of more stability in part due to more contact points.

In a high-pressure self-defense situation, I'd take anything I can brace against my shoulder over a standard handgun.

Cons

Pistol caliber carbines do have a couple of major flaws:

Concealability

Good luck using a PPC as your CCW. While they can serve as a good home-defense gun or even a truck gun, they're not small enough to carry on your person. For that, you'll almost certainly have to stick to a normal handgun.

They can, however, be small enough to easily transport compare to some larger rifles.

Sub-optimal for Long Distances

Pistol caliber carbines were made to be used in close quarters. While you can stretch them out to 100 yards if necessary, anything past that and you'll begin to have major bullet drop and slowed velocity.

Even the AK-47's 7.62x.39mm round that is notoriously crappy at distance can easily stretch to 200-300 yards.

Inferior Stopping Power than Rifle Calibers

There's a reason that rifles cartridges exist. They don't just hold effectiveness better at long distances, but they also have more "stopping power" at any distance. On the plus side for PCCs, handgun calibers are less likely to over-penetrate through bodies or walls, making them somewhat less dangerous for defensive use.

Best Pistol Caliber Carbines

Now that you know why you need one, here are our picks for the best pistol caliber carbines starting with our most affordable recommendation:

Palmetto State Armory Pistol Caliber Carbines - Best AR-9 and AR-45 on a Budget

Rather than just choose one specific firearm, our first choice for the best pistol caliber carbine is anything Palmetto State Armory (PSA) makes in a handgun caliber.

If you've read any of our AR-15 parts guides, you've most likely seen us recommend PSA as a very affordable manufacturer of high-quality products. This extends to their lines of AR-9 and AR-45 firearms (see here and here).