• SUBSCRIBE
Athlon Outdoors Supersite
Tactical Life Website
Ballistic Website
Personal Defense World Website
Skillsetmag Website
  • Guns
    • Handguns
      • Semi-Automatic Handguns
      • Revolvers
    • AR Pistols
    • AR Rifles
    • Rifles
      • Semi-Automatic Rifles
      • Lever Action
      • Bolt Action
    • Shotguns
    • Airguns
    • Custom Guns
      • Handgun Build
      • Rifle Build
      • Shotgun Build
    • Specialty Guns
  • Parts
    • Handgun Parts
    • Rifle Parts
  • Accessories
    • Optics & Sights
    • Lasers & Lights
    • Suppressors
    • Holsters
    • Slings
    • Shooting Rests
    • Targets
    • Maintenance & Tools
  • Ammo
    • Handgun Ammo
      • 9mm
      • 10mm
    • Rifle Ammo
      • .223
    • Shotgun Ammo
      • 12 Gauge
    • Rimfire Ammo
    • Reloading
  • Gear
    • Apparel
    • Ears & Eyes
      • Ears
      • Eyes
        • Thermal Vision
        • Night Vision
    • Storage
    • Tactical Gear
      • Body Armor
    • Knives
      • Fixed Blade
      • Folding Knives
      • Tactical Knives
    • Less Lethal
    • Flashlights
    • Electronics
  • Lifestyle
    • Concealed Carry
    • Personal Defense
      • Self-Defense
      • Hand to Hand Combat
    • Home Defense
    • Sport Shooting
      • Hunting
      • Competition Shooting
    • Precision Shooting/Long Range Shooting
    • Training
      • Shooting 101
    • Survival
      • First Aid
    • Tactical & LE
    • Pop Culture
      • People
      • Rides
      • History
      • Military Lifestyle
  • News
    • New Products & Industry News
    • Gun Facts & Laws
    • Police News
    • Military News
    • Politics
  • VIDEOS
No Result
View All Result
Athlon Outdoors
  • Guns
    • Handguns
      • Semi-Automatic Handguns
      • Revolvers
    • AR Pistols
    • AR Rifles
    • Rifles
      • Semi-Automatic Rifles
      • Lever Action
      • Bolt Action
    • Shotguns
    • Airguns
    • Custom Guns
      • Handgun Build
      • Rifle Build
      • Shotgun Build
    • Specialty Guns
  • Parts
    • Handgun Parts
    • Rifle Parts
  • Accessories
    • Optics & Sights
    • Lasers & Lights
    • Suppressors
    • Holsters
    • Slings
    • Shooting Rests
    • Targets
    • Maintenance & Tools
  • Ammo
    • Handgun Ammo
      • 9mm
      • 10mm
    • Rifle Ammo
      • .223
    • Shotgun Ammo
      • 12 Gauge
    • Rimfire Ammo
    • Reloading
  • Gear
    • Apparel
    • Ears & Eyes
      • Ears
      • Eyes
        • Thermal Vision
        • Night Vision
    • Storage
    • Tactical Gear
      • Body Armor
    • Knives
      • Fixed Blade
      • Folding Knives
      • Tactical Knives
    • Less Lethal
    • Flashlights
    • Electronics
  • Lifestyle
    • Concealed Carry
    • Personal Defense
      • Self-Defense
      • Hand to Hand Combat
    • Home Defense
    • Sport Shooting
      • Hunting
      • Competition Shooting
    • Precision Shooting/Long Range Shooting
    • Training
      • Shooting 101
    • Survival
      • First Aid
    • Tactical & LE
    • Pop Culture
      • People
      • Rides
      • History
      • Military Lifestyle
  • News
    • New Products & Industry News
    • Gun Facts & Laws
    • Police News
    • Military News
    • Politics
  • VIDEOS
No Result
View All Result
Athlon Outdoors Super Site
No Result
View All Result
  • TL
  • PDW
  • BM
  • Skillset
 
ENTER TO WIN: FREE GUN FRIDAY ft. Browning, Caldwell & Black Hills!

Bond Arms Defender: A Natural For CQB

ShareTweetPin
Bond Arms, bond arms derringer, bond arms defender, bond arms defender profile

The long barrel gives the Bond Arms Defender an undeniable aesthetic appeal and the dark wood stocks are gorgeous. Overall workmanship is superb. 

Will Dabbs MDbyWill Dabbs MD
May 15, 2015
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Henry Deringer produced his first pistol in 1830 and his initial offerings were percussion fired. Subsequent models fired fixed ammunition. Deringer’s influence over the genre was sufficient to transform his name into an eponym forever tied to these small pocket pistols.

Derringers were produced by a variety of manufacturers including Colt, Ethan Allen, and Remington. While Colt was the most prolific producer, it is the classic 1870’s era Remington that defined derringers.

Most of the original Remington derringers were chambered in .41 rimfire. The inspiration for the chrome-plated specimen used in this article dates back to the 1880s. The characteristic feature of this gun rests in the novel way in which the barrels load and secure to the frame. In the case of the classic Remington Double Derringer, a small lever on the right side of the frame swings through 180 degrees to unlock the barrels. The barrels may then be swung as a unit up and over the frame. This allows the ejection of spent cartridges via a manual ejector and subsequent reloading. Once loaded, the barrel assembly is rotated back into position and the locking lever is returned to its locked position.

The hammer must be manually cocked prior to firing and a cam system alternates barrels. The resulting single-action trigger is light and crisp. The short barrel and absence of sights worthy of the term restrict the weapon’s effectiveness to all but bad-breath distances.

Modern Backups

Now fast-forward 145 years and the Texas company Bond Arms is producing a 21st-century upgraded version of the timeless derringer design. Cut from stainless steel on state-of-the-art machines, the Bond Arms Defender is one of the most versatile concealed carry options on the market today.

The gun’s barrels interchange in moments simply by turning out a robust hex screw and dropping in another barrel assembly. Four barrel lengths range from 2.5 inches to 4.25 inches. Bond Arms offers 25 different caliber combinations. Additionally, modern developments in engineering and materials science bring an unprecedented degree of safety to the derringer platform.

RELATED STORY: Gun Review – Bond Arms Backup Derringer in .45 ACP & 9mm

Modern metallurgy allows the Bond Arms Defender to manage previously unimagined cartridges safely. Options range from .22 Winchester Magnum through all the common centerfire defensive handgun loads. It’s also offered in .410 shotshells. Rimfire barrel assemblies have the tubes bored slightly off-center to accommodate the rimfire design.

American shotguns typically must possess an 18-inch barrel for legality. The interesting loophole is that .410 shotshells fit and function just fine in guns chambered for .45 Long Colt so long as length dimensions are taken into consideration.

Winchester’s PDX1 Defender load typifies this genre. Available in both 2.5- and 3-inch versions, the PDX1 round pushes either three or four of what the company calls “Defense Disks” along with a handful of copper-plated BB shot.

The manual single-action hammer on the Bond Arms Defender is of the rebounding sort. The hammer will not contact the firing pin unless the trigger is pulled. At rest, the hammer sits back a bit from the firing pin. There is also a manual cross-bolt safety and a cam system that alternates barrels like the originals. The cross-bolt safety can be locked in place with an Allen wrench to render the gun inert. The Defender also incorporates a beefy triggerguard that the original models lacked. To break the gun open, the spring-loaded release lever is now on the left side and easily accessed. The extractor is a manual device mounted to the right side of the barrel assembly.

Options include bare stainless or baked-on black finishes as well as a variety of grip variants ranging from pedestrian soft black rubber to gorgeous laser-engraved wood stocks.

Shots Fired

The inevitable question that arises over such a small gun firing such large cartridges concerns recoil. Recoil is a function of the power of a given cartridge, the weight of the gun as well as the design of the grip and its resulting surface area. Broad grips distribute recoil forces while thin ones bite painfully. The Bond Arms Defender strikes a nice balance between concealability and recoil mitigation.

Accuracy is adequate for self-defense ranges and downrange thump with state-of-the-art centerfire defensive loads or high-tech shotshell offerings is undeniably impressive. The trigger is intentionally fairly thick and heavy, but this is a close-range (bad breath distances) defensive handgun, not a super-tactical sniper rifle. The derringer pistol is utterly safe to carry, quick to employ, and devastating downrange.

I picked the shortest barrel (2.5 inches) in a heavy caliber (.45 ACP) and fired two boxes of ammunition through the gun in fairly rapid succession just to see how bad it could be. Replicating real-world tactical conditions I could handily keep all my rounds in a pie plate at reasonable self-defense ranges. Shot distribution from the Winchester PDX1 Defender Personal Defense rounds covered a comparable area. At the end of the day, my hand sported a nice buzz, but even in such a diminutive package recoil was tolerable. The argument could be made that if your defensive handgun is really fun to shoot quite often, it is likely too underpowered to get the job done reliably. Lower-powered, longer-barreled loadings yielded more pleasant shooting and markedly tighter groups.

RELATED STORY: Bond Arms’ New California-Legal Derringers

The pocket derringer is a proven design that has served as a defensive staple for nearly two centuries. In its current form, the Bond Arms Defender brings unprecedented safety, versatility and concealability to the modern defensive handgun market. As a defensive firearm or backup gun for law enforcement applications, the Bond Arms Defender has something for literally everybody.

For more information, visit https://www.bondarms.com or call 817-573-4445.

Didn't find what you were looking for?

MOST POPULAR

Taurus Home Defender revolver in .410.

KA-BOOM: Here Comes the Taurus Judge Home Defender!

300 Blackout vs 308, rifles, ammunition

300 Blackout vs 308 Win: Which Round Reigns Supreme in AR-15s?

Police Sidearms, police duty pistols, Handguns, America's Largest Police Departments 2018

Police Sidearms: Handguns of America’s 10 Largest Departments

All the best new handguns seen at SHOT Show 2023.

21 Best New Handguns [2023]

TRENDING

M24 Reborn!

Caldwell E-Max Low Profile Mossy Oak Break-Up hearing protection

Top 6 Electronic Hearing Protection Devices for the Range [2022]

Military Surplus 2015

MILITARY SURPLUS 2015

Sig Sauer P320 9mm

Sig Sauer P320 9mm First Striker Fired Pistol | VIDEO

BROWSE BY BRAND

Skillset-Logo_yellow-153x47png
Ballistic_LOGO-217x47
CH-Logo_blue-153x47
T-L-SS-stack life-47x140
PDW_CCH_LOGO-300x101
PDW-2022-Sidebyside-logo 160x30-blk
GOW LOGO x101
AF_LOGO-184x47

SPOTLIGHT

The Watchtower Type 15M.

Watchtower Type 15M is Premium Forged and “All American Made”

New to the game, Watchtower Firearms is making some serious waves in the industry. After the acquisition of F-1 Firearms,...

RELATED POSTS

The 21st Tec TEC47 Rifle.

The 21st Tec TEC47 AR-10 in 7.62x39mm Accepts AK Mags

...

The Sig Sauer P320 FCU and Custom Shop circumvent restrictive state regulations.

Sig P320 FCU and Custom Shop Overcome Restrictive State Laws

...

The GOSAFE Mobile Mag and Mobile Safe.

The GOSAFE: Is This the Most Convenient Pistol Safe Yet?

...

Load More

TRENDING

Wilson Combat Tactical Carry Compact Pistol

Wilson Combat Releases Tactical Carry Professional, Compact Pistols

Wilson Combat's pistol arsenal has grown exponentially in 2015, but the company has just recently announced perhaps its biggest (and...

Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in American Sniper.

Reel Shooters: The Best Movie Snipers & a Few of the Worst

Fans of action and war movies would be forgiven for thinking that trained snipers carry their rifles disassembled in an...

Big Horn Armory AR500 review, .500 Auto Max Semi-Auto AR

Big Horn Armory AR500: Testing the Absurdly Powerful AR in .500 Auto Max

The start of a new century seemed to wake up designers in their quest to expand AR roles via caliber...

The Sig Sauer P226 Zev.

The Sig Sauer P226 Zev Reviewed: Is It the Best P226 Ever?

Sig Sauer HQ in Newington, New Hampshire, has been a busy place for the last several years. Multiple successes with...

MOST POPULAR

The Mossberg MC2sc semi-auto pistol.

12 Best Micro-Compact Handguns for Concealed Carry [2022]

A thick veil of fog stood forever in front of me as I cruised down the highway at 6:30 in...

Police Sidearms, police duty pistols, Handguns, America's Largest Police Departments 2018

Police Sidearms: Handguns of America’s 10 Largest Departments

Law enforcement in the United States is in constant evolution and that includes various police sidearms. These days, law enforcement...

U.S. Secret Service adopts Glock G47

FIRST LOOK: Glock Just Very Quietly Unveiled the New Glock 47 Pistol

Tuesday afternoon we broke news that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection selected three Glock 9mm pistols as its new standard...

All the best new handguns seen at SHOT Show 2023.

21 Best New Handguns [2023]

The NSSF SHOT Show is the premier event to get your hands on new gear. It gives us a first...

VIDEO SERIES: AT THE READY | SEASON 2

MORE VIDEOS

The 21st Tec TEC47 Rifle.

The 21st Tec TEC47 AR-10 in 7.62x39mm Accepts AK Mags

Walker's Disrupter earbuds.

Walker’s Disrupter Earbuds Tested: Comfortable All-Day Protection

HANDGUNS

The Sig Sauer P320 FCU and Custom Shop circumvent restrictive state regulations.

Sig P320 FCU and Custom Shop Overcome Restrictive State Laws

New Graphene finish.

The Taurus GX4 Micro-Compact is Now Available in Graphene

The Pedersoli Howdah.

The Pedersoli Howdah: Recreating the Howdah’s Legacy

The SK Customs Morelos.

SK Customs Morelos 1911 Heralds Generalissimo Jose Morelos

The Tisas Model 1911A1 Aviator

Tisas 1911A1 Aviator: Bringing Back the ‘Feel’ of the Original

The Sig Sauer P226 Zev.

The Sig Sauer P226 Zev Reviewed: Is It the Best P226 Ever?

RIFLES - click to see all

The 21st Tec TEC47 Rifle.

The 21st Tec TEC47 AR-10 in 7.62x39mm Accepts AK Mags

The Watchtower Type 15M.

Watchtower Type 15M is Premium Forged and “All American Made”

The Heritage Tactical Rancher Carbine.

Heritage Tactical Rancher Carbine Brings the .22 LR and Mag Fun

The limited edition RISE Armament Topo Watchman rifle.

UPDATED: New RISE Armament Topo Watchman Limited-Edition

AMMO - click to see all

HEVI-Shot HEVI-Bismuth Upland loads.

HEVI-Shot HEVI-Bismuth Upland Expands Hunting Lineup

Ammo Storage, Survival Ammo, long term ammo storage, Prepper

Best Methods for Long-Term Ammo Storage

6 .410 Ammo Options for Home and Personal Defense.

.410 Ammo for Home Defense [2023]

.44 Magnum dirty harry

Your Guide to the .44 Magnum Cartridge

The Escort PS Youth 20-gauge shotgun.

The Escort PS Youth Shotgun is Now Available in .410 Bore

The 2022 Athlon Outdoors Rendezvous event.

Rendezvous Roundup: Guns & Gear at Athlon’s Signature Event

Magazines Available Now! Subscribe today for Home Delivery!
FREE NEWSLETTERS! Subscribe!
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • TERMS OF USE
  • CORPORATE
  • ADVERTISE
  • EDIT DESK
No Result
View All Result
  • Guns
    • Handguns
      • Semi-Automatic Handguns
      • Revolvers
    • AR Pistols
    • AR Rifles
    • Rifles
      • Semi-Automatic Rifles
      • Lever Action
      • Bolt Action
    • Shotguns
    • Airguns
    • Custom Guns
      • Handgun Build
      • Rifle Build
      • Shotgun Build
    • Specialty Guns
  • Parts
    • Handgun Parts
    • Rifle Parts
  • Accessories
    • Optics & Sights
    • Lasers & Lights
    • Suppressors
    • Holsters
    • Slings
    • Shooting Rests
    • Targets
    • Maintenance & Tools
  • Ammo
    • Handgun Ammo
      • 9mm
      • 10mm
    • Rifle Ammo
      • .223
    • Shotgun Ammo
      • 12 Gauge
    • Rimfire Ammo
    • Reloading
  • Gear
    • Apparel
    • Ears & Eyes
      • Ears
      • Eyes
    • Storage
    • Tactical Gear
      • Body Armor
    • Knives
      • Fixed Blade
      • Folding Knives
      • Tactical Knives
    • Less Lethal
    • Flashlights
    • Electronics
  • Lifestyle
    • Concealed Carry
    • Personal Defense
      • Self-Defense
      • Hand to Hand Combat
    • Home Defense
    • Sport Shooting
      • Hunting
      • Competition Shooting
    • Precision Shooting/Long Range Shooting
    • Training
      • Shooting 101
    • Survival
      • First Aid
    • Tactical & LE
    • Pop Culture
      • People
      • Rides
      • History
      • Military Lifestyle
  • News
    • New Products & Industry News
    • Gun Facts & Laws
    • Police News
    • Military News
    • Politics
  • VIDEOS

© 2023 Athlon Outdoors - Premium Firearm product and industry news, reviews and magazines" .