Summer is right around the corner, and here in beautiful Florida, it seems like it’s already here. As temperatures hit the 90s, I’m bracing for a toasty, humid summer. As summer creeps in, we will likely start dressing a little lighter. Shorts, dresses, and other warm-weather wear become the norm, and when clothes get lighter, so do concealed carry guns. With that in mind, let’s look at some summer carry guns.
2025’s Summer Carry Guns
Not just any summer carry guns—these are new models released between late last year and this year that make excellent concealed carry options. These guns are small, light, and easy to carry in the humid summer. They match perfectly with summer clothing and work well with summer activities that tend to be more outdoor-based.
We want lightweight, low-recoiling, and easy-to-conceal guns—and that’s exactly what I’m bringing you.
S&W Bodyguard 2.0
The S&W Bodyguard 2.0 single-handedly changed my opinion of pocket .380s. It’s the only one I’ve shot that didn’t absolutely suck. The Bodyguard 2.0 keeps things small without sacrificing any capacity. S&W took the stack-and-a-half route, giving us a 10-round flush-fit magazine in the space we’d typically see six rounds.
They also switched to a striker-fired trigger, reducing trigger weight and pull distance. Oh, and they added usable sights—nice, big, high-visibility sights that make this thing easy to shoot out to 25 yards. The Bodyguard 2.0 fills the hand with its grip and offers excellent overall controls.
The S&W Bodyguard 2.0 has soft recoil, making it controllable and easy to shoot. It doesn’t feel like a firecracker going off in your hand. You can fire it quickly and effectively with excellent control. Somehow, they did all that with a gun that still drops into your pocket for everyday carry.
Beretta 20X Bobcat
The Beretta 20X Bobcat reminds me of the old kit or tackle box guns, making it perfect for summer carry. These are working guns designed to be taken into the great outdoors to help solve any problems as they arise. The 20X Bobcat is a semi-automatic .22LR handgun with the famed tip-up barrel design.
It’s pocket-sized and lightweight, with a DA/SA action that’s perfect for a .22LR semi-auto. Recoil is a non-issue, and the gun can be fired easily while carrying a fishing pole, a walking stick, or anything else occupying your other hand. The tip-up barrel also makes it easy to load a single special caliber round.
For example, you can load, fire, and manually eject a snake-shot round, a CB Cap round, or a similar ammunition suited for small game, pests, snakes, and more. Beretta tosses a nice set of sights on the gun, a great trigger, and threaded barrel options.
Charter Arms Coyote
I appreciate things that are a little different, such as the Charter Arms Coyote. At first glance, it looks like a normal snub-nose revolver. It holds five rounds, has an exposed hammer, a short barrel, compact grips, and all the standard features you’d expect. But the Coyote stands out by being chambered in the little .380 ACP cartridge.
Charter Arms has a history of naming their guns after canines, but I also can’t help but think they channeled Rick Perry, who famously shot a coyote with a .380 ACP pistol while on a morning run. The Charter Arms .380 ACP uses moon clips to hold the five rounds of ammo and provides end users with an affordable, lightweight revolver.
The gun weighs a hair over 14 ounces, but unlike other 14-ounce guns, it’s not pricey. Charter Arms makes affordable revolvers, and the Coyote is getting great reviews. It’s lightweight but also very light recoiling. The humble .380 won’t punish you for going lightweight, making the juice worth the squeeze. It’s an awesome summer carry revolver.
KelTec PR57
If the KelTec PR57 were a kid in school, we’d tease it for being weird and new, but at the end of the 90-minute film, it’d beat us all in a Karate Tournament. The PR57 is just weird. It’s a semi-automatic, rotary-barrelled pistol chambered in 5.7x28mm and uses a fixed magazine loaded via clips.
The reasoning behind a fixed, clip-loaded magazine is easy to see if you’ve ever fired a 5.7x28mm pistol. The long round creates these wide grips. KelTec solves this by creating a pistol without a grip that feels like a 2×4. It’s ultra slim and relatively lightweight for a 5.7 pistol. It weighs only 13.86 ounces total. It disappears easily under light clothing while still giving you 20 rounds of 5.7x28mm.
The PR57 has many modern features. It’s optics-ready, comes with a rail for mounting a light, and ships with two clips to make loading quick. It’s roughly the same as a Glock 19 in length but much thinner and lighter. It’s odd, but odd can work, and the PR57 works. If you don’t mind a little more size than most, it’s a summer carry option.
North American Arms Rule 1
Let’s say you’re a Speedo enthusiast. Gross, but I’m only judging you a little bit. You still deserve gun rights, but man, you’re going to have a tough time carrying a gun in a Speedo. Still, summer beckons. North American Arms and Lipseys teamed up to create the Rule 1 gun. The first rule of a gunfight is to have a weapon, so Rule 1 earns its name.
The Rule 1 gun is a single-action .22 Magnum revolver with a short 1 ⅝ inch barrel. It features the Hamre Forge Mini Hook Grips, which provide enough grip to shoot the gun and a clip to make it concealable in the pocket. The clip is small enough to blend in with a dark Speedo even. The gun comes with an XS front sight that’s easy to see and makes the gun easier to shoot.
The Rule 1 gun is about as small as a repeating gun can get. It wouldn’t be my first or second choice, but it’s better than harsh language. There have been verified self-defense uses of the NAA Mini Revolvers, so the concept isn’t that far out. If you absolutely need to wear a Speedo, then Rule 1 is for you.
Summer Carry Blues
I’m not a fan of summer. I’m heat-adverse, but the higher temps won’t keep me from packing heat. Summer carry can be challenging, but it’s far from impossible. The right gun makes all the difference, and hopefully, we’ve given you a few solid summer carry solutions.
