Why do I like Pistol Caliber Carbines oh so much? I’m not sure, to be honest. They have some perks. PCCs are easy to suppress, work well with uber short barrels, and can come in a wide variety of calibers.
I just love them, and love shooting close and fast. I also have this penchant for submachine guns, and PCCs are the closest I’ll ever get.
Pistol-caliber carbines are a surprisingly diverse category of firearms. I’d argue they are the most diverse branch of firearms. Even my list here represents a diverse group of firearms. Carbine typically means rifle, but I’m including various large-format pistols to round out the list of the best PCCs of SHOT Show 2026.
Nemo Arms Mongoose 10mm
The 10mm cartridge just won’t die. It’s favored for its power, its excellent penetration and expansion, plus it’s fairly flat shooting for a pistol cartridge out to 100ish yards. It fits well in PCCs, SBRs, and even SMGs.
The Nemo Arms Mongoose has been around for a long time in 9mm, but at SHOT 2026, the 10mm variant premiered. The Mongoose isn’t your average PCC. It’s not a direct blowback gun; it’s a short-recoil-operated gun, much like the vast majority of modern handguns.
The Mongoose has a moving barrel to operate the internal system. This has a ton of benefits for PCCs. First, it reduces recoil and makes the 10mm platform easier to shoot. Second, the system allows you to create a fairly lightweight platform that’s devoid of heavy buffer springs, bolts, and the like.
The 10mm has a bit more oomph than the 9mm, especially in proper 10mm loadings, so having a lightweight, light recoiling platform is massively beneficial.
The lower is very AR-like but does not require a receiver extension. This allows for folding stocks or braces. The gun has ambidextrous controls and uses Glock 20 magazines. The upper receiver is monolithic with a long optics rail.
The handguard is M-LOK, and a charging handle is squeezed between the optic’s rail and the M-LOK slots, placed right above the barrel for easy access. It’s a well-made, well-executed platform chambering the centimeter.
Henry Hush
Remember, I said that PCCs were a fairly diverse field of firearms? Well, that includes lever-action rifles. The Henry Hush does come in proper rifle calibers, like .45-70, as well as cartridges like .45 Colt, .44 Magnum, and .357 Magnum.
The Henry Hush series still counts as PCC, and it’s part of Henry’s Special Products Division. The Hush Series incorporates a ton of extremely modern features that integrate modern touches to an old platform. This includes a carbon fiber wrapped barrel to reduce weight, especially when you mix in a can.
The barrels are threaded for suppressors, and the Hush name is enough of a clue to tell you that the gun is meant to be suppressed. Lever guns suppress well, thanks to their manual action.
The Hush series is an optics-ready gun with a short section of rail across the top. Up front, we have a lightweight aluminum handguard with M-LOK slots to mount all the accessories you could ever want. The Hush series takes the lever action into the modern era, and in the right caliber, makes for a dynamic and powerful pistol caliber carbine.
Navy Arms De Lisle Commando Carbine
Navy Arms always has something cool in the pipeline. They seem to be willing to embrace odd, foreign firearms and suppressors that the American market has never gotten its hands on. This year, they introduced a replica of the De Lisle Commando Carbine in .45 ACP.
The De Lisle was a product of the British SOE during World War 2. They wanted a suppressed rifle that was extremely quiet to remove sentries. The gun famously used an Enfield action, modified 1911 magazines, and an integral suppressor.
Mixing the subsonic 230-grain .45 ACP cartridges with a suppressor creates an extremely silent rifle.
Navy Arms is now building both traditional De Lisle carbines and an optics-ready option. These guns have a permanently attached suppressor that results in a one-stamp rifle. The barrel length totals out to 19 inches with an overall length of 36 inches.
The magazines hold eight rounds of .45 ACP, and spare magazines are produced and sold by Navy Arms to keep your De Lisle running. The micro-sized carbine has a walnut wood stock, a parkerized finish, and looks fantastic.
Is there a downside? It’s priced at over $6,000 and weighs 9.5 pounds. It’s hefty on both the wallet and in the hands.
Noveske N9
We couldn’t get through the best PCCs list without a single AR-style PCC in 9mm. You can stack the bed of a truck with 9mm AR-type PCCs. With that said, at Staccato Range Day, I got to shoot the Noveske N9 and walked away impressed.
The Noveske N9 comes in three configurations. We have the Schwartz with a 16-inch barrel and the Space Creep in both pistol and SBR configurations. The guns are direct blowback-operated, which is as simple as it gets.
They use Colt SMG magazines, which I tend to prefer for both aesthetic reasons and because they load easier due to the double-stack, double-feed design.
Nothing fancy so far. What makes the Noveske N9 stand out is the ergonomics and the smooth recoil impulse. Noveske keeps a traditional design, but below and behind the magazine sits an ambidextrous paddle magazine release that’s super easy to use and just perfect for a short subgun. The safety and bolt release are also ambidextrous, which is a nice touch.
Then we get a flared magwell for reloads, an oversized trigger guard, and the Noveske Gen4 NSR M-LOK handguard. It’s a series of modernized PCCs that take steps to make the AR-9 a more ergonomic platform.
The Noveske N9 uses a VLTOR A5H4 buffer that likely helps tame the violent recoil impulse of a direct blowback AR. The design creates a smooth shooting platform with minimal recoil, at least a lot less than similar firearms in the same genre.
Flux Raider 365 Ultralight
I’m a big PDW fan, and Flux makes the best PDWs. The Raider series redefined what a PDW can be for the average Joe, and the Raider 365 created an extremely compact platform that’s easy to shoot at 50 yards and even out to 100 yards with a skilled shooter.
The Flux Raider 365 Ultralight takes the Raider 365 and replaces the aluminum with polymer. This cuts five ounces and some change, and it’s about $150 off the price tag. The Raider 365 Ultralight uses the SIG P365 fire-control chassis, slide, and barrel to create a super-compact platform.
You have to use the P365XL slide at a minimum, but overall, the gun is extremely small. The brace deploys rapidly, and the gun carries a spare magazine up front for rapid magazine changes.
The Raider 365 Ultralight is the micro-sized PDW to beat. The brace or stock with the SBR variant allows you to reach out and touch targets and improve control. At the range, the Ultralight has a fair bit of recoil; the little stock doesn’t offer much support, but if you pull it in tight, it won’t beat you up.
While you experience a bit of recoil rearward, you have improved control for rapid fire and long-range hits. This entire setup creates an extremely compact weapon. It’s thin, it’s light, and easy to carry. It drops into a bag with ease, and even has an IWB holster if you want to pack it in your waistband!
PCCs and You
PCCs are a bit of an odd genre. They have carved out a very successful market corner for themselves. The give us a diverse, fun, and handy type of firearms that fill a multitude of competition, defensive, or just plain fun guns niches.
