I took my new little Ruger LCP .380 to the range today. It's very
similar to the Kel-Tec 3AT.

This thing is so tiny and light (12 oz) I expected it to be quite
unpleasant to shoot and probably not very accurate in my hands. It's
sole virtue, I thought, was that it's so small and light I would
actually carry it when perhaps I should be carrying something more
than hope for my safety and welfare on my daily 3-mile walks.

Boy was I surprised. My first three shots from 21 feet comprised a
group of about 1.5" spread with two holes nearly touching, said group
about 1/2" left of my aim point. "Sacred feces", I exclaimed, or
words to that effect.

Those first three, first ever thru that pistol, were fired very
deliberately with no regard for speed. That would be unrealistic
in an actual self-defense situation but I wanted to see what the
best I might expect might be. That'll do! When I speeded up my
rate of fire to a more realistic pace, accuracy degraded markedly
but was still quite acceptable with all shots hitting well within
center of mass on a standard silhouette target. My performance will
improve with practice with the slightly-better-than-awful trigger.

I was amazed and delighted to discover that this little popper is not
at all unpleasant to shoot. Au contraire, it's fun! For perspective,
I do not like harsh recoil, not at all. I know women who like the
Kahr PM9 just fine but 20 rounds thru one of those was plenty for me.
I thought it was a nasty little bitch and wanted no more of that. I
have no problem with larger caliber handguns of appropriate mass but
I don't want to carry one. I'm retired.

I could easily shoot 100 rounds thru the little Ruger LCP in a hour
without discomfort. I was using WWB (Winchester white box) factory
ammo today. I was wearing a shooting glove but I don't think it
would have been necessary.

I ordered this little pistol more because I thought I should than
because I wanted it. I wasn't particularly looking forward to when
it might arrive and I really didn't expect to like it much. I
diddled around for at least a year not ordering one because I was
pretty sure I wouldn't like it.

Well, I like it! I will enjoy practicing with it and I will drop it
in my pocket when I probably should because it is so easy to do.

Mary 'n I burned a buncha .380 ammo today. Outdoors, rural range we
had it all to ourselves. Lovely summer day. Life could be worse.