Kimber's K6xs Snubnose Wheelgun for Defensive Concealed Carry

Kimber's lightweight K6xs snubbie is a great defensive revolver for deep-carry CCW use.

September 30, 2024 By Joseph von Benedikt

If you think revolvers are old hat, check out this compact, state-of-the-art six-shooter by Kimber. A first for the company, it’s a dedicated .38 Special designed and built in a way that should make any shooter take note. “Belly guns” became popular among gamblers and businessmen traveling the frontier nearly two centuries ago. Favorites were little black powder revolvers and tiny Deringers. Early wheelguns were .31-caliber percussion pistols with five-shot cylinders, while most Deringers were break-action pistols with one or two barrels. You can guess which type most savvy pistoleers chose. Nowadays, compact semiautos are all the rage, so I reluctantly admit that even snubnose revolvers eventually faded. However, among the shooting cognoscenti, there’s still a wise demographic that choose to carry a revolver.

kimber-k6xs-revolver-02 — Compact, snag-free, and reliable, Kimber’s new K6xs ultralight revolver in .38 Special is a prime pick for EDC and self-defense.

We’ll get into the reason here in a bit. First, it’s worth pointing out that there’s clearly enough demand for compact revolvers that Kimber saw fit to introduce a pocket-sized six-shooter. And yes, the new Kimber K6xs is indeed a six-shooter. Now, this isn’t Kimber’s first revolver rodeo. The K6s, in all its existing variations, is widely regarded as one of the best currently available. The “xs” version’s claim to fame is its incredibly low weight (less than a pound), that lovely 6-round capacity, and configuration optimized for deep concealed carry. It’s also about half the cost of Kimber’s steel-framed, .357 Magnum-chambered lineup. Let’s dig in and take a closer look.

Tech Specs

First, allow me to reemphasize that the new K6xs is “just” a .38 Special. It is rated for +P ammo, but it is not a .357 Magnum like the rest of the K6s line. Firing a .357 Magnum cartridge in a sub-16-ounce pocket gun is an activity few shooters would participate in more than once. The .38 Special, on the other hand, is zesty but pleasant to shoot. OK, so we’ve established the K6xs is the smallest and lightest revolver Kimber has ever made and that it’s chambered for the mild but legendary .38 Special cartridge. Suggested retail cost for this tidy little package is $679. That’s $300 less than the next lowest priced Kimber revolver. Kimber managed to shoehorn the K6xs’s weight beneath the 1-pound mark by using a deep-fluted cylinder and aluminum alloy frame. The barrel is pint-sized, too, just 2 inches long. The frame is finished in Kimber’s excellent KimPro proprietary coating, which is extremely corrosion and abrasion resistant, and the stainless-steel barrel and cylinder are glass bead-blasted to a matte finish.

As you no doubt notice, the K6xs is a hammerless revolver. More correctly, it features an internal hammer. As a result, operation is double-action only (DAO). You can’t ear back the hammer and fire the gun single-action. Having grown up packing revolvers while working cattle in remote desert country and hunting mountain lions with hounds, I find a lot of value in the ability to make careful, precise shots by operating my revolver single-action, but candidly, Kimber got it exactly right with this little sidearm. It’s not made for careful shooting or for long shooting. It’s for up close and personal defense when you need it most. What the hammerless design provides is a reliable, snag-free exterior. Whether fishing it from a purse or snaking it from beneath the silk lining of your Harris Tweed, it’ll never catch and hang up on your clothing. That’s not something you can say about a sidearm with an exposed hammer spur. Hammerless designs also minimize the openings through which lint and other detritus can enter and foul up your action. For a deep-carry gun, hammerless is a very good thing.

Along similar lines, the K6xs has low-profile, combat-type sights. The rear notch is machined into the top of the frame and is as low snag as a sight can be. The front is a sturdy post with an orange dot to aid visibility. They’re non-adjustable, but during accuracy and reliability testing, I found that the revolver put all bullets into a 3-inch dot at 7 yards. Clearly, Kimber’s engineers did their homework. Kimber also chose wisely when picking a grip for the K6xs. It’s married to a Hogue rubber grip that’s well profiled for concealability while also offering a three-finger grip. Your pinky won’t get lost beneath the butt of this gun.

Shooting the K6xs

kimber-k6xs-revolver-05 — The K6xs shot all three loads tested well. From left: Black Hills 125-grain JHP +P, Estate 130-grain FMJ, and Winchester 150-grain lead round nose.

Out of habit, I stapled a target on the 25-yard line. Back at the bench, I held the petite revolver and squinted downrange, figuring I’d made a bad call. The handgun’s sight radius is just 3.25 inches, and with the DAO trigger, I realized I might have trouble at that distance. Always the optimist, I tried. Six shots all clustered well within the brisket-zone of a bad guy, but my middle-age eyes just couldn’t get an adequate sight picture to produce consistent shots at the 3-inch black bullseye. Admitting defeat, I pulled the target and stapled it at 7 yards. Gratifyingly, my first group at that distance tore a ragged hole, all six shots inside the 3-inch sticker. I was in business. My stash of .38 Special ammo is a bit sparse, and I only dredged up three different loads. However, they represented an excellent cross-section of typical .38 ammo. I had Estate loaded with 130-grain FMJ bullets; Black Hills .38 Special +P ammo loaded with 125-grain JHPs; and Winchester loaded with classic 150-grain lead round nose bullets.

All three loads shot plenty well for self-defense use. Obviously, the best option for personal protection is the +P jacketed hollowpoint, but it’s nice to see a revolver perform well with a wide spectrum of loads. Predictably, velocity out of the 2-inch barrel was fairly modest. You can study the complete results in the accompanying chart, but it’s worth noting that +P ammo would be the way to go for defense loads to ensure that bullets impact with adequate velocity to mushroom. Double-action revolver savants tend to like a smooth, non-stacking trigger, meaning one that doesn’t suddenly increase in pull weight at any point during the trigger’s rearward sweep. Kimber goes so far as to state in its literature that the K6xs “…uses the same lightweight, non-stacking trigger system from the K6s.” And indeed, it proved to be a smooth, usable trigger.

kimber-k6xs-revolver-07 — Along with an aluminum alloy frame, a deep fluted cylinder helps cut weight on the sub-1- pound K6xs.

Serious double-action shooters will be interested to know that it’s also stageable, meaning that you can press the trigger rearward nearly its full sweep, then pause immediately after the cylinder stop locks the cylinder into battery. All that’s required to complete the cycle and fire the gun is a slight additional rearward press. Staging a DAO trigger is one way to achieve maximum potential accuracy with the type. Recoil was noticeable but not painful. When I’d wrapped up clinical testing, I allowed my 8-year-old son to fire the K6xs and, offhand, he put his three shots onto a quarter-scale torso target from 7 yards. That told me recoil wasn’t enough to cause him to begin flinching badly. As for reliability, it’s a revolver. Furthermore, it’s a Kimber. Need I say more? OK, I’ll say more: flawless. Ergonomics are outstanding, too. The K6xs points as naturally as a finger. That’s a good characteristic in a sidearm that’s meant to be shot while under life-threatening stress.

Reasons to Carry a Revolver

Earlier, I mentioned that some shooters carry a revolver instead of a semiauto. Here’s why. Revolvers are simpler, easier to use, tougher, and more reliable. They’re simpler than a semiauto because they have fewer moving parts, and they rely on human muscle rather than harnessed energy from each previously fired cartridge to cycle the next round. They are easier to use, because the manual of arms — meaning how it’s loaded and fired — is more basic. Revolvers are tougher because, well, they’re built like a framing hammer and shrug off abuse. And they are more reliable than semiautos because dust, lint, and other crud doesn’t faze them. If they get dirty or are loaded with questionable ammo, human muscle will still function and fire them.

That’s not to say that a good quality semiauto isn’t simple enough, tough enough, and reliable enough to serve wonderfully as a fighting tool. I confess that although I’m a revolver guy at my roots, my daily carry gun is now a semiauto. However, in the final analysis, in really gnarly, dirty, challenging scenarios, a revolver will nearly always stay in the game longer than a semiauto. Kimber’s new K6xs is capable, affordable, shootable, and will vanish into your favorite concealed-carry position like it doesn’t exist. If you’re in the market for a bombproof, deep-carry gun, it’s worth a very close look.