There’s a recurring trope in everything from science-fiction flicks to fairy tales about the hero who’s shrunk to a tiny figure and then returned to normal size later in the story. It turns out that this story arc can apply as much to factual pistols as fictional protagonists. The type species for this whole genre of pistol is the P365 from SIG Sauer, which started out as a sort of shrunken version of a modern striker-fired duty pistol with a skinny frame, stubby 3-inch barrel, and a shrunken two-fingered grip that nevertheless housed a flush-fit 10-round stagger-stack magazine.
The original Springfield Armory Hellcat was very similar to this setup — parts of it were way too similar, at least according to SIG’s lawyers. The Hellcat had a short barrel and abbreviated grip, albeit with
