I was advised of a shop in Valencia that had soft-shooting .38 rounds, which is I think what I want in a derringer.  The S&W Chief's Airweight weighed twice as much and flipped up pretty hard to me.  I didn't like to shoot it, and I figure this one's gonna suck too.  But, this is what I can make disappear and what I carry with me on my way around downtown LA.

Anybody else shoot a derringer?  I don't know anybody else that has one...

I got one.
Davis Arms I think, in .38 special.
I've shot it a time or two, just to make sure it works.
It shoots alright, not very comfortable for more than a few shots.

If you have trouble hiding an Airweight you either need to eat more
or stop wearing Spandex.

Let’s see:

You have to push the safety off

Then you have to cock the thing

And then, assuming you’ve survived long enough to actually get a couple of rounds off, you’re looking at a next to impossible fast reload.

Personally, I’d find some way of making the Chiefs Special work!!  

Incidentally, if the recoil from a regular .38 Special bothers you, you might want to try wadcutters (which are a target load).  They’re tame but not esp. powerful.  Note that you’d still want your reload to be rounds with protruding bullets since wadcutters are difficult to load fast.

And I believe Federal is making some reduced recoil handgun rounds that might be worth looking into.

That said, in a life-and-death situation I wouldn’t think recoil would be that big an issue to you.  I would never carry anything less than a +P .38 Special myself.

I've shot federal low recoil .380s out of my kel-tec, didn't notice a different hardly at all. So they might be worth checking into, maybe the difference is more noticable in a derringer or revolver in .38 spl...but I wouldn't expect much.

As for the derringer.....one might be nice to play around with, just a novelty to have at the range. But I'd seriously consider something else for carry. 2 shots isn't enough, plus as another poster mentioned, there are several steps before firing.

Having a gun in a gun fight is the number #1 rule...but there are literally hundreds of choices before a derringer...Kel-tec makes good guns, Kahr, NAA, ect, ect, ect,

The .38 isn't punishing at all....practice more and you'll get used to it.