imported post
ProShooter wrote:
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The loaded one in a holster on your hip.
I've got to concur with ProShooter, but I'll add my two bits as well.
The best handgun is the handgun that's best for you.
Get information about what other people have and carry, and why (which I presume is why you posed the question here), the decide what characteristics you're most interested in, then get out and try the various options at your local range.
My brother has been employed with Salt Lake County Sherriff's for 20+ years. He carries a Sig Sauer .45 ACP. He cited factors in making his decision: Sig, as he called it, is the Cadallac of handguns, it's tough and super reliable; .45 because at the time you couldn't get a handgun in .50.
I dug deeper about his reasoning of .50 (I was leaning more toward 9mm at the time). He pulled out his LEO text book and showed me a case of a "perp" that was high on PCP. He took 50+ rounds of 9mm (the standard round for the PD that did the shooting) and was still a threat. It took 3 point-blank shotgun blasts to finally take him down.
So, why .45 instead of 9mm? Simply, .45 is a bigger slug. The bigger the slug the fewer rounds needed to stop the threat.
Looking at self-defense shootings, in many, many cases even when rounds are fires, few (if any) hit their mark (due to stress, tunnel-vision, circumstances, etc.). So if I shoot 10 rounds and only one hits its mark, I want that one round to have the highest likelyhood of doing what it's supposed to: stop the threat.
This brings up another point: if the reason you're not hitting your mark is because .45 is "too big" a round and you cannot effectively control its placement in a controlled environment (the range), it's not going to do much good in a real-world self-defense situation.
This leads to the conclusion that you should carry the largest calibur that you can effectively and relaible control in the firearm that fits your carry-strategy. Remember, a firearm that you can't readily access won't do you any good.
I carry a Glock Model 30, which is a compact .45 with a 10+1 or 9+1 capacity (depending on magazine choice). It's small enough for me to effectively conceal, has enough capacity to "equal the odds" and is of a calibur that I can control.
Glock makes a single-stack sub-compact .45 (Model 36) which is substantially thinner than the Model 30, but for me, shooting this gun physically hurts the palm of my hand (the grip is thinner and the recoil concentrated on a smaller part of the palm).
My wife can shoot my sidearm when she needs to, but she does much better with a 9mm compact Glock than the .45 compact Glock. She can control her rounds better and has faster target acquisition, and it's a smaller gun which would allow her to conceal it more easily than mine.
Ultimately, the best handgun is the handgun that's best for you. Try out a lot and take other people's advice as suggestions only.
- Joe Levi
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