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Best Caliber for Self Protection

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The Hen that laid the Golden Legos
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What's the best cartridge (SAAMI standard) for self-defense, WITHOUT REGARD to any other issue regarding the firearm (yeah, that's why this is in the "stupid stuff" section).

Don't ask what kind of gun you'd have to shoot it with. Just focus on the caliber (more correctly, the cartridge).

If you can't imagine a cartridge without picturing the gun or guns that would use that ammo, here's a scenario:

You're about to walk through a jeep trail in the woods where robbers are known to attack travelers on that trial. You have no weapon of any sort.
But then, a person friendly to you or your cause shows up and offers to give or sell you a home-made firearm that was made in a garage machine shop. This firearm looks like a sawed-off shotgun, break-open single barrel, single-shot action, but the barrel is a custom-machined job that could be chambered for any rifle, pistol, or shotgun caliber on the market today. The gun has no butt stock, just a pistol grip only, iron sights, and a barrel about 8" long.

In this hypothetical scenario, what round would you want this weapon to use? Assume your friend will give you a few rounds of the appropriate ammunition for this single-shot firearm.

Assume that if you want hollow-points, soft-points, or whatever common bullet styles are sold at WalMart and other big box stores, you can have them. Nothing weird or exotic like AP, tracer, bolo, dragon's breath, no pre-fragmented MagSafe or Glaser ammo, no RIP, no plastic bullets at 2X the normal velocity, no poison darts...
 
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