What caliber do you carry and why?

[protective measures]

My wife and I carry 9mm....I can afford to practice with it which means I will shoot better under pressure. Bottom line is that a .45 will knock a guy off his feet, but if I can't afford to practice with it I won't be as accurate as I need to be. Also the modern hot rounds of 9mm have much more stopping power.

Not being argumentative but if a .45 round knocked people off their feet, the laws of physics would say that it would also knock the shooter off his feet... I'm sure you meant that as a figure of speech.

The old adage of,"Carry the largest caliber that you will carry & that you shoot well." definitely applies here.

After the FBI shootout in Miami back in the 80's, the ammo mfrs. at the insistence of several Fed. agencies w/ the FBI leading the way set out to increase the lethality of the duty rounds available.

Since that time their have been huge advancements in terminal performance in pretty much all of the most often carried calibers.

Whatever caliber that you prefer, I would just make sure to carry a quality round with a proven street record in actual shootings so as to do away with a carry choice based purely on speculation..

 

[letsgofishin62]

Not being argumentative but if a .45 round knocked people off their feet, the laws of physics would say that it would also knock the shooter off his feet... I'm sure you meant that as a figure of speech.

It can happen I seen it on TV.

 

[ngcsugrad09]

I carry a 9mm for many reasons..

Capacity - a lot of bullets are good. In an age of the pack mentality for ****birds, being able to service more than a person or two before reloading is a good thing. Having 16 rounds before a reload is reassuring. Having a reload of 19 rds is also a good thing.

Ease of use - my 127 +P+ carry ammo is pretty easy to shoot fast and accurately. Being able to make your hits faster than the other guy is ALWAYS a good thing.

Stopping power - sure 9mm ball isn't the greatest man stopper, but contrary to popular belief .45s aren't one shot killers. For all of the stories of a 9mm not stopping someone, I can give you examples of where a .45 failed. Only shots that affect the CNS or blood pumping ability will stop someone. Modern hollowpoints for a 9mm, 40 and 45 are all on an equal plane for effectiveness.

Practice - it's much cheaper to practice with a 9mm. This translates to more practice, making it easier to make the hits needed when the time comes.

At a minimum, I carry a .39 special +P or a 9mm +P/+P+. I've carried larger guns, but quite frankly found there wasn't that great of a benefit to carrying a gun with less bullets, weighed more and was harder to hide. My Glock 19 is super reliable, light, holds a lot of bullets, accurate and easy to shoot at speed. My carry round is a Winchester Ranger 127 +P+. It's just shy of a .357 Sig in velocity, penetrates through various mediums well, expands reliably and has worked well in self defense and officer involved shootings. The main focus should be finding something you can shoot fast and accurately, expands when needed and works in your gun. For self defense loads do the research into guys like Dr. Gary Roberts and the FBI testing lab. I'd trust the scientists that test bullets for a living instead of, well a Federal Hydrashock is pretty mean looking.. (FYI the regular Hydrashock is a dated design that has been passed by many other superior designs).

 

[letsgofishin62]

Sometimes a G26 sometimes a G27. Sometimes you feel like a nut sometimes you don't

 

[fattboyzz]

have been carrying a 1911 liteweight commander for years in 45acp and she holds 9 rounds ....................... but recently have been carrying a G19 which carries 16 .

 

[bearpugh]

the research i've done shows 45 acp ball at about 61% one shot stops . not good. use good ammo in any caliber.

 

[fattboyzz]

the research i've done shows 45 acp ball at about 61% one shot stops . not good. use good ammo in any caliber.

good reason to practice double taps aye pugh ??

 

[protective measures]

I carry a 9mm for many reasons..

Capacity - a lot of bullets are good. In an age of the pack mentality for ****birds, being able to service more than a person or two before reloading is a good thing. Having 16 rounds before a reload is reassuring. Having a reload of 19 rds is also a good thing.

Ease of use - my 127 +P+ carry ammo is pretty easy to shoot fast and accurately. Being able to make your hits faster than the other guy is ALWAYS a good thing.

Stopping power - sure 9mm ball isn't the greatest man stopper, but contrary to popular belief .45s aren't one shot killers. For all of the stories of a 9mm not stopping someone, I can give you examples of where a .45 failed. Only shots that affect the CNS or blood pumping ability will stop someone. Modern hollowpoints for a 9mm, 40 and 45 are all on an equal plane for effectiveness.

Practice - it's much cheaper to practice with a 9mm. This translates to more practice, making it easier to make the hits needed when the time comes.

At a minimum, I carry a .39 special +P or a 9mm +P/+P+. I've carried larger guns, but quite frankly found there wasn't that great of a benefit to carrying a gun with less bullets, weighed more and was harder to hide. My Glock 19 is super reliable, light, holds a lot of bullets, accurate and easy to shoot at speed. My carry round is a Winchester Ranger 127 +P+. It's just shy of a .357 Sig in velocity, penetrates through various mediums well, expands reliably and has worked well in self defense and officer involved shootings. The main focus should be finding something you can shoot fast and accurately, expands when needed and works in your gun. For self defense loads do the research into guys like Dr. Gary Roberts and the FBI testing lab. I'd trust the scientists that test bullets for a living instead of, well a Federal Hydrashock is pretty mean looking.. (FYI the regular Hydrashock is a dated design that has been passed by many other superior designs).

While I agree with the majority of your post, I have to disagree a little with your statement that 9mm, .40, & .45 are all on an equal plane.

Using the same bullet design, they are very close all things being equal... but a slight edge should go to the larger calibers simply due to the likelihood of clipping an artey or vein due to the larger diameter, just like clipping the 10 ring in a target match.

That being said, there are so many variables in a shooting that affect the lethality of a shooting with a pistol, if you do your job as you described & place those shots into vital areas with a modern quality round, performance should be very similar.

 

[bearpugh]

good reason to practice double taps aye pugh ??

or one betwixt the eyes.lol

 

[protective measures]

I carry a 9mm for many reasons..

Capacity - a lot of bullets are good. In an age of the pack mentality for ****birds, being able to service more than a person or two before reloading is a good thing. Having 16 rounds before a reload is reassuring. Having a reload of 19 rds is also a good thing.

Ease of use - my 127 +P+ carry ammo is pretty easy to shoot fast and accurately. Being able to make your hits faster than the other guy is ALWAYS a good thing.

Stopping power - sure 9mm ball isn't the greatest man stopper, but contrary to popular belief .45s aren't one shot killers. For all of the stories of a 9mm not stopping someone, I can give you examples of where a .45 failed. Only shots that affect the CNS or blood pumping ability will stop someone. Modern hollowpoints for a 9mm, 40 and 45 are all on an equal plane for effectiveness.

Practice - it's much cheaper to practice with a 9mm. This translates to more practice, making it easier to make the hits needed when the time comes.

At a minimum, I carry a .39 special +P or a 9mm +P/+P+. I've carried larger guns, but quite frankly found there wasn't that great of a benefit to carrying a gun with less bullets, weighed more and was harder to hide. My Glock 19 is super reliable, light, holds a lot of bullets, accurate and easy to shoot at speed. My carry round is a Winchester Ranger 127 +P+. It's just shy of a .357 Sig in velocity, penetrates through various mediums well, expands reliably and has worked well in self defense and officer involved shootings. The main focus should be finding something you can shoot fast and accurately, expands when needed and works in your gun. For self defense loads do the research into guys like Dr. Gary Roberts and the FBI testing lab. I'd trust the scientists that test bullets for a living instead of, well a Federal Hydrashock is pretty mean looking.. (FYI the regular Hydrashock is a dated design that has been passed by many other superior designs).

Many other Instructors & professionals that I am in contact with and others whose expert opinions that I read who are are highly respected also carry 9mm G-19's or G-17's for some of the same reasons that you stated... many of these formerly carried various 1911 .45's.

Their example combined with my own research ( & the high cost of shooting large quantities of ammo in classes & practice) has finally gotten me, like yourself, to carry a G-19 quite often instead of the G-23 which I've carried since 1992.

I don't change my primary very often so it's taking some getting used to but when these experts back up their opinions with real life facts obtained from actual street shootings.... it's pretty hard to ignore or argue.