Caliber Choice
Been pondering a new handgun. More specifically, after shooting Larry from Brownell’s STI, I want an STI real bad. And I want one for both carry and for if I ever do competition. So, of course, that leads to choices regarding caliber. Having always been a 45ACP guy, I have a few guns in that caliber. I was thinking of something different and leaning toward .40S&W since it seems to be the standard for competition. Then, I read Marko’s post on .40 S&W disadvantages:
its 50% more expensive than 9mm for a 10% performance increase.
Yet, that 10% is apparently enough to make a difference in classes at competitions. For just a 10% increase in performance, I’m leaning toward the 21 round 9mm, quite frankly. What say you?
September 17th, 2009 at 7:30 am
@ Steve – Heh, and like hell, Picard was way cooler.
I’m just here for the lulz – now that he’s gone completely 180 degrees from “big heavy bullets” to “light fast bullets”, I’m pretty certain we can put a cap on this conversation.
I think there’s a lesson here for everyone, which is primarily “people will insult you over the strangest things.”
September 17th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Find gun discussions without caliber wars would be as shocking as logging on to the web and finding it devoid of porn.
@ Caleb – You’re nuts. Kirk was the man. ๐
September 17th, 2009 at 9:00 am
From a competition standpoint, just shoot what you enjoy most and don’t worry about mag capacity. If you compete in USPSA Single Stack division, as an example, you’re only really competing against others in that division. It doesn’t really matter if a shooter in Limited or Open smokes the course without a reload – they’re not in your division. I’ve competed in all of the divisions, but I’m happiest in Production even though I’ve only got 10 9mm rounds in my mags. I reload all my ammo and settled on 9mm for cost effectiveness. You’d need .40 or .45 for the other divisions that recognize Major PF. It just comes down to what division you want to compete in. 9mm vs .40 vs. .45…paper and steel don’t know the difference. My second favorite gun to shoot is a S&W 625 revolver and I’d shoot it a lot more if it wasn’t so expensive to feed. ๐
September 17th, 2009 at 9:05 am
The hell with you, Picard did everything Kirk could do, and managed to keep his shirt on.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Caleb,
It’s amazing that you can’t read what is on this page. You claim that I’ve gone from “big heavy bullets” to “light fast bullets”… when did I say this? I said energy and momentum. I never said “momentum, but not energy”, and I never said “energy, but not momentum”. The whole point is that all calibers are not the same, because they very in energy and momentum, and these two factors govern wound ballistics — the shape of the wound.
And it’s Ivanova. She would space Kirk and take his toys.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Why in the hell are you people still arguing about this? The differences in wounding potential between the major handgun calibers is statistical noise. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a marketer, or easily baffled by marketing.
Carry what works in your gun, and worry about something more important.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:22 am
What? Ivanova is NOT gay! She was… psy-curious.
September 17th, 2009 at 10:39 am
In a fist fight, Picard would last two second against Kirk.
Also Picard’s greatest nemesis the borg would have lasted one episode against Kirk. He have simply asked them “why” and they would short circuit. ๐
Either that or he would seduce the borg queen and get her to see the error of her ways.
September 17th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I would go with the .55 ACP. Not that I can, but if I could then I would, but since I’m short one act of Congress in that regard, I settle for the .45 ACP.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
.55 ACP? Heh. Sign me up for one of those.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Clearly, only the .50 GI is cartridge enough to provide sufficient terminal ballistics from a handgun.
Of course, only girls carry a .50 GI. A real man’s gun is a T/C Encore in .458 SOCOM, because real men only need one round.
September 17th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
That’s the nice thing about shooting only .45 ACP — all these furious arguments pass one by, as breezes on a summer day. Competition rules, bullet weight/diameter, stopping power, whatever… all bow down before Col. Cooper’s favorite boolet.
Oh, and if I need added capacity, Mr. McCormick’s 10-rounder is all I need.
September 17th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
But Cooper came up with some stuff that didn’t work out, like the Bren; the 10mm; and the scout rifle.
September 17th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Well, the scout rifle is the answer to a question that isn’t being asked.
I’ve defended it before as a general purpose rifle for a civilian, because the concept of owning one rifle and using it for everything isn’t exactly new.
For someone who doesn’t have the resources to expend on a chock full walk in gun safe, I can see why it would be attractive. I might be off base but I’ve made the comparison in the past to how a good old .30-30’s were used by folks who just owned a few guns.
That is a role that those mil-surp scout style conversions can slide in to pretty effectively, but I ‘m just repeating some stuff I said here a long time back.
September 20th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Wow I missed a bunch. What the heck is the repeated mention of hunting doing in a discussion of common self-defense handgun rounds? All this blather about energy in @ sonic bullets is silly. As long as you can get the bullet to expand from a common sel defense pistol, 9mm = .40 = .45 (of course that is not exactly true and should be 9mm <= .40 <= .45 but would put too much emphasis on the “less than”).
A greater temporary wound channel with common pistol rounds is great in the bad guy getting the idea of “gee I’ve just been shot” department but beyond that it does nothing for stopping the attack in all but the least determined.
If I have the opportunity to choose a weapon for self defense it will be a rifle where all the talk of hunting experience would apply. Big temporary wound cavities and lots of tissue damage are awesome but carrying a rifle on my person is rarely practical. The rest of the time I’ll carry a pistol in 9mm, .40 S&W, or .45 ACP, depending on the season and my whim.