Excaliber wrote:My carry choices and philosophy are exactly the same as those Charles described in his original post and for exactly the same reasons. Standard EDC is a 1911 and 2 spare mags. When I carried that gun on duty, the only change was more spare mags. Great minds think alike.
I'm with you guys. My EDC has, for many years, been a 1911 or variant thereof in .45 ACP. But I've made an ammo change fairly recently that I'm not entirely thrilled with, but decided was for the best.
For a decade or more, my carry ammo has been Winchester Ranger T-Series +P 230 grain (RA45TP)...used Talons for a while before they were no longer called "Talon." I'm glad that LuckyGunner has, in the past few months, added the round to its ballistic test data at
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-de ... tic-tests/. I was feelin' left out previously. I like the 230 grain round; I like the typical expansion (born out by the LuckyGunner tests); and I prefer the +P load...although I was surprised the aforementioned ballistic tests showed a muzzle velocity as low as it did.
Kinda sorta related to the "duck and run" subject, it's been drilled into me for a lotta years that the first thing you do is get off the "X" if at all possible, and that it takes only milliseconds longer to deliver a controlled pair than a single aimed shot; ergo, even with multiple bad guys, to plan on delivering two rounds before transitioning to threat number two.
Some of the time I carry a full-size all-steel 1911, but much of the time, because of its concealability and comfort, I carry an officer's-size with an aluminum frame. It may be that I'm getting older and weaker, but recoil management for a rapid controlled pair with +P 230 grain ammo out of the small, lightweight gun has not been gettin' any better. Concerned about that, I've switched back to 230-grain Golden Sabers--which have very noticeably less recoil--for the officer's model, staying with the +P Rangers for the full-sized models.
Mind you, I'm not recoil averse. But the shot timer and the target tell the tale. In testing two shots on target one, transition, and two shots on target two, the lower-velocity Remington's make a substantial difference--for me--using the smaller and lighter gun. And I've decided that--again, for me personally, not necessarily for anyone else--efficient delivery of a controlled pair with a big, fat bullet that penetrates reasonably well is my priority for a handgun.
With the short barrel, I'd prefer to have a higher muzzle velocity, but I've decided speed in delivering a controlled pair is more important to me. Out of curiosity, Excaliber, what do you shoot in your XD-S?
For the 1911s, I settled on Wilson mags years ago, and carry two spares. Rarely, but sometimes, I carry an XD(m) in .40 with 16+1 on board plus a spare mag. I use Ranger T-Series in it, as well.
