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C-dub wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:(I wonder how many people are foaming at the mouth over this post? )

Chas.

I'd bet quite a few, but then again most of us ave already made our decisions and don't let questions like this bother us any more.

And some of us carry both 9mm and .45 ACP depending on the day. Heck, I even carry .357 mag sometimes.

I used a spreadsheet to score all my guns in the categories of accuracy, concealability, comfort, capacity, caliber, and "intangibles". Then I picked the highest rated for each purpose ("heavy / winter" carry, "light / summer" carry, BUG, Car gun, Home defense, Competition). Some categories were N/A for some purposes (like concealment for Car, HD, and competition). I ended up with guns in all 3 calibers for my personal "best" choices for each purpose.

I'm an accountant by training, so yes, I tend to be a bit anal. I also have another spreadsheet for all my range sessions, and the dates that I last cleaned each gun.

cmgee67 wrote:I guess I should have worded my question a little better.

Would you rather carry a smaller gun with less capacity or a larger gun with more capacity and are you comfortable with that smaller gun being what you need? Since we never know when we may need a firearm against one person or many persons is the 6+1 or 7+1 going going to be adequate enough? Even if a spare mag is carried you could still carry a glock 19 with 15+1 and have more rounds on you then a single stack with a back up mag. Caliber is just a preference so that's up to the decision maker.

I think you are downplaying caliber too much. Consider that you need fewer center mass hit with a .45 to neutralize a threat, than you will need with a 9mm or a .380. In that way, caliber is directly related to capacity. If you are worried about having to neutralize a set number of BG's, then you will likely want X rounds in your .45 and X+ something more in your 9mm or .380.

My answer to your question above is that I would prefer to have the largest gun, caliber, and capacity, that I can comfortably carry and easily conceal. This will vary based on what I am wearing, what I am doing, and even how my back feels that morning when I wake up.

As others have noted, you also need to consider caliber in this debate.

Regardless, there is only one correct answer to this question. It is the same correct answer to 99.632% of all the questions in the world. That answer is....

It depends.

I own a tiny .380 caliber gun that holds 6+1 rounds. Next to my bed I have a "too large for IDPA" gun that holds 18+1 rounds of 9mm. In my car, I usually have my Calico M950 that holds 100+1 rounds of 9mm in the magazine. And my most common EDC is a Dan Wesson CCO that has 7+1 rounds of .45 ACP. They are each a perfect mix of size, caliber, and capacity, IMHO, for their varied purposes.