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Charles L. Cotton wrote:

Excaliber wrote:

carlson1 wrote:

WildBill wrote:I realize I am late to this post, but the caliber argument for me hasn't been much of a decision for me.
I am not sure exactly why, but I have never been able to shoot a .45 ACP as accurately as I would like.
That is why I have carried .38 Spec +P and 9 mm.

Truth is we all have something we can't shoot as well. I shoot the .356 Sig fine, but not the .40. I like .45 and revolvers.

I don't direct this at anyone because I was this way when I left LE for years. I thought I had to carry two guns and back up mags for both and a revolver on my ankle to go to Kroger's and get milk. I realize bad things can happen anywhere, but I finally "matured" out some I guess because I try real hard not to go to places I need to take my gun safe to.

That pretty much describes exactly how I "evolved" and arrived at my current carry practices too.

Me too. It must be an old COP thing.

Chas.

Or it could just be the fact that great minds think alike!

carlson1 wrote:

WildBill wrote:I realize I am late to this post, but the caliber argument for me hasn't been much of a decision for me.
I am not sure exactly why, but I have never been able to shoot a .45 ACP as accurately as I would like.
That is why I have carried .38 Spec +P and 9 mm.

Truth is we all have something we can't shoot as well. I shoot the .356 Sig fine, but not the .40. I like .45 and revolvers.

I don't direct this at anyone because I was this way when I left LE for years. I thought I had to carry two guns and back up mags for both and a revolver on my ankle to go to Kroger's and get milk. I realize bad things can happen anywhere, but I finally "matured" out some I guess because I try real hard not to go to places I need to take my gun safe to.

That pretty much describes exactly how I "evolved" and arrived at my current carry practices too.

Skiprr wrote:Out of curiosity, Excaliber, what do you shoot in your XD-S?

Right now I'm carrying Federal 230 GRHP+P in the XDS.

I am happy with any of several of the better brands of 230 GR HP's and switch among Federal, Winchester, Speer Gold Dots and Remington Golden Saber depending more on price than anything else. I don't restrict myself to +P either because I find recoil recovery is noticeably faster with standard velocity loads and I think the extra velocity at the terminal end has less practical effect at close range than the longer recoil recovery cycle does.

Liberty wrote:The thing is if you have 1911s you need the spare parts.

Mine have historically run for very long times without needing a change for anything other than recoil springs.

Well, they might have also sorta needed a change to VZ grips, Trijicon HD night sights, stainless grip screws, and a few other doo dads, but they would have continued to function just fine in original form without them.

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 don't care much about autopsy wound tracks which I know from personal observation are indistinguishable between mid and large calibers. I do care about how quickly a gunfight adversary goes down and stops fighting. While I know that there are no magic bullets and no handgun bullet can be relied on for the mythical "reliable one shot stop", historical gunfights do tell us which ones are at least marginally better, and I favor marginally better over marginally worse because marginals add up when one's life is on the line.

My only variances are my high cap 9 for areas at higher risk of multiple threats is a VP9, and for those situations where I choose to carry a pocket pistol, it's an XDS .45 - smaller gun, same bullet because the threat doesn't diminish in proportion to the size of my carry gun.