Choosing a Handgun for Home Defense - Part 3 - Handgun Caliber

Handgun Caliber

The third part of this series relates to handgun calibers. There are 5 most common/popular handgun calibers. While there are many others, it's usually a good idea to stick with the most common/popular. The reason being they are usually much easier to find in stock, and are more affordable. Affordability may be crucial for you depending on your income, and also if you are a new shooter (you will need to practice more).

Let me start by saying that you cannot go wrong with any of these calibers. They are all solid-performing calibers with years of history (some more than others). No caliber is best and no caliber is a one-stop shot purely because of it's size and/or power. I am not a believer in "stopping power" when it comes to caliber. The cause for stopping an attacker is either severe pain and/or incapacitation. The best (only) way to cause severe pain and/or incapacitation, is with proper shot placement. I don't buy into the decades-old FBI study anymore, as there is much better ammunition technology and much more is understood about proper shot placement.

Common Semi-Automatic Pistol Calibers

9MM

Pros:

• Most affordable
• Most available
• Smallest of the three, allowing for higher capacity in your handgun
• Handguns in this caliber are typically more affordable than a .45ACP version of the same handgun

Cons:

• Smallest of the three, possibly not causing as much pain as the bullet will not expand (and therefore will cause less damage) as large as the other two

.40S&W

Pros:

• Fairly affordable
• Fairly available
• Middle-sized of the three, allowing for a compromise between the most capacity (9mm) and the least capacity (.45ACP)
• Handguns in this caliber are typically more affordable than a .45ACP version of the same handgun

Cons:

• Middle-sized of the three, possibly not causing as much pain as the bullet will not expand (and therefore will cause less damage) as large as the .45ACP
• More expensive than 9MM

.45ACP

Pros:

• Fairly available
• Largest of the three, possibly causing the most pain compared to the other two as the bullet will expands more (and therefore may cause more damage)

Cons:

• Least affordable
• Largest of the three, allowing for less capacity in your handgun
• Handguns in this caliber are less affordable than the same handgun in one of the other two calibers

Common Revolver Calibers

.38 (S&W) Special

Pros:

• More available
• More affordable
• Revolvers in this caliber are more affordable than the same revolver in a .357 magnum version

Cons:

• Not as powerful (and therefore may cause less damage)

.357 (S&W) Magnum

 Pros:

• Fairly available
• More powerful (and therefore may cause more damage)

Cons:

• Not as affordable
• More recoil
• Less affordable than the same revolver in a .38 special version
• Will penetrate/over-penetrate more than a .38 special

Please stay tuned for part 4 of our series, which will be discussing handgun capacity. Once it is posted, we will link to it here.