Favorite semiauto cartridges

357 sig
10mm
45acp
9mm
22lr
32acp
.380
25acp
40s&w

Have always loved the flat shooting and high energy of 357 sig and 10mm and I’m most accurate with 357 sig. Favorite gun is my Glock 32 in 357 sig, but also have barrels and mags for 9mm and 40. I have more guns in 9mm and shoot it the most mainly due to cost of ammo and conceal carry, but recently with it costing about same as others been buying more 357 sig and 10mm online. 40 sucks in my opinion compared to the others but figured why not have that barrel too since can use same 357 sig mags. 40 is snappiest and least accurate of them all for me.

Bottlenecks! Too bad I don’t own any of them.
357 sig was a letdown. It was loaded weak and it never realized its potential. 32naa at least on paper is awesome, and 25naa is interesting. That’s not even getting close to mentioning the big bore bottlenecks like 400corbon.

In stuff I own I guess it’s either 32, 380, or 9mm, possibly 10mm if you count stuff I have owned. They all do their own things in their own niche.

45ACP & 9X19MM .

Love the 10 mm auto cartridge! Now have 3 semi-autos for it.

9mm

I agree with: “1. .45ACP Served our country well for 85 years, big and slow is the way to go, won't blow out your eardrums or blind you in the middle of the night.” My first handgun was a .45 ACP 1911, in late 1982 or early 1983, shortly after I reached age 21. This is the only one I will rank, as my number one. When I retired from 33+ years of big-city policin’, in early 2018, I was “qual’ed” to carry two 1911 pistols, on duty. An all-steel, low-bore-axis, full-sized 1911, firing the modestly-accelerating .45 ACP, is friendly to my aging hands.

9mm has had its place, in my handguns, since 1985, when I bought an HK P7, pre-M8. Before that, however, I had a 9mm Uzi Carbine, which predated my owning any handguns. I did not particularly favor 9mm, in the Eighties, but it was the “native” cartridge of some wonderful weapons. As bullet technology has improved, my appreciation of the efficient 9mm has increased. When I retired from policin’, I was “qual’ed” with at least two of my 9mm Glock pistols.

The .32 ACP is what my Seecamp LWS-32 pistols use. There is something so very “size-efficient” about the LWS-32, and the old-world craftsmanship of the Milford-built pistols is rightfully legendary. (I am not saying anything negative about the newer CNC-machined Seecamp pistols; I simply have no experience with them, yet.)

I am very interested in .38 Super, but have not yet owned, or even fired, a weapon so chambered, so cannot assign “favorite” to it.

I bought into the .40 S&W early, in the Nineties, with optimistic enthusiasm, but never really learned to like it. From 2002 to 2015, I had to carry it in my duty pistols, and saw it as being as effective, realistically, as .45 ACP, but by age 50, in 2011, my right thumb/hand/wrist were not aging well, and I very much yearned to be able to carry a less-punishing duty cartridge.

I only semi-auto handguns in 9mm, .40 S&W, and 10mm.

I like .40 S&W so much that my only 1911 is chambered for it...

I’ve got lots of fun to shoot pistols in most every popular caliber from .25 to .45 but as cartridges themselves go the .44AMP is pretty cool.

brutus51 said:

What guns shoot the 44AMP?

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The AMT Auto Mag. The cartridges were originally made by cutting down .308 Win cases.

38 Super - love that crack out of a 1911 or my competition gun
45 ACP
9mm
357 Sig
everything else
I get bored quickly with calibers...so there's not much I won't shoot.

.45 ACP
.22
38 Super

Old school cool.

9mm is ok. ... in a pinch.

if you want- Call Bob at Macon Armory
see if he still will do a 38 super DI Upper for an AR.
you need to use the supercomp brass or TJ brass...but its a hoot.
completely a want not a need

45s are my favorite. Big slugs with a gentle "buck" type of recoil.

22s - give me a brick and a Buckmark and let's go.

9mms - they're OK. Most of the appeal for me is that they sell for $9/box.

10mm - magnum recoil from a semi auto is definitely a different experience.

380 - I have a hard time separating it from the small blowback pistols it's usually chambered in.

40 S&W - 9mm with an annoying snappy recoil. I don't see any reason to take it over a 9. If I could snap my fingers and make any pistol caliber disappear, it'd be this.

9mm Para.
.45 ACP
10mm Auto
.38 Super
7.62x25mm Tokarev (though I'm not really enamored with the guns chambered for it)
.30 Luger

Planning to pick up the 7.5 FK BRNO Field Pistol in the near future. I expect the 7.5 FK round will make a run up my list, either just above or below 10mm.

Used to be 40S&W, but now it's 10mm Auto.

For me, cartridge selection follows the gun choice.

Even though I shoot a .380 - 9mm has to be tops. (Love my Glock 42)

My second favorite is .45(LC). It wreaks of American, the Old West, and smells of freedom.

I have several favorites auto pistol cartridges based on daily use on the farm, small to large:
22 LR
380
45 ACP

MikeInOr said:

Ever since I bought a Browning 1911-380 I have really enjoyed the 380 as a plinking cartridge.

For carry I prefer .45acp or 9mm depending on what size gun I want to carry. The LCP makes it in the carry club during the summer.

For range fun the 9mm is probably my favorite. The ability to reload cheap is a plus but it is the guns that are only available in 9mm that make it my favorite... like C96, P08, P38, Lahti, etc. My 1911's in .45acp are my favorite range guns to shoot though.

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Another Browning 1911-380 fan here. I am going with 380 followed by 22lr. Behind those two would be 45 acp.

380acp and 22lr out of the same gun.

.40 > .45 ACP > 9mm Euro.




GR

Robbins290 said:

762x25

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I like the potential of the x25. But there are only two pistol designs that I know of that are chambered in it an the most viable, the tokarev needs to have people that can customized to make it into something decent. Also the projectiles suck being only FMJ and a few half A_____ hollow points that do not work. The is has potential. An 85 grain bullet from light medium wt steel pistol with 4.5'' barrel going around 1500 fps for the T33. with decent projectiles it would be worth while.