Best Carry Cartridge ? (PICK-UP TO 3)

[hkp2000]

More than cartridge size, I want:

1. Commercial SD ammo that's made by a reputable manufacturer. This means high quality ammo that go bang; and if used in SD situation, there's minimal questions my ammo choice.

2. That the ammo functions 100% in my carry gun (in different orientations). This means regularly testing the ammo in the gun.

But, I've found that, instead of picking my carry gun based on cartridge, I pick the gun first (as long as the cartridge has enough stopping power, and this means >= 9mm). After all, the gun's going to the carried, and I want comfort and have good holster support so that I don't leave it home. This means I don't ever carry a traditional 1911 (fullsized or compact) because it is too heavy and not ergo (now, I know many people do carry this gun and they've got good stopping power; this is just what I'd never carry).

 

[pairof44sp]

I only picked .38 Special and 9x19 as that is what I own. If I still had and carried a .380 that would have been my 3rd.

I think lots of us just picked what we have.

Otherwise, how is it that I’m not the only one who picked 44sp and 32acp? I’d like to claim that my picks are the result of great deliberation. But they’re really just what I happen to have.

I’d like to meet the guy who picked 32SW.

 

[pairof44sp]

My favorites are not the same as what I think are the “best.” I could nominate .45 ACP as a best, and a favorite. My first handgun chambered .45 ACP. The .357 Magnum could be a best, and, a favorite. My favorite individual handgun, visible in my avatar, is a .357 GP100, and was used in a defensive incident. Both .45 ACP and .357 Magnum have been duty pistol cartridges, in my personal past. (I worked as a big-city police officer, for 33+ years, and am now retired.)

9mm would be a cartridge that I consider a best, but would not necessarily be a personal top-three favorite.

Aging has caused recent shifts in what is suitable for my hands to continue shooting, and social isolation, made necessary by the panic-demic, has inhibited my ability to test some potential new bests, and potential new favorites. I already traded-away my Glock G19 pistols, in 2020, when they became too much, for right thumb and wrist. (Actual swelling, that persists; not just discomfort, though, thankfully, full-sized 9mm Glocks remain my “orthopedic pistols.”) It remains to be seen whether I will continue to shoot my 3rd-Gen S&W Nines. So, whatever votes I cast, today, are subject to change, whenever we can safely visit shooting ranges, again. (My wife is at a higher-risk, so we are all the more careful, regardless of local emergency orders and procedures.)

Past top-tier favorites have fallen from that height. The first to tumble was .44 Magnum, in 1985, when I realized it was a just a bit much, for routine use. I shifted attention to the .41 Magnum, for police duty and for personal carry, for about five years. I finally admitted to myself that I have K/L/GP100-sized hands. I was an early adopter of .40 S&W, in the early Nineties, for some personal carry, and used it for police duty from 2002 to 2015, when it was the employer-mandated standard. But .40 S&W was battering my aging hands, by age fifty, and I was able to start using 9mm while on duty, in 2015. I have not fired .40 since 2014.

Shhh. I’m still in denial about my hand size and my beloved N-frame.

 

[P5 Guy]

9x19
My pick is 9mm parabellum. The reason, because I see it as being the best balance of power, size and utility.
Small enough to be easy to carry with enough available firepower that can be controlled easily. And enough stopping
Power to resolve problems I would most likely encounter.

 

[Buckeye63]

I picked 40S&W ,357mag & 38Spl
I think 327 Fed is in there also

 

[Rex in OTZ]

Most reasons to pack a gat in my area?
.44 mag for stuff with fur, hooves and sharp pointy teeth in Alaska.

Next would be the .45 acp

Last is the varmit cartridge for fox .22 mag