Just started carrying...
Two choices, working out which works best under which situations:
1) Bulgarian Makarov 9x18mm (8 rnd)
2) S&W 6906 9mm (12 rnd)
Why? Both were cheap to acquire, cheap to maintain, cheap to practice with, and reliable and accurate as hell.
I qualified for my CHL with the 6906 and scored 498 out of 500 on the TX DPS test (admittedly not all that hard, but my score was in the 90+ percentile).
Ok... that last point was pretty well off topic, but I just got my CHL and I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Don't worry - I won't let it go to my head.
Cheers.