A 9mm, 10mm (.40S&W), or 11.4mm (.45ACP) hole makes very little difference. Bullets damage organs and/or cause bleeding. By poking a hole in something the bad guy needs to live or otherwise carry on with the fight. This may seem rhetorical, but how does a handgun bullet kill or incapacitate? The answer is simple. That brings us to the first topic regarding my choice of a defensive caliber lethality. Let's face it, outside of Dirty Harry and Roger Murtaugh there aren't many people carrying. Many revolver stalwarts cling to the notion revolvers are more reliable than autoloading pistols and insist they chamber more potent calibers like. It took American law enforcement about 3 decades to catch up to what the worlds militaries were doing in terms of ditching revolvers in favor of modern autoloaders. Revolvers were still in common use during WWII but mostly they were issued to rear units or filled in holes left by a massive demand for autoloaders that couldn't be met from a production standpoint.

Why do I say this? Because in WWI we saw the introduction of self loading pistols like the Luger (pictured below) into the worlds militaries and by WWII revolvers were no longer front line weapons. revolvers debate was decided by the 1940's and autoloading pistols were clearly the path forward. It goes without saying that the autoloading pistol vs. The first pitted the revolver against the autoloading pistol. When I was a kid growing up in the 1980's there were two major debates raging. This conversation is strictly about handguns and common calibers. However, what I can do is explain my choice of calibers and my thought process in making that decision.

New and long-time shooters all ponder the age old question of 'what is the best handgun caliber for defense?' The reality is, there isn't a single right answer.

Rifle calibre revolver