My G22 40 barrel gets lonely sitting all alone while the 357 Sig barrel is having all the fun.
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The truth is that all service caliber handgun bullets make pretty much the same hole in tissue. Doctors and medical examiners can not tell the wound track of a 9mm from a .45 unless they find the bullet.
Seriously. There is no magic bullet.
I'd go with 9mm, ammo is much cheaper, performance is very similar to .40 and .357Sig, recoil is lower, and 9mms tend to not break nearly as much as the .40s and .357s do.
If you decide on the .40 carry a 135 grain for rapid incapacitation. When Cor Bon came out with the 135 grain +P in the early 90's that round had incredible one shot stops. The Texas DPS has been very happy with the .357 Sig... the .45 ACP had major failures to stop with solid hits. Two documented LEO shootings both G22 180 grain Gold Dots have over 17 hits before the bad guy stopped.
Respectfully hunter, your advice is horribly flawed. The 135gr .40 loads are the very worst choice one can make due to over expansion of the bullets, high fragmentation and poor penetration.
Just because there have been high round count incidents with the Gold Dot does not make it a bad defensive loading. This can happen with any caliber or round. It would be far more likely to happen with a 135gr .40 load than a 155gr-180gr loading.
I know a man who double tapped an NVA regular three different times in the chest before he didn't get back up again, this was one bad day in Vietnam. Many people will assume I am going to say this is because the 5.56 launched from an M16 is a poor "manstopper". That would be incorrect since this shooting involved my friend using an M14 rifle.
Fastest incapacitation is entirely dependent on what critical structures in the bad guy's body are hit by your bullets. Period.
You are absolutely correct there. No matter what caliber or bullet type you use shot placement is what it is all about. A .22 in the right place will drop a BG immediately where 10 rounds with a .45 in the wrong place will leave him walking. With that said you do have a better chance of a one stop shot with a .45 than a .25 but it is still all about where you hit him. There is no magic one stop shot bullet. Even the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima left some people walking.Fastest incapacitation is entirely dependent on what critical structures in the bad guy's body are hit by your bullets. Period.
We are talking about rapid incapacitation not fairy tales. The war story is interesting. The 135 grain in .40 has a real good track record. Facts are that guys dropped like a sack of dung when hit by the 135 grain .40 load. Shot placement is key. Texas DPS is an excellent source for real facts about hoew poor the .45 ACP was with actual video footage of a skinny old red neck getting popped point blank with no effect.
I'm not sure if these types of threads even have merit. A .380 shot to the heart will be more effective that a .44 mag to the leg or a miss with a 12 ga slug.
I think the most important part of these two fine calibers being discussed is comfort, confidence and practice. You cannot stop what you cannot hit.
As for LEO choices dictating my choice of weapon? Not a chance. I already have one of them and rarely carry it. LEOs choose weapons based on liability factors, insurance costs, weapon costs (bids), and IF the members of the department can handle the weapon (think small-handed female trying to control a double stack .45). We don't have to deal with these restraints in the civilian world.
The .357 Sig is a fine caliber but hasn't been around long enough or been so widely popular as to allow inexpensive and frequent practice. The .40 is somewhat harder to handle, it can be argued, but has much cheaper ammo and might allow more practice because of it. The same argument can be made of the .45.
Bottom line is choose what you are confident I. And can master with proper practice. If ammo is too expensive or the gun too unpleasant to shoot, you won't practice which means you won't hit what you need to if that terrible moment comes.
I have a Glock 32 and have a .40 barrel that I use for target shooting. I use the .357 for protection. Cost of ammo was why i bought the .40 barrel. I've been using it for about 4 years now.
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