Smallest good caliber gun for carry?

A different take. If you feel that you will face a charging pit bull, do you want to have to remember to take the safety off?

How much do you practice drawing and shooting? Watch an IPSC match. Every once in awhile a highly trained shooter forgets the saftey!

So get a Glock. A revolver has no safety (except for weird mods). :D
 
I'll throw this into the mix. It's a small auto, safety (1911 cocked & locked), lightweight and .45 caliber. Good for conceal carry or any ugly mean pit bull, if needed.

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I didnt see the part about pit bulls, ditch the gun idea, I suggest a Medium Rare T Bone carried strong side.

And then, if ya dont carry at home, you already have your dinner!

WilddoyaseethelightbulbovermyheadAlaska ™©2002-2010
 
The smallest round I would carry with confidence is the .380. In nearly any situation a CC'er will encounter, it will work fine. With people, you only have to get through a few inches of flesh and muscle to reach vitals like the heart. If shooting at a weird angle, you might need to be concerned with added penetration.

When you throw in dogs, anything up to and including the .45/10mm can be "iffy". Dogs don't experience the psychological effects a person does when shot, and usually fight to the death, if they need to. I know of many cases where it took multiple rounds to drop an attacking dog. In one case, a responding officer shot one in the head 2-3 times with his .40 and the dog was still running around chasing people.

I would probably be ok with .380/.38 Spl and above.
 
if its a crazy DOG your worried about -oh and NOT ALL PITS ARE MAN EATERS!!! it has everything to do with bad training, you can make any dog just as aggressive-... then i would suggest nothing smaller than a .45. a friend of mine ran into a crazed dog (~80lbs) and pumped 7rounds of .45 into it before it dropped. obviously i wasn't there to witness this so i cant attest to what he said.

personally i carry a .45(Colt new agent with Federal HST or Winchester Ranger both 230gr) most the time, and often a 9mm (keltec PF9 loaded with one round magsafe #9 in the tube then stacked with Hornady critical defense 115gr)

i do not think that the 9mm would do much about a dog until it was eating my arm as i blast it in the chest while its on top of me, in hopes of hitting enough vital organs as i can in 7 rounds. then i will have the dog skinned and where the pelt while i go through reconstructive surgery on my arm.


for a dog that PO'ed id look for a hand held tactical nuke, dogs are notoriously hard to take down when in attack mode. thats why you shoot them with a rifle. so if your worried about dog attacks...get a 44mag loaded hot and heavy or something bigger.
 
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Depends on luck, then. I shot a pitbull (I know not all pits are bad, but I certainly trust other breeds over them. When was the last time a chocolate lab mauled a kid to death?) when I was still on the job. Jumping on the roof of the police car at the time and I let 5 shots go. It was intent on seperating me from my balls. 9MM 124 grain Gold Dots. One through the top of it's neck came out it's throat. Goodbye pitbull. I admit it was a lucky shot. But I'm thinking of going the .45 route, anyway.
 
I carry a 380acp bug gun in my pocket all the time. My CC gun is a Glock 27 loaded with 357sig ammo using a conversion barrel. When I only have my bug gun with me I feel naked. I don't feel all that safe, but I guess it is better than being unarmed.
 
If you like the s&w cs45, go with that one. I heard nothing but good on the cs 45, and I want one too. Although I don't own a cs 45, I do have an SA45c & a Colt Night Defender .45.

I might consider saying hello to the neighbor to get a feel for who they are. That may give you insight into their personality and how they treat (train) their dog.

"there are no bad dogs, only bad owners"
 
9X19 or .38 spl. smallest.

I would go with +P JHPs in either.

Yeah, well trained dogs are great. But most aren't trained at all. Not your fault but it is your problem. Take care of your family.
 
Yeah, well trained dogs are great. But most aren't trained at all. Not your fault but it is your problem. Take care of your family.
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+1 Never trust someone that says their pit bull is well trained, socialized and has never been aggressive. Their owner's expression of shock after an attack is no consolation. "This has never happened before; he would only lick you to death!" Buppph!

However, a .32 that you have on you beats a 9mm or .45 that you don't. Everytime.
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That's probably key - something is better than nothing. I wouldn't have much confidence that something lighter than a 9mm is going to put a truly great stop on a determined pit, but the cumulative damage of multiple hits will serve the purpose. Carry what is comfortable enough to carry all the time.

Pit bulls are notoriously hard to stop without a good CNS hit once they have their victim in the grasp. There's a video on the web of police shooting a pit while it hangs on his owner's arm. The dog had to bleed out and die before the bite could be released.
 
homerboy said:
When was the last time a chocolate lab mauled a kid to death
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this took .01 seconds to find on google "black lab" attacked child ... just saying;)
http://www.kptv.com/news/14920969/detail.html

while i do know that other breeds seem to be the more "apt" to attacking but those happen to be the breeds that are trained to more often than not, its not the dogs fault. personally i own two pits; one full breed and the other mix, they both have the sweet disposition of mazapan due to good training. both are rescue dogs by the way and the full breed was originally more aggressive, now is the less dominate of the two

all that being said... deffenatly if the dog IS a problem then worry about it, and as others have said
get to know the neighbors and get to know the dog
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Never trust someone that says their pit bull is well trained....
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that goes for ALL/ANY dog, hence get to know the owner and dog
 
I'd say any solid 9mm or above with a magazine full of hollowpoints should do the trick. The bigger the caliber, the better your chances, but I'm inclined to think 10-15 rounds of 9mm will put the hurt on most anything smaller than a rottweiler.

Also, I'd very much say that it might be a good idea to talk to your neighbor. State that you have a child and that you are worried that the dog may exhibit violent behavior towards said child. If he doesn't keep the dog on a leash already, maybe he'll start.

Any violent or aggressive behavior out of that dog and you should have your kid in the house and be on the phone with animal control before you can say 'cheese.' Your neighbor's dog or any relationship you might have with said neighbor aren't worth your child's life.
 
7.9 ounces - if it will stop a 1,000 lbs. + Brown bear, it should slow down a sub 100 pound pitbull.

www.udap.com

If you are decided on a semi, I personally would stay with the .45 auto or the 10mm auto; speaking from my personal experience I prefer these out of a Colt 1911.

YMMV
 
this took .01 seconds to find on google "black lab" attacked child ... just saying
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Your link is from 2007... about a kid bitten by a lab. I can give you dozens of links to kids KILLED by pit bulls since then. Just sayin'.

If you haven't had the experience of doing CPR on a child after a pit bull attack, been the attending paramedic for pit bull attacks, or haven't personally been attacked by a friend and neighbor's pit bull after knowing them for years, then you haven't come to understand pit bulls the way I have. If personal experience hasn't taught you everything you need to know about pit bulls, check out Dogsbite.org or any number of blogs.

I wonder why owning 2 labs doesn't increase an insurance premium, while it's difficult to even find insurance if you own a pit bull?
 
this took .01 seconds to find on google "black lab" attacked child ... just saying
http://www.kptv.com/news/14920969/detail.html
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A four year old report of a kid who was BITTEN by a lab doesn't really stack up against the hundreds of reports of kids MAULED by pits in this year alone. Ask yourself why drug dealers choose pitbulls? Why are dog fighting rings made up of almost nothing but pits? The animals are innately more violent and aggressive. There are bigger dogs than pits, but the drug dealers choose pits. Sure, raise a pit in a good home, and you will MAYBE be OK, but I'm not counting on that aggressive gene coming out when I'm not around.

As for the neighbor, I never even see him. The owner of the house does not live there. She's been trying to sell it and decided to rent. And I have that UDAP spray, too. I tell my wife to always have it with her. Hope she listens when I'm not around.

Didn't mean to turn this into a "I hate Pits" thread, but people who don't acknowledge the pitbull's reputation as a violent breed are fooling themselves. A good friend of mine had a pit that he raised from birth. he always said 'pits are great dogs. it's the owners who make them bad". He changed his tune when his son needed over 100 stitches when his lovable pet attacked him. he shot that dog himself.
 
I like my Sig P238 .380, night sights and the manual safety you desire. Nut I agree with previous posters that a) you need to determine the disposition of the animal and the owner and b) a Pit will be on you so quick the gun will be useless. A better fence has got to be cheaper in the long run. Site the need for privacy so as not to antagonize your neighbor and you're good to go.
 
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