Whats your favorite handgun caliber?

My overall favorite handgun caliber -- that is, if I could only pick one caliber to shoot for the rest of my life -- is the 9mm Parabellum.

Reasons?

It's effective for self-defense purposes.
It's the cheapest self-defense cartridge available, so sufficient practice and training is not as expensive as other self-defense rounds.
The recoil is light, and it is easily controllable.
It's widely available and easy to find.

Now, if I could only pick two calibers to shoot for the rest of my life, they would be the .22 LR and the .45 ACP.

Reasons?

The .22 LR is dirt cheap.
Recoil on the .22 LR is almost nonexistent, and it is great for introducing new shooters to firearms.
The .45 ACP is a very effective self-defense caliber.
The .45 ACP is not horribly expensive -- it costs more than 9mm of course, but it is not prohibitively expensive.
Even though the recoil of the .45 ACP is pretty hefty, it's not as "sharp" or "snappy" as calibers with higher velocities.
The .45 ACP, and especially the .22 LR, is widely available and easy to find.
 
45 ACP,

Its a big hunk of lead that is less likely to overpenetrate like a 9 mm or a 357 mag.

Its a personal choice but it seems more and more police departments are moving away from the 9mm, there must be a reason for it....
:)
 
Big difference

My favorite caliber has more to do with my favorite gun than caliber choice.

In my opinion, the best, most accurate, most dependable and all around perfect gun is a S&W Model 686 in .357 and I have shot all of mine often, as well as carried it concealed.

However I carry a Glock Model 22 in .40 daily so I get more experience with shooting .40 and trust it completely.

That said, if I had to make a choice for a second best, it would be .45ACP. Again, it deals more with gun choice than caliber choice. I have a couple of 45LC that I have never shot, even after owning them for years. The choice of caliber one makes will likely be the one they handle the most.
 
My inner smart-alec wanted to say "6.5mm Bergmann, why?"

I used to have a "Favorite Handgun Caliber".

Now I don't.

What's your favorite size of socket wrench?
 
If I could reasonably carry it, .44 Magnum would be my hands down winner. While I enjoy shooting .45 in the 1911 platform, and still want to own one, the combination of price and bulk, coupled with the trade off of capacity in every gun I truly like keeps it far from my "Favorites" list.

The three I couldn't live without, in official order.

.40 S&W (All my defense guns are chambered in .40, I trust it.)
.44 Magnum (I like recoil.)
.22 Long Rifle (I need practice.)

I really need to get around to adding a Smith and Wesson 629 to the family.
 
It depends on your purpose, but a great caliber for outdoor and indoor defense is 10mm: semi-auto, ammo capacity, powerful enough for any animal in most states and controllable enough for home protection.
 
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