Good Home Defense Handgun Calibers

It is very obvious that there are many types of handgun calibers around on the market today.  Myself, I like the 45acp purposely for the stopping power that it has.  The issue with this caliber of gun is that it may be to difficult to handle and properly chamber a round for less experienced gun user when the time comes.  Over the years I have had various calibers of handguns including .22, .38 revolver, 9mm, 40s&w, 45acp.  In those years I have found that the .38 revolver and 9mm are solid and reliable choices that can be handled well by less experienced gun users.

Lets start with the .38 revolver.  The revolver is a solid gun anyway that you look at it.  It has less moving parts then an semi-automatic handgun has and with that it has a less likely chance to malfunction (jam) under stressful times.  Another good reason is depending on the ammo that you may be using there is no through and through shots. Using hollow points would eliminate this for going through the intended target or with a miss then going through a wall and striking someone else in your home or out on the street and thus saving them from serious injury because of the impact and power this gun has.

There is a downside that I have found with the revolver and that is some of the newer models do not have a safety on them.  This could matter for gun buyers that have children in the their home.  A way to add a layer of safety is to have the chamber next in line empty, so if the trigger is pulled there would be no discharge and would not cause potential  harm. I know that you would be sacrificing a round, but safety in the home  is always first.

Now on to the famous 9mm round.  This is still another great caliber to have next to the bed on the night stand.  A positive reason for owning a 9mm is the magazine capacity.  On most 9mm handguns they have anywhere from 13+1 to 15+1, excluding the Browning Pro-9, which has 10 rounds only.  The reason the bigger magazine is more suitable  is that you  have more rounds to put down range if someone were the come into your home and was armed and felt like shooting back.  Another of the many reasons is that the ammo is very cheap for the 9mm, with that you could go to the shooting range and practice with your gun and become very efficient and very accurate.  The higher muzzle velocity of the 9mm is also great because when it impacts it will  cause more damage.  There again you have to be careful with that because you do not want it to go through a wall and hit something or someone you were not intended on shooting at.  One thing  that will eventually happen with a semi-automatic handgun is it will jam.  This is why it is very important that you practice on how to manually clear the shell casing out so you will know what to do if a jam occurs while protecting yourself.

These handgun calibers are both very solid choices, but this is purely an opinion of mine and I would love to hear what other people think about this. So please leave a comment and your opinions on this matter

Matt

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