Thread: Help me pick my 9mm

Originally Posted by Wildtim

Considering the attitude you display in the first paragraph you shouldn't get any gun.

If you are unwilling to kill, and kill instantly the only thing you are going to do is get shot or have your gun taken away. That is assuming you even have it with you when there comes a time you feel you need it.

Guns kill things. If you are not prepared to deal with that every moment you have one on your person you and those around you would be better off if you didn't own one at all.

I carry whenever I leave my house, and if I am ever in a situation where there is a need to kill to defend my self or others my decision is already made and I have been trained not to hesitate or to give the bad guy any chance. If you are going to carry a gun that is the way you must be, anything else is asking to be shot.

wtf?

I'd think that entire paragraph through a little more. There is many reasons to own and carry a gun.

USP civilian spec'd (I think this is pretty much limiting the mag to 10 rounds)- Pretty damn good gun, DA trigger, made by H&K...

Originally Posted by Bruno

Not to be a smart ass, but if he hadn't chased them, he wouldn't have been shot either. Depending on the applicable laws, once the assailants turn and run, the scenario is no longer self defense from a legal pov.

Bruno, not that's not the point I'm trying to make here, but your right of course, he shouldn't have chased after them. I don't know how many life and death situations you've been in, but ask any law enforcement official.
You don't know how you'll react. Point one. Point two is AGAIN>

He put two 9mm Hydrashock rounds into two very large urban types.
Granted, He's not "Johnny Hunter" but he hit them. Supposedly, even if they were 22's, they should have dropped... One guy he hit 2x, who got back up and nearly killed him. The 9mm didn't do it...Again, that's why the cops went to 10mm, then 40's. He went out and got a 45. If you think you can put a bullet in a crazy guys heart when you looking down his gun barrell, Well, my friend more power to you..SWAT needs you...

actually, enough of this whiny stuff- lets just recommend the 50 cal deagle cus there ain't know way anyone is getting up after getting hit by a fitty...

Originally Posted by JokiJo

wtf?

I'd think that entire paragraph through a little more. There is many reasons to own and carry a gun.

JO,

I'm gonna find you a Griz when I come up to Idaho to see my Buddy Steve and his Battery Store....I'm thinkin Youtube Dude!

Originally Posted by zib

JO,

I'm gonna find you a Griz when I come up to Idaho to see my Buddy Steve and his Battery Store....I'm thinkin Youtube Dude!

That right there is funny.

Thanks for all the information and passionate responses. I will not say that I am "prepared" to kill someone. However I know that I would be if in defense of my family or home. I honestly do not think that anyone is "prepared" to kill someone unless that have had the appropriate operant conditioning, ie, Police, Mlitary, Secret Service.

I know that I would lay my life on the line to keep my family safe and if that means that I do 20 years for defending them, so be it. I can live with that.

I was talking with a friend of mine about this last night. He lives out of state or he would be a better help. He suggested the 357 sig like one of the posters here did. I had never looked into the round. He tells me that it is a nice mix of 45 stopping power with 40 handling.

I may look into that.

actually, enough of this whiny stuff- lets just recommend the 50 cal deagle cus there ain't know way anyone is getting up after getting hit by a fitty...

Khaos


Before you turn a bullet loose, there are a number of consideratons. Some, you decide upon BEFORE the organic fertilizer impacts the rotating air projector. Such as carry options, Gun manufacturer (brand,) caliber and bullet weight. Others have to be decided in a split second. Such as can you safely take the shot, because the bad guy is standing in front of a group of small children? What is behind the target is as important as sight picture, trigger squeeze and follow through!
The Desert Eagle is a lot of fun to shoot, I'll grant you that. But there are other factors that come into play, besides Super Magnum Power. Overpenetration. The possibility of the bullet hitting an unintended target (read, "Innocent Bystander.")
I will agree that bullet placement is about 94 percent of everything. Behind that come caliber, bullet weight, velocity and sectional density. If you can't hit what you are aiming at, it doesn't matter what you miss with. Until it comes to hitting the aforementioned Innocent Bystander.
I have owned some pretty big handguns (a .45-70 Thompson Conteneder) and I love shooting the big stuff. But prudence dictates that I carry nothing bigger (more powerful) than a .45 ACP. After all is said and done, I care about what happens to my fellow man.

I realise this I was being somewhat sarcastic.

This thread reminds me of the title of Robert Ruark's book "Use Enough Gun." I am sure that in the days of the old west cap and ball pistols they argued over the stopping power of the 44 versus the 36 caliber Colts.

I was talking to a plainclothes policeman some years ago who carried a .40. He said that his partner carried a .380 and I said "380 ? That doesn't have very much stopping power does it?" He replied that his partner had recently killed a perpetrator with the .380.

Reading a book on the NY gang The Westies by T.J. English I find that one of the hired killers in the gang favored a Browning .25 auto and dispatched his victims with head shots. In the sixties and seventies I read of Mafia hit men favoring the .22.

I love the .40 and I have the Glock, the Sig 229 and a Beretta in that caliber but I carry a S&W airlite .357 magnum loaded with .38+P rounds. It is a compromise between weight and recoil.

My .40s are too heavy to carry comfortably for hours on end and the recoil of a 357 in my little snub nose is too heavy to get back on target quickly for a second or third shot if it is needed. If you are going to carry a gun these things should be considered IMO.

Speaking from my experience in kuwait, use the .45. Three hits at 15 feet lifted the Republican Guardsman off of his feet and slammed him into the wall of his trench. I'd like to see a 9mm do that.

I voted "other." I've fired the Glock and think it's junk, the Springfield is OK. I really like the Dan Wesson Commander.