I have noticed something about Carry guns ...

[JimT]

Every time I've had an encounter with an armed individual that had a chance of going the wrong way, I never gave a thought to the caliber of the gun they were carrying. All I was concerned about was the possibility of them using it, no matter what it was. Thankfully those kind of situations have never happened very often.

But it seems that a lot of us who carry spend all kinds of energy thinking, defending, justifying or plain worrying about what caliber we carry. However, when it comes down to facing it, the caliber really does not matter. Those of you who have had a bullet or two go past you in close proximity can testify that you never thought, "Oh! He's only using a .22" or whatever it was. The caliber that was fired at you was not real important. What was important is that you did not want that to continue!

After years of carrying and thinking about it, I figured out that I am most comfortable carrying whatever I feel familiar with. Whatever I shoot quite a bit. What I can make hits with. What I can use without thinking about how to use it. Caliber is way down toward the bottom of the list.

[Old No7]

...I figured out that I am most comfortable carrying whatever I feel familiar with. Whatever I shoot quite a bit. What I can make hits with. What I can use without thinking about how to use it. Caliber is way down toward the bottom of the list.

Very wise words Jim -- carry what you know and shoot the best.

Old No7

[Bill in Oregon]

I agree with Darryl -- and you Jim. Just having something you instinctively know how to use to respond with is the key, not the platform or the caliber, although they are not without merit.
And if someone breaks glass in the wee hours, I'm grabbing the 12-gauge pump, not a handgun.

[wvfarrier]

When I got shot in the line of duty, it was with a 32 acp. It hit me just below the sternum, ricocheted off my back ribs and exited under my left shoulder blade. I did not even know I had been shot until after the foot chase was over and someone mentioned I was bleeding, about 3 seconds later my lung deflated. Let me tell you, that was very unpleasant however not debilitating. The perp kept shaking his head and saying "I shot you man" as he was hauled away in handcuffs. If be had been carrying something with more ooomph...I would be dead. The one day I wasnt wearing a vest.

[Bill in Oregon]

Thank God -- literally -- that you survived that!

[JimT]

When I got shot in the line of duty, it was with a 32 acp. It hit me just below the sternum, ricocheted off my back ribs and exited under my left shoulder blade. I did not even know I had been shot until after the foot chase was over and someone mentioned I was bleeding, about 3 seconds later my lung deflated. Let me tell you, that was very unpleasant however not debilitating. The perp kept shaking his head and saying "I shot you man" as he was hauled away in handcuffs. If be had been carrying something with more ooomph...I would be dead. The one day I wasnt wearing a vest.

I too am happy that you exist and are here to share with us.

[Streetstar]

Generally these days its "old" Glocks ---- a Gen 2 G19 or a G26 , but with a backup 15 round mag -- if i need a NY reload, its a J frame in the pocket . I know people generally dont like the aesthetics of the Glocks but the Gen 2's are smooth , unobtrusive for their bulk and most importantly light weight

I try not to overthink it too much --- at times i will carry a "statement piece" like a nice revolver or a 1911, but thats because i like to do so occasionally --- and i dont feel undergunned at all, ever ---- but they're just heavy and require a big 'ol belt and with my occupation, i am usually wearing some form of athletic attire that inhibits me from wearing a 1/8" thick gunbelt with a big brass buckle

My comment i suppose is not about the caliber, as 9mm is generally regarded as the basement level of being a "man-stopper" - but usually very controllable and cheap, hence its enduring popularity --- but all of us know that there are a lot of variables in any altercation and there are times when a .22 has stopped the fight, but a load of birdshot from a 12 gauge at close range has failed -- and i know bird shot has its detractors, but anyone who can take a load of #8's in a torso and keep coming is a force of nature (or high)


Although on 2 occasions i have been gunfight adjacent -- i have not been "downrange" in my civilian life as a target- and hope to keep it that way --- but can attest , as can a lot of you vets, the sound of bullets coming past and thumping bricks and vehicles is very disconcerting and it doesnt matter if its a 500 S&W or a 218 Bee

[piller]

I do not want to be shot with anything. Back about a year or so after High School, a friend got shot in the neck with a pellet gun. He survived, but he had a bad scar and the pellet ended up going down a vein and lodging in his heart in one of the ventricles. His younger brother was playing with the pellet gun, and thought it was unloaded. If a pellet gun can do that, then more power can do more damage.

[Streetstar]

I do not want to be shot with anything. Back about a year or so after High School, a friend got shot in the neck with a pellet gun. He survived, but he had a bad scar and the pellet ended up going down a vein and lodging in his heart in one of the ventricles. His younger brother was playing with the pellet gun, and thought it was unloaded. If a pellet gun can do that, then more power can do more damage.

Ouch ouch ouch --- triple ouch !!


My own brother as a goof -- when we were grown men, me being 31 and him 26, shot me in the leg one day with a lever action Daisy -- not the Red Ryder but the even more basic toddler version without any forend wood ---

I was literally just pulling in from a road ride (im a cyclist) - and he popped me and was laughing his butt off and that hurt like the dickens -- Grown butt man - but brothers, so no boundaries --

[AJMD429]

I do not want to be shot with anything. Back about a year or so after High School, a friend got shot in the neck with a pellet gun. He survived, but he had a bad scar and the pellet ended up going down a vein and lodging in his heart in one of the ventricles. His younger brother was playing with the pellet gun, and thought it was unloaded. If a pellet gun can do that, then more power can do more damage.

I saw a patient in the emergency room when I was a resident in training, and I think he had a respiratory infection or something so we wound up doing a chest x-ray. It was clear that there was a BB In his chest, and from the two views it pretty certain that it was in his right ventricle, but also pretty certain that he hadn't recently been shot in the chest...

That was his chance to confess to his mother that a few years prior to that he had gotten shot in the upper arm with a BB gun by his brother.

I'm sure brother got in trouble later, but he got in quite a bit of trouble with his mom when we explained that the problem is that if an object like that gets into a blood vessel it can travel. If it entered an artery the bleeding would have been severe enough to be obvious, and if it did travel and obstruct downstream there would be quite a bit of pain and obvious symptoms, but if it gets into a vein, the bleeding might be controllable with pressure and quit after a while, but if the BB travels it's going to go to the right atrium, then ventricle, then lung. It wouldn't hurt all that much in the atrium or ventricle as long as it stayed put, but if it got into the lungs it's going to cause an infarct of a chunk of lung which pretty much is going to deadly if there isn't emergency thoracic surgery. Fortunately his had lodged in the trabecula of the papillary muscles inside the right ventricle and could be 'electively' removed with less risk than an emergency thoracotomy to repair infarcted lung.

[Griff]

I've only had a couple of armed encounters since returning home from VN, and caliber or weapon choice didn't figure into either.

When I got shot in the line of duty, it was with a 32 acp. It hit me just below the sternum, ricocheted off my back ribs and exited under my left shoulder blade. I did not even know I had been shot until after the foot chase was over and someone mentioned I was bleeding, about 3 seconds later my lung deflated. Let me tell you, that was very unpleasant however not debilitating. The perp kept shaking his head and saying "I shot you man" as he was hauled away in handcuffs. If be had been carrying something with more ooomph...I would be dead. The one day I wasnt wearing a vest.

I too am happy that you exist and are here to share with us.

Likewise.

[Lastmohecken]

I don't think anyone wants to get shot by any caliber. Not getting shot is a top priority for surviving any gunfight.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I’ve been around armed men (good and bad) my entire adult life. I have never really been afraid of being shot, though that has been a possibility.

Typically I will notice that someone is armed and I’m sure I miss a lot of people who are armed and I don’t notice.

But I also notice people who carry a large knife.

Look around you. There are potential weapons everywhere.

For some reason folks get hung up on the gun when guns are only one means of applying force. We should be more cognizant of the potential danger associated with some people and not necessarily because they are or are not armed.

[Lastmohecken]

There's a lot of people who carry in my neck of the woods, and since pelvic carry has become so popular with micro nines, etc., it's very hard to say who is carrying, with the modern sloppy dress codes, these days.

I have carried pretty consistently, for probably 35 years or better, legally, and I still ponder my CCW gun choices from time to time. I have several small nine's, but seldom carry one, preferring the Lightweight Commander in 45acp, most of the time, but sometimes carry a .357 revolver, or even a 38 special J-frame snubby, and on some days, I choose to pack a 5 inch 629, 44 mag, especially if I am going to be working on the farm, but if I decide to go to town later, I just keep the 44 mag on.

I have had a couple of tense situations (call them Mexican Standoffs for lack of a better term) and I will tell you, I don't worry too much about what the other guy might be carrying, but as for myself, at that point in time, I was carrying a Lightweight Commander in 45acp, and another time it was Marlin 30/30, oh! And another time, I almost forgot, I was carrying a 40 caliber Browning Highpower. And I will say, that at no time, did i wish I had belted on a smaller gun on that day.