tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

My EDC is a full size Kimber Gold Match in .45
I think the short coming of the 1911 in .45 is the limited capacity - you can get Glocks and H&K's that will hold half a box of ammo.
My favorite cal. is the mighty 10
I have a Kimber long slide and a Ruger night watchman both in 10 and they are rough customers when it comes to knock down (provided you have hydra-shock hollow points installed).

Alafoto Loc: Montgomery, AL

My carry gun is the Combat Commander in .45, the steel version, not the standard lightweight alloy version. Not a delight to carry 'sorta' concealed, but the weight makes it point like a bird dog and helps a bit with muzzle flip. When I bought it, the barrel ramp had been polished, the port enlarged, the trigger worked on to give a clean, crisp break at about 4.5 lbs. It had no rear sight but a nicely shaped higher than stock front sight. I put a Wilson low mount adjustable rear sight designed especially for the 1911 slide which slid nicely into the dovetail.

mwalsh Loc: Houston

I inherited a Colt Commander 38 Super from my father. If I remember the date on the receipt correctly, he bought it from a local hardware store circa 1962. I love shooting it, and it is a pretty common round in competitions, of which I have only done a little in the past few decades.

For carry I have a Colt Defender 45 ACP. You likely know it is a 1911 with a 3 inch barrel. After getting it, I was shocked at how accurate it is at 25-35 yards on the range.

I have not done my research, but I have friends who shoot competitions and they swear the ballistics on modern 9mm rounds outpace the 45 ACP for knock down punch. I don't know...I know a 9mm will hold more rounds, but if I need more than 2 or 3 in a fight...I likely lost the fight.

pendennis

The 9x23 is correctly called the "9x23 Winchester". The case is nominally 4mm longer, but delivers much higher velocity. The 9x23 I own was popular in the IDP competitions. The Super .38 was also very popular. However, with improvements in the 9x19 Parabellum, those two chamberings are no longer as popular, so they've nearly died commercially. I can still find the 9x23 from a local manufacturer, and he sells them pretty reasonably. I can also reload for both the 9x23 and the Super .38.

pendennis

The Model 19/66 was touted as the finest .357 Magnum made. Jeff Cooper and Bill Jordan liked it. It was a great revolver with the 158gr JHP. But S&W touted it in the mid-70's with the Winchester 125gr JHP. That turned out to be a disaster, and SW had to buy back thousands of them because they developed end shake, and flame cutting at the forcing cone. The Kentucky State Police and several local agencies all returned them, replaced with the Model 28 Highway Patrolman model.

A few years back I carried a Model 13 S&W with a 3" barrel. I only carried a .38 Special +P 158gr SWHP load in it.

None had the fit/finish of the Colt Python, though. I own one I got in 1979, 6" blue. Most accurate out-of-the-box revolver I ever fired. I set up the books for my brother's cop shop, and I took the Python in lieu.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Colt was somewhat infamous for their "fixer upper" mentality in those days,
You were kinda expected to take a new [piece to a real gunsmith for "tuning".
Like when the barrel wasn't quite lined up, and shaved a slice off the bullet.
Basically a spiral trajectory would soon ensue.

The 38 was a good gun for what it was supposed to do.
Pocket size, didn't hurt your hands nor ears when shooting.
Good for closer shooting- help convince someone they need to stop. It'll get worse.
Next step was that 12 gauge in the the front seat. Then the 30.06 in the trunk.
But in those days the point was to drag that personage to the courtroom.
Smaller calibers helped that greatly.
Nowadays- just take then out. Not down, out.
No court, no judge. Can't breathe- can't talk. No probs.

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

My everyday carry weapon is a 9 mm with a 12 round magazine and I am quite confident in it's ability to stop a threat

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Thank you. I knew they were very close but not necessarily identical.

Dennis

Leon S Loc: Minnesota

Great post Dennis. On our farm i carry a 22lr colt 1911. I've shot everything that would kill our chickens from a coyote down to a rat. Only takes one shot if you know how your gun. I use the 22 because I don't want to worry about stray rounds going any farther than where i want them to go.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Thank you Leon. I have put many .22's down range from both handguns and rifles. Still an excellent cartridge for one invented back around the Civil War. Putting the bullet where you want it is always good advice.

Dennis

One Rude Dawg Loc: Athol, ID

Basically 9mm is a 38 special you can use in an automatic action. Had a pile of them years ago, sold them all. If I could have only 1, it would be 1911. Next choices for carry, 22 mag, 357 mod 19 2 1/2 barrel, 44 mag mt gun.

One Rude Dawg Loc: Athol, ID

[quote=Harry0]Colt was somewhat infamous for their "fixer upper" mentality in those days,
You were kinda expected to take a new [piece to a real gunsmith for "tuning".
Like when the barrel wasn't quite lined up, and shaved a slice off the bullet.
Basically a spiral trajectory would soon ensue.

The 38 was a good gun for what it was supposed to do.
Pocket size, didn't hurt your hands nor ears when shooting.
Good for closer shooting- help convince someone they need to stop. It'll get worse.
Next step was that 12 gauge in the the front seat. Then the 30.06 in the trunk.
But in those days the point was to drag that personage to the courtroom.
Smaller calibers helped that greatly.
Nowadays- just take then out. Not down, out.
No court, no judge. Can't breathe- can't talk. No probs.[/quote]

Best are head shots but the court might get you for intent for being such a proficient shot. I recommend a book for those that carry, " In The Gravest Extreme " by Massad Ayoob. Tells it like it is and what will happen as soon as you drop the scum bag, be ready I HIGHLY recommend this book. Might be hard to find but worth the search. Good hunting.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

All good choices.

I would never carry any .22 for personal defense but if that is all one has then I guess that is what must be used. I once shot a small porcupine at 6 feet because I wanted to eat it. I shot it in the head every time. Took me three shots to actually kill it. By the way, I did eat it or at least try it. For those who have never tried porcupine it is sort of like eating very tough meat which was marinated in Pine Sol for two days. They eat pine bark and it shows. Never again.

I am able to shoot a 454 Casull with 3 in a one inch group at 25 yards. This was not bad shooting on my part. The .22 Long Rifle is seriously underpowered for personal defense. The .22 Magnum is a great load and much more powerful than a Long Rifle. But it too, does not have a lot of penetration and blows up easily. There are some .22 Mag loads designed for penetration but not much expansion. I am not putting down your choice at all. Just saying it would never be my choice unless it was all I had at the time.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

While I like the writings of Massad Ayoob I cannot go along with the manner in which you describe them. Law enforcement officers are trained not to shoot to kill but to shoot to stop. When I was a firearms instructor for the State of Colorado, Dept. of Corrections, that is also what we trained officers to follow. Shoot center mass of what you see, was trained. But let's remember there is a hell of a difference between targets on a range and actually shooting at someone who has threatened you or someone else. There is no stress on the range, generally no running at high speed to supposedly chase down someone and then have that thug turn around and take a shot at pursuing officers. Stress, out of breath, thinking you may just not go home that day, ALL merge together to take an officer capable of putting two in the chest and one in the head and make him into someone who cannot hold the sights properly. Add in that the officer is now being shot AT and it becomes a bit of a sticky wicket to say the least.

Ayoob was correct in his opinion of what happens AFTER the shooting even when the shooting was completely justified. No matter what the Left Wingers tell us, almost all law enforcement officers do not relish the thought of shooting anyone, EVER. For probably 99% of officers that is something that even when justified will hang over then for the rest of their life as a dark cloud. Even when justified the court processes afterward either to clear the officer's name or the law suit by the victim's family will be there as the family takes a lifelong criminal thug and does their best to make him into a person destined for sainthood, just a poor child doing his best to get along with everyone as he heads toward his dream of working hard to make this a better world for everyone. Of course the victim only robbed and killed others in order to get money to put himself through college. Uh Huh.

Thankfully I have never had any Colt as you describe. I have owned very old Official Police revolvers, still own a Detective Special 3 inch, from the 60's, a 1939 New Service in 45 LC, 1911-A1, several Colt .22 revolvers that were close to the most accurate revolvers I own, a couple of .22 Woodsman semi autos, a Python and an early AR15. I never had a problem or malfunction with any of them. I guess I am just lucky.

When I was a firearms dealer I did have a Ruger Super Blackhawk so out of alignment the cylinder would not turn when you pulled back the hammer to the point where the cylinder reached its point of misalignment. I have owned a number of S&W Model 29's that were all great except one in the 1970's when S&W was cranking them out to meet the demand for Dirty Harry Wannabes. Upon firing the gun lead would shave off the misaligned cylinder and come back to hit my cheek.

Dennis

Dennis

cwp3420

I shot my dad’s 1911 while growing up, and then was issued one back in 1969 when I went into Armor, plus an M3A1 “grease gun”. When I went in the Border Patrol in 1974, we were issued Ruger Security Six revolvers in .357 Magnum and 158 gr. hollow points. They kicked like demons with that load. Back then, we were allowed to carry our own pistols, and we had to furnish our duty and qualification ammo also. I carried a Colt 1911 series 7 for four years, until DOJ decided that we wanted to carry the 1911 pistols so we could shoot illegal aliens faster because they were locked and cocked, which was ridiculous. So they let us carry our own revolvers then, so I bough a S & W model 58 .41 magnum to carry. It had the heavy barrel and fixed sights on an N frame. I loved it until we had to eventually start carrying what the government bought for us.

Now that I’m retired and working part time in a gun store, I carry a Sig Sauer P365 9mm pistol with 11 rounds in it. I carry the new Federal HST Micro-9 ammo, which is a 150 gr. bullet running at a subsonic velocity of 900 f.p.s. Federal specifically designed it for the newer 3” barreled semi-autos. I tried carrying my 1911 compact there, but it was just too heavy and in the way with the work we do.