.380 S/W Bodyguard is always near. 9mm is also close at hand..at time both are on me.

S&W Shield gives you the best of both worlds. Its a pocket pistol in 9mm. I shot one last week and was very impressed. I shot a tight group at 10 yds. from that short barrel.

Strangely enough, I think it is the opposite. Heavy clothing clogs the hollowpoint and prevents expansion, increasing penetration!

BUT, I use ball because the smaller rounds don't penetrate as well anyway. Ball maximizes penetration.

Also, with 32ACP, the hollowpoints (unless you use power ball) can shift leading to rimlock. Better to stick with plain old ball.

Ahhh spoken like a true 1903-08 owner/shooter/carrier.

Yep, I love the 1903/1908. I wish someone would resurrect it using a polymer frame. It is so thin and nice!

I wish Colt would just re-issue them. They are great guns.

I love mine, too, in spite of its decrepit condition.

But I don't think we'll be seeing any new single-action striker-fired pocket pistols sold by any company that has even heard of the word "lawyer".

Send it to Colt. Have it done in their royal blue. $250.00 last I knew. Worth the investment.

The same thing has happened with hunting rifles. Countless deer have fallen to .32-40's, .38-40's, .44-40's, .25-35's, .30-30's, and the like. Yet, today, it apparently takes nothing less than one of the 7mm or .300 mags to down some scraggly little 120 pound white tail. It appears they have toughened up considerably over the years...

It's the clowns in the firearms press, complicit with manufacturers eager to sell their new wares. They do their level best to convince the shooting public that grandpa's hunting rifle, or defensive pistol, simply will not do the job anymore. We all need the latest and greatest, lest our quary escape after our inadequate rounds just bounce their bullets off of them.

In the same veign, they must grow tougher and braver criminals these days. Where in days gone by the average thug would see a pistol and wisely decide to take his business elswhere, today's criminal apparently examines the pistol first - "pffft... that's just a god damn little .32... I'm gonna kick yer ass..." And, as you start shooting in your vain attempt to change his mind, those pipsqueak little .32's just bounce right off and piss him off even more...

Yeah, right... No one wants to get shot. Not many will have the fortitude and determination to keep coming once they have been shot. The vast majority of defensive situations never get that far, even today. Nothing has changed. The gun writers have simply long since run out of valid, usefull things to write about, so they create and feed all of these shooting myths. Their real-world experience is lacking, they fill in the blanks by feeding off one another, and myths are perpetuated. Like Keith opined many years ago already, many shoot better with a typewriter than with a gun...

All of that said, there is irrefutable data that indicates bigger is better. But - and this is a big "but" that several have aluded to already - bigger tends to stay home. A .32 in the pocket is definitely more effective than a .45 at home in a desk drawer...

You are absolutely right Jeff.

Wow, $250? That sounds....too good to be true. I'll call them tomorrow!

The other myth that gun writers have invented for the sake of having something to write about is, in my opinion, the idea that no-one is safe without three high-capacity magazines and endless practice in combat reloads. They seem to think that trotting off to the grocery store is like heading into the Vietnam bush. Gotta be ready for all-night firefights in the frozen food aisle.

Excellent post Jeff. I've been talking with David about a .32 Remington I have from my grandfather. I know for a fact this little 'pop' gun took many a deer. Actually funny come to think of it... I have my fathers deer hunting rifle also. It's basically the same gun, a pump action Remnington but chambered in 30.06. New generation, more power.

When someone starts the macho crap about a smaller caliber, just ask them if they want to play catch.
I carry a .45acp but I never knock anybody for what they prefer to use.

Shot placement... nuf said.

The dangerous isle is the snack food isle. Some joker is always trying to take the last box of Zingers and it goes south from there. Everyone knows in the frozen food isle you can stuff a double top pizza in your shirt for protection from those little pop rounds. The place I never venture into though is the "ladies" isle. That there has some dangerous critters that'll turn on ya for seemingly no reason. :D

If you want to live Dangerously try the Soda Pop Aisle all the SUGAR JUNKIES are trying to score their next fix. Now if you ask me I would say the Fruit and Veggie section is the safest as all your going to find there is a bunch of passive herbivores grazing. In other words you ain't gona be finding Ted Nugent there...check the Meat counter for Teddy Nugent.

Stopped carrying .40's in favor of Diamondback and SIG P238 .380's. Much more convenient. I'll keep a 9mm in the car.

i get a real kick when i run into peoples in the backwoods and they are carrying a 9mm or a 40 or even a .45. ask them what their carrying and the reply 9mm .40 .45. i always laugh inside.


if im in the boonies....................its .357/.44mag/.30.30/.308/.338 win mag/.45/70.........PERIOD!



yes a .45 has stopped bears. but i do have the choice when i walk up to my safes to pick and choose what does work MO BETTERER!



when i take off for vacation this summer sometime i will grab either the smith model 66 stainless .357 and his bruddah mr marlin 1894CS .357 stainless lever or the smith model 29 stainless .44 mag and his bruddah mr marlin 1894SS stainless .44 mag and depending on how much i want to lighten my wallet............308 or 45/70.



all of them do a very good job of doing ANYTHING in the forest or the dez southwest with proper loads.

I would think a 45-70 would be good for about anything.