I have lived a very blessed life and I am very thankful to God for all my blessings and opportunities. With that said part of my blessings have been the ability to own and shoot a wide variety of firearms.

So, although I am not quite old enough to seriously think about culling the herd so to speak I am old enough to know that day will come. So I started musing to myself about handguns and what would I keep for the ride into the sunset, at least caliber wise.

Now if you ask me right this second or frankly for many years. “I want to buy a gun what caliber should I get blah blah.” I would tell you get a 9mm service sized or mid sized handgun. (Ammo panics/supply issues notwithstanding). If anybody new is reading this thread I stand by that. Get a 9mm. It has the best mix of advantages and gives up very little.

So I would finish out my ride with 9mm right? Wrong. For me personally when it comes time to cull the herd and I decide to pare down to a single handgun or handguns in a single caliber that caliber will be .45 ACP.

I know it’s the 21st century and .45 is the equivalent of lighting a fuse on handgonne to most folks these days but dammit I just like it. Big bore, more pleasant blast/sound signature, interesting platforms, interesting history and a little more forgiving on my group sizes at the range. . I just like that BOFF. Big Ole’ Fat Fu...err FRIEND.


So assuming you too will at some point decide to pare down or have already done so. What would or did you ultimately decide to stick with?

I know there are better rounds ballistically. I know other rounds provide platform advantages and I know I would recommend “better choices” to others but for me I do believe the ole’ .45 ACP is my if I could only have a single handgun cartridge.

I go back and forth on this at times as well. I'm usually sticking with .45 I think, then I'll throw 9mm back in there because it seems to make more sense.

Honestly, as I whittle down, the gun will whittle down with me. I may still hold my cherished .45 but may only be able to shoot the .22. I have some close friends with one at 86 and she's moved down to the S&W EZ rack .380 and her husband is 96 and about all his hands/wrists can handle are .22s - keeps them going though.

If I’m still on this rock at 86-96 years old I will be happy if I can open the pill bottle much less be able to shoot anything.

Never really considered 45AUTO a go-to caliber for me. I have 'em, I shot 'em on occasion, and actually have a bunch of ammo to feed what I have. But 9mm has always been the sweet spot for me, even though I still shoot and rely upon 40S&W a lot. Then 357SIG and 10mm came along, along with my 357SIG revolvers...and my 45s get neglected even more. But as I get older I'm pretty sure arthritis is in my pending future given my family history and what I'm already beginning to experience. 9mm feels like the proper landing spot, until it finally falls away as well.

So I suppose that it's probably a good thing that I'm already well supplied with .380s and .22s. And it's likely that if and when I start shedding the dead weight that my 45s will be among the first to go.

It's kind of a strange thing, to me, because for the longest time I wanted nothing to do with either .45 ACP or 1911's. But now the .45 ACP is my favorite handgun caliber and 1911's my favorite platform. So, yeah: If I was to cull the herd down to one caliber and one platform: Those would probably be them.

There's a YT video with Ken Hackathorn and Bill Wilson discussing .45 ACP vs. 9 mm and their age. While they occasionally still shoot 45, they feed their personal 1911's with 9mm now. Between the lines, they believe 45 is more a younger person's caliber (meaning probably less than 60 years of age) given hand issues we will all experience one day... as I'm just starting to. It's the conservation of momentum at play: age vs recoil.

I'll go with boring old 9mm, unless it proves too hot for my hands, in which case I'd drop down till I found what the limit is for me, i.e. .380, then .32 .25, .22 etc.

I like .357 SIG, but don't want to spend the money to practice exclusively with it the rest of my life (I'm in my 50s), and it's noticeably sharper than 9.

But when I get really old, I guess I'll shoot a lot less, so cost and availability won't matter that much as long as I can buy a big "rest of my life" batch at once and then just use it up, hopefully shooting the last of it on a range trip the day I die.

I too have been fortunate enough to put some rounds through a whole different number of barrels.

So here we are again, the good old .45 v 9mm

I'll start by saying I'm a huge .45 fan. I love a great (and even a good) 1911! If I could carry one on duty , I would.
I started on the job with a 9mm, but as soon as I could switch, I went to a P-220 in .45
Then we were able to carry the Glocks.
How can you not like 13+ 1 of .45 going down range?!?!

However, keeping an open mind, and doing research, listening to people way smarter than I...

I've found that technology when it comes to the.9mm has come a long way. Now, there's not much difference in penetration between a 9, a 40 and 45. Sure, you're getting a little more "oomph" when it comes to hitting, and slightly larger expansion in the .40 and .45, but the 9mm and the newer round technology is right up there. And I get a few more rounds in the magazine.

Don't get me wrong, I still use a .45 (G-21) as a duty gun, but I find myself using a 9mm for everything else.

quote:

So here we are again, the good old .45 v 9mm

Not at all. This isn’t a question of what caliber is BEST. It’s one of what tickles your fancy enough to whittle down to. I am not really looking at this from a purely WEAPON stand point. If I were I would likely stick with 9mm for a great many reasons not the least of which are the hand issues mentioned above.

It’s more about what is that one caliber you just like enough to let the others fall by the wayside, assuming you ar physically capable of shooting it.

.45 for me has NOTHING to do with 9mm vs .45 or slow and heavy vs fast and light or “muh stopping powaaa!!” Etc. Etc. It’s just a preference an emotional thing a feel more than anything.

In 2020 for a PURELY martial caliber not much makes sense vs 9mm from capability, to capacity, to recoil, to platforms etc. If I was the type of person who simply wanted a gun purely for self defense, it would likely be 9mm.

I am, however, a gun guy so to speak and with that comes a whole host of joys and preferences based more so on simple likes and desires vs raw data. It’s no different then wanting to drive a manual transmission even though a modern dual clutch is VASTLY superior.

So no it’s really not about what is the bestest caliber for X specific use but more of what would I like to shoot if I decided to whittle down to the one for the rest of my life.

Do I think .45 is a perfectly viable self defense tool....of course, do I think in terms of “9mm is .45 set to stun.?” Of course not and quite the opposite. I just like it.

9mm for me. I love my .357 Sigs but I EDC one of my P365 variants as all of my .357 Sigs are too heavy for me to comfortably carry all day anymore.

I really like the 45 ACP and I really like the 1911. But at age 72, shooting a lot of 45 at the range is just no longer comfortable or fun. I'm sure I will end up with a 1911, but in 9mm. Best compromise I can think of.
Rod

My theory (if I can dignify my scattered thinking with that term) is that I need to have a variety of calibers in a variety of platforms and eventually simply sell off what I don't shoot. Having said that, it would be really creepy to live in a household that didn't have good .45ACPs. I think there'll always be a good 220ST and a good 220 Match around, and if that's too much then there's a good Match upper on an ST lower on hand that seems like an incredibly soft shooter to me.

When I first got serious about purchasing my first pistol, it was close to the turn-of-the'90s. Wondernines were the trend, so I got one of those. Then the .40 came onto the scene and was praised all around, so I traded up to one of those.

I still have that one, and it's the one I shoot the most. The caliber is snappy and has fallen out of favor with the shooting public, but I've grown fond of it. It reminds me of my youth in the '90s! I've also amassed a pile of ammo for it. I'll use that caliber until I become too feeble to stand it.

I'm with you, OP. When I bought my first gun, most of my buddies were heading into LE. .40 was all the rage back then, and they were all into Sigs and Glocks. I wanted a Beretta (Because, well, Die Hard, lol), so I looked all over for a 96. Couldn't find one, and ended up settling on a 92. Had that gun for a couple of years, then picked up a P6 when they were flooding the market.

Over the years, I acquired more and more 9mms, and decided to standardize around that caliber. The logistics of sticking to just one made sense to me. I ended up following my buddies into LE a few years later, and at that time we were still carrying the P229 in .40. I never really warmed up to the .40 (could shoot it just fine, just never saw the point of the reduced capacity and increased expense), and was pretty happy when the PD decided to switch to 9mm when we acquired our new P320s.

Then I got into reloading, ammo panics happened and certain calibers became hard to get, and my interests started branching out into other types of firearms. The next thing I know, I've now got 6 or 7 different handgun calibers that I'm loading for, and my resolve to standardize around 9mm is out the window.

I still like 9mm, and I'm still glad we're using it as a duty caliber, but I've developed a great appreciation for the .45. So much so that when I'm on my own time, that's usually what's on my hip.

Will that still be the case in 10-20 years? Who can say? I have a shooting buddy who's in his 70s who has one of the most impressive shooting resumes of anyone I've ever met, and these days he's carrying a .32acp. Age and arthritis have weakened his hands to the point where larger calibers are painful for him to shoot, but he can still dump a mag of .32 into a tiny group in short order. That's the beauty of having options...there's something out there for every need and preference.

I’m now standardized on:

38 Spec
357 Mag
44 Mag
380 Auto
9mm
40 S&W
45 ACP

If I get my hands on a 38 Super, I’ll standardize on that too!

I like the variety, and have never seen the need to limit myself. I have a bunch of 9mm and 40 ammo, but won’t be getting rid of anything. Heck, if I get my hands in a 45 Colt of 44-40, I’ll gladly add those as well. I have more cartridge diversity than the Confederate Army, and I love it.

However, I don’t see anything wrong with a sunset love affair with the 45ACP. It’s a storied cartridge, and it gets the job done.

I guess that I have to add something here, especially since this thread is not just another battle in the caliber war.
In my aging brain I don't take sides in the 9 v .45 discussion but I've reached the point where I know that I have to offload some of my love objects. Years ago, I was trained extensively with .45acp. Later, I chose my first full-time carry gun in .357 magnum. Those two are still my favorites and will be the last to leave the collection, even though I own and shoot almost all of the calibers up for discussion. I no longer own a .44 magnum. Yes, I frequently carry a revolver as well as some autos. I'm not undergunned with a revolver or with a 1911. I know what I like and I make my own choices without much consideration for trends. That's one of the few good things about the process of aging!

While I am a huge .22 fan and won’t ever be without at least a few .22 pistols, if I had to pick a caliber to ride into the sunset it would be .38 special.
It does lots of things real well:modest blast and recoil and great accuracy- can be loaded from bunny fart bulls eye wadcutter level to near magnum. Ammo is very cheap to reload and components ( other than primers ) never seem to go into panic mode like the semi auto stuff. You can even use black powder to get a bullet launched ( with a surprising amount of velocity) and can load shot shells or even crimp a single 000 buck into a case for a suitable projectile
While I have 45’s ( a Colt single action army and a USGI 1911A1 mostly due to their historical significance) several 9’s and a few 380’s too, for most all purposes a 6 shot 38 will do me fine

If I had to choose today it would be the 9mm. Thankfully I don’t so it’s just hypothetical.

But I hope I grow old enough to get to a point where I start offloading my collection to my son, and hopefully grandkids. Then the last guns to go will be more about the guns than the caliber.

As per his stated context, I agree with the OP.

Since I’ve owned one of my 226’s for 32 years, I’m keeping them for both sentimental and practical reasons. For all-around use, it’s hard to beat the 226 in 9mm.

I was late to try a 220 (and / or .45), but I now greatly prefer my 220s for range shooting - which is 100% of my shooting.

The 220 in 45 has an appeal that escapes practical analysis. Loading and shooting a 226 mag is enjoyable, but not nearly as much as loading those 230gr rounds into that skinny, shiny 220-1 mag.

I would whittle mine down to 38 super and 45acp. To me, those are the most versatile to hand load. As others have mentioned, I was never a huge 1911 45acp guy until I started reloading. I make some 185gr loads that you can shoot all day and 38 super, forgetaboutit.