I don’t see the problem here.
You shoot a guy with 9mm, you piss him off.
You shoot a guy with a .45, you kill him.
The old book I mentioned suggested more like having the skill to shoot the guy thrice with 9mm. I don’t remember what it said about .45. Will have to find it again.
A majority of the comparison research articles and videos I have read have come to the conclusion that given the exact same shot placement the difference between common carry calibers above .380 is negligible if using modern defensive ammunition. The only caliber that appears to have a slightly noticeable advantage was the .357 magnum.
Just circling back to the point @pkbites makes, and addressing @DPRK and @carnivorousplant comments. If using ‘ball’ ammo, there is an argument to be made for a 40 S&W / 10mm / .45 ACP. If you’re using well made defensive ammunition and appropriate round weight, then .38 or higher power rounds (especially +P or magnum rounds) will do the job juuuust fine.
But the thread is about the popularity of 9mm with the population, and the cost and wide spread options of that caliber arguably trump all other common rounds.
This is contradicted by the many people killed with 9mm and the many who have survived being hit by .45 Not that I in any recommend being shot. Heck, .22 caliber can also be lethal.
Which is where aim comes in.
I’m thinking that at the point I’m drawing a weapon (instead of figuring out an alternative exit from the scene), I’m going to fill the attacker with bullets, and whether or not they’re 0.22, 0.223, or 9mm, they’re going to do the job.
I’m not going to be in a shopping mall, hide behind a planter, and use a 0.22 to take a single shot at a mass shooter to be a hero. But I won’t do that with the larger rounds, either. I’ll GTFO.
I don’t see myself in a circumstance where I’ll have to take out eight aggressive gang bangers in a back alley, either. Likely scenarios are going to be 1:1, where squeezing the trigger multiple times is going to be instinctual.
If we’re prepping and I’m worried about defending my compound from roving gangs of cannibals, I’ll be sure not to count on a 0.22.
There’s a reason people call .45 ACP as .45 AARP. It’s the grandpa caliber, stuck in the idea that bigger = better ever since they used it in DubyaDubyaTwo/adjust for generation up until 1982. 9mm technology has advanced dramatically, at worst it’s about the same, but cheaper and you can fit more in a magazine. .40 S&W is dying a slow death, though it will probably still hold on in the competition level.
The brand new one they’re trying to push is .30 Super Carry. We will see. A lot of the shitty “Saturday Night Specials” used .25 ACP, maybe .380. Of course true gentlemen use .32 ACP.
The low defense utility of .22 doesn’t even need to get into power to disqualify it - it can have reliability issues, and the rimmed cartridge makes loading less reliable in a non-revolver. Some of these can be mitigated, but why bother.
I remember semi-auto hand guns chambered for .357 Magnum were briefly a marketing gimmick in 2005 or so, they looked vaguely 1911ish, I wonder what happened to those.
Is there a reason .40 is dying? I remember about 15-20 years ago every single gun seemed to be chambered or had the option for .40. I know it was supposed to be the next new “wonder ammo” for “having the compactness and recoil of 9mm with the power of .45” or so. I own two .40 guns (A CZ-75 and a Beretta 96) so I’m wondering if I should sell them if ammo is slowly going to get even more scarce for them.
The original 80s meme gun, the Desert Eagle, came in .357 though the .50 AE was best known. 1911 type guns also come in .38 Super, again for competition mostly.
.40s not dead yet but a shadow of itself after police departments started going back to 9mm due to the improved loadings. It got squeezed from both sides. I don’t think you’ll have trouble finding it and 10mm will keep it alive due to being so similar. I wouldn’t tell anyone to ditch a CZ 75 that’s for sure. They’re still making their fancy competition models like the TSO in .40
Are you talking about the .357 SIG? Which is a necked down 10mm basically. Not the same as a .357 Mag.
@Asuka yeah, the .40 S&W is probably doomed in the long run, although the sheer number produced will probably keep it in circulation for a long, long time. I just expect that the cost of ammunition will slowly rise until it’s nearer to the .45 ACP, rather than the previous 9mm + 10/20% it was at the height of it’s popularity. I mean, I can still buy .380 pistol rounds, and it’s often considered more of a ‘dead’ round than .40 S&W by a long shot.
For those who don’t know, the .40 S&W was a compromise round. In the before times, when quality defensive ammo wasn’t readily available, people had viable (if not fully proven) concerns about the stopping power of 9mm (the point of the thread). But .45 ACP had an issue of having very few rounds by comparison, and the 10mm was found to be too ‘hot’ for most shooters. So you got the .40 S&W, which was made using fundamentally the same pistol frames as the 9mm, but had a bit more ‘oomph’ than even the heavier 9mm rounds. It was adopted by the FBI and many (most?) police departments.
After about a decade, as ammo performance and ballistics improved, concerns about the 9mm were largely a thing of the past, and as the 9mm was easier to shoot (less recoil), it was easier to qualify on (see the prior thread I linked) and most departments transitioned back to the 9mm. My only .40 S&W platform is a used Detroit PD M&P I got used for about 1/3 of the new cost, in ‘good’ condition.
Which brings us back to the OP - 9mm is more popular now than it was 20 years ago, but there are always new calibers being promoted, and perhaps one will take the lead (heh). But like the .40S&W (and the 10mm before it), they have to prove that in the long run, they do something ‘better’ than an existing popular round. Thankfully, the sheer number of 9mm out there will probably insure that as long as it remains legal, it will be a large market share for a loooong time to come.
No I remember seeing magazine advertisements and website ads for 1911 style pistols chambered in 38 special and .357 magnum and the idea was they were “survival” guns since they accepted two types of ammo (granted I have no idea if you had to change the springs out to reliably cycle .38 special or if they had some magic to let you shoot both on the fly).
I remember looking one up for online price ranges and they wanted $1,200 for it which is too much for a no-name manufacturer pistol.
I’m guessing something like this then.
Although calling it a survival gun is kinda weird - generally all 357 Mag can fire 38 special (not the reverse of course), but it’s very uncommon to have a semi-auto fire a rimmed cartridge. Although the ballistics would be good without the typical cylinder gap. Although I would just get a PCC (Pistol Caliber Carbine) in .357 and have both the zero gap + much longer barrel if I just wanted better ballistics. Still, a cool build and probably rare enough to justify the price, although I like you, wouldn’t bother.
Generally, when I think of survival guns, it’s ones that have inserts to convert a smallish shotgun into a multi-caliber singleshot:
Or the more traditional (?) over/under .22/.410 single shots.
Okay, digression over. I suspect multi-caliber types are a zero issue for military and gansta pistols - the military is better off only distributing one caliber for logistics (for those that use handguns at all) and NATO’s handgun round is, of course, 9mm Luger. As for gangers, they carry what they get easily (in general), so a strange, expensive $1200 niche pistol is probably not it.
I listed this source in a prior post, but for anyone who wants it, it’s from a module by the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) and it discusses (briefly) how guns are used both as protection, status, and to aid in performance of crime.
The Desert Eagle is/was available in 357 Magnum
Yup, see my prior post, but didn’t think you’d get any sort of Desert Eagle, even used, at the $1200 price point, even in 2005. 
Which is why my first thought was the 357 Sig, in that it had a wide enough acceptance during the time frame in question, but in some cases were seen as gimmicky ammo trying to ride the fame of the classic 357 mag while being available in a more modern platform.
I think the, or one of the, weird 9mm survival gun(s) was this one:
“[A] revolver that can chamber basically any cartridge with a 9mm bullet diameter and an overall length no longer than a .357 Magnum.”
It sounds more like a curiosity rather than a practical modern weapon, though?
The Desert Eagle (according to Wikipedia) requires switching the barrel &c to use different cartridges. With a recent model, your choices are apparently .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, .429 DE, and .50 AE.
I’ll bet you’re thinking of a Coonan .
I remember them but never had one pass through my shop.
I’m a bit of a throwback in that I have a .45 ACP, an H&K USP compact. My service years predated the Beretta M9, so my first gun was that 45. I like the DA/SA and safety on the HK. I don’t have any plans of getting a 1911.
I then got a compact 38 special revolver and it’s a pocket gun. But because 9mm is relatively cheap I got one of those too. That’s the handgun I shoot the most. I finished off my collection with a Smith ultralite .44 magnum. When camping out in the middle of nowhere that’s the one strapped to my chest when I sleep. That one barks a little when you shoot it, but it’s not bad.
I don’t have a Glock and I don’t know if I ever will get one.
Each caliber has its uses but the 9 is the one that’s most universal. But if a bear or a big cat were to threaten my wife and me when we’re camping — and we camp solo, sometimes miles from civilization — that’s what the 44 is for.
We like camping in the middle of nowhere, absolute solitude…
I just bought ammo today for the first time in years. Prices are crazy. Here’s what I’m finding at local stores.
9mm $30 / 50rds 115gr FMJ
44mag $40 / 20rds 240gr JHP — and only if they have any
38sp $45 / 50rds +P 125gr JHP
I’m considering loading my own.
That sounds . . . about right, down about 10-20% or so from the highs where even 9mm was over $.70 a round.
And don’t bother trying to load your own, getting primers and powder is more difficult than getting ammo these days. I’ve had a backorder for over a year for some pistol powder for my FiL. And this is why I haven’t gone to practice in 2 years since the early days of COVID and BLM ‘riot’ panic buying - just too damn expensive.
Powder’s easy enough to find. You might not see it every visit, and the stuff that’s more common are the weirdo .50 or black powders. But I take a peek at their clipboard and popular stuff is often on there e.g. IMR 4895. Really popular stuff like Varget is impossible to find, but they it was very hard before all this!
Primers? Forget about it. And if you don’t own a press, dies, etc. it’s a very bad time to get started. Everyone else had the same idea.