Purchase question 3" 9 or 40?

[yocan]

I'm looking at a 3" subcompact xd, any suggestions on the 40 or 9mm to buy, anyone know of ft/lb out of a 3 inch barrel for this gun? and in all honesty if it comes down to it which would be better to use?
thanks

[IndianaJones]

Never take anything less than a .40 to a gunfight.

[PilgrimChapter33]

IndianaJones, you're full of bologna. There's nothing wrong with 9mm if that's what you shoot well. I dont know how much shooting experience you have, but that said, buy the biggest caliber you handle confidently. For me, that's 45. For my brother, thats 9mm. I am confident we can both handle ourselves in a "nasty situation".

All that said, I would lean towards the 40.

[hatingthesuck]

The most important thing before considering size of bullet is how you perform with each... Some people have found it to be harder to control a 40.. Its all personal preference...

You can do a search here on ballistics and opinions of others about the same topic.


we posted at the same time.. good response time on this forum...

[rob45cal]

+1 with Pilgrim and HTS. Shoot what your accurate and confindent with.
Stopping power vs overpenetration dont mean anything if ur stopping and overpenetrating innocent bystanders

[D_Fence]

I'll just say that if you plan to shoot the heck out of it, the 9mm is going to be a lot less expensive in the long run. You should be very comfortable with the gun if you plan to use it for self-defense purposes. Neither caliber is likely to immediately drop somebody, and the difference between the two won't matter at all if you miss or hit the attacker in the shoulder. If you can afford to shoot the heck out of the .40, or you are already a very experienced shooter that doesn't require tons of range time to get used to a gun, then go for the .40.

Just don't feel like you are getting a cap gun if you pick the 9mm. The 9mm will do the job, and the easy recoil will greatly improve your ability to shoot follow-up shots that hit vital areas. The current reputation of the 9mm would be totally different if modern hollowpoints had been in widespread use right from the beginning. People would say the same stuff about the .40 if people had been shooting full metal jacket .40 during those same years. (The .40 came out in the early 1990s. The 9mm has been around since around 1900.) Lots of this anecdotal evidence is based on years of people/military using 9mm full metal jacket ball ammo, which performs terribly compared to a hollowpoint.

[Cooperd0g]

To steal (or borrow) a sig line from a guy on another forum:

Shot-placement is king. Adequate penetration is queen. Everything else is angels dancing on the heads of pins.


So if you shoot 9mm better than larger calibers, then go for that. If you can shoot larger calibers as well as 9mm or better, then go with those. You have to get the King to win in Chess. If you can take out the queen in the process, then all the better, but the King is what matters most.

[fez]

I got the .40 sub compact.. wish I would have gotten the 9.. I'm very new to shooting and didn't know any better..

[jgrauman]

.40 .40 .40 love my .40's all of 'em! i feel bad for my service sometimes, i carry my SC so if i stop by the range it's what i shoot! the service only gets brought out on the weekends

[hellagerms]

Originally Posted by IndianaJones

Never take anything less than a .40 to a gunfight.

I'll remember that next time I'm paged with a gun fight on the 3rd floor.

To address the original question...
I say 9 because I have one (9SC). I have a 40 service, and I couldnt imagine the snap if it was on the SC platform. For all else, I like to shoot 45 (tact/ser)