I had both 42's and 43's, and never noticed that they shot any differently or that there was really any difference in recoil between them. My only real beef with either of them was, they were a tad too skinny and tended to move around in your hand under recoil, especially when shooting quickly. Stippling helped there a lot, as it does with most things, but the 26 just feels a lot better, and in all respects.
As far as this goes, you generally get out of things what you put in. If whats being referred to here are shooters who arent beginners, then something is wrong with their training.
The whole point of putting in constant time and effort at the range in practice is to condition your brain to be able to shoot, on demand, without having to think about the act of shooting, and can focus on the problem at hand. If youre still at the level that you have to consciously think about shooting, while youre shooting, youre not yet there.
At some point, reality has to come into this too (who'd have thunk, right
). Will a 380 do the job? Sure, if YOU dont let it down and can make it work, across the board. Can you do it with the gun you choose, quickly and without thought? Thats more the question than what the caliber is.
People get all wrapped up in the caliber thing, yet, more often than not, the caliber wouldn't matter, because they cant realistically make things work, when called to on demand, with whatever it is they have. Reality sucks, you get what you get, when you get it, and not what you think is fair and acceptable to what you choose to carry.
If you can run a simple and basic course of fire with what you choose to carry and can come out with a reasonably good score, youre on your way. If you cant, then you really need to reevaluate things here. There are other innocent lives at risk here, besides your own.
And for those who cry and complain that its too hot and you dont wear enough clothes and cant possibly hide anything other than a third like back up, "comfortably", you need to put some time and work into figuring things out. With all the different holsters and carriers available to us today, if you cant find something and make it work with a more realistic gun, you havent tried very hard at all.
Ive been doing it on a daily basis since the mid 70's, when there wasnt much of a choice in holsters, and had no troubles doing so, and in an area with summers in the mid 90's plus, and high humidity, and working and playing every day in a very physical manner doing so, to boot. I lived and worked outside, year round, and base things on that, and not living in a controlled environment.
Still doing it every day now too....
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