The 9mm handgun is a decent means to allow one to get to their primary defensive weapon. Open fire against the armed aggressor and then run like greased lightning to a real weapon. I'm now speaking of a home-defense scenario. As a primary carry firearm, it is my humble belief that one would be better served with a handgun whose cartridge chambering was of a higher caliber and energy. I will not dwell on that latter subject.
The longer barrels of 9mm carbines do
NOT buy you extra velocity / energy. Only ONE 9mm chambering / manufacturer buys you extra velocity & thus energy:
Pump shotguns are dynamite -- lots of ammo choices. Problem w/shotguns is magazine capacity. I've a bunch of other self-defense toyz and their individual categories. Long topic, right?!!!
By the by, 20 ga. shotgun rounds have more energy than the .44 magnum handgun. Birdshot will not provide sufficient self-defense energy from a 20 ga. You must go to the #3 buckshot or #2 buckshot (Federal 3" mag. 20 ga. buckshot is loaded w/#2 buckshot; there's an Italian 20 ga. load with #1 buckshot). Slugs out of a 20 ga. routinely put venison on the supper table; however, in a home defense scenario, shotgun slugs of
any gauge are WAY too penetrating -- they will sail right through human bodies and home interior walls.
Do please allow me an "Old West" ("-ish", semi Old West, anyway; "modern-ish" cartridge chambering) suggestion. I've owned .357 Mag. lever rifles -- these in 16" barrel and 20" barrel configs. I'm old, I passed down a Winchester Wrangler wearing a 16" barrel to a younger generation. Again, I'm old; I'm finished. Missed the lever .357, so I got me a Rossi w/a 20" barrel. I had to shorten the tube magazine's spring. Rossi, it seems, uses ONE (1) spring length and that is for their 24" barrel levers. Thus, one must cut the mag. spring to accommodate shorter tubular magazines (I sure had to !!!). Once I modified the spring length, I was able to maximize the tubular magazine's max cartridge capacity in .357.
My Rossi .357 w/20" barrel now functions ... after a fashion. It's accuracy is that which I require. Due to the crudeness of the Rossi manufacturing quality, this rifle is picky about the ammo that can be loaded into the tube. Cartridges with exposed lead bullets (copper jackets only extending half he length of the bullet, leaving a lot of lead exposed ... and flat tipped to add more trouble) jam when being loaded into the tubular magazine (long story; Rossi design flaw). Others have worked around this Rossi design flaw (videos are available on YouTube concerning). Me, I found jacketed bullets (having their copper jacket extend all the way to the end of the bullet) that loaded and fired just fine. Once the tube magazine is full, then the feeding and firing is NOT a problem. Loading these Rossi levers is another matter. I'll not go into this matter any further.
An open hollow-point .357 Mag round will do unimaginable damage to a mammal weighing 150+ pounds in weight. Hollow points designed to expand at 1,200 fps will dump ALL of their energy in a thickish mammal. Over-penetrative for a home defense load? Maybe. Sure could penetrate too much. This is your call. Think about it. Test it.
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