I wholeheartedly endorse the concept of having one pistol for CCW. No matter if it's in the woods, in town, during the summer, or middle of winter. One pistol, one load, and complete familiarity and mastery of that weapon platform.
But... I love guns! I love shooting everything from my P365 to my G29. I usually rock a G23 or my P365 for CCW. Two completely different platforms and feels. G23 has no safety and is huge compared to the P365, which has a safety.
I KNOW I need to settle on one weapon in order to be the most competent and effective I can be, but it is truly hard to decide.
Love my G29, but it is just a bit too thick. Thinking about trying the SA new compact 10mm and seeing if I could adopt it as my ultimate CCW platform.
Anyone else struggling with the concept of one pistol to master and carry?
NO.
Instead, I focus upon:
1) Meta elements of shooting that apply to all handguns starting with grip.
2) Understand, experiment with, and train on the major action types: single action, DA/SA, striker fired, DAO, revolver
3) Dry fire each type
4) Live fire confirmation with each type
It would be very easy for me to choose a gun. The Glock platform is quite good in its consistency; 9, 40, 45, 10mm all work exactly the same with no real difference except recoil. The real problem is that no one caliber does everything. 44 Magnum is excellent for most threats, with 44 Special for personal defense against criminals, but is terrible where 9mm shines (with tiny framed guns). Then there's the reload and capacity problem with revolvers in general. Back to semi-autos, the 1911 gets you into 9mm, 45 ACP, and 10mm all on the same platform (same as Glock). Large, small, skinny vs thick; trigger this or that, sight this or that--it all doesn't matter as much as gun forums make it out to be.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with just choosing a small compact auto and not worrying about it. The Glock 43 or SIG P365, P365X or P365XL would do just fine for 95% of carry. Using a Glock 29 or S&W Model 29 for hiking would work well. But, since you love guns, you're never going to really settle down into "the one". I just did that with the P229 and am back to carrying Glock 19's and 30's. The love affair lasted a day or two and I was off onto HK and 1911's before coming around to Glock. If you can shoot them all at speed to a reasonable distance, then the 0.000005% improvement you get from "the one" is inconsequential.
As you can see the problem cannot be solved, focusing upon shooting expertise removes the necessity of doing so. I choose a group of guns to cover all my needs:
1) Ultracompact in 380 ACP such as the Ruger LCP or Glock 42
2) Subcompact in 9mm such as the Glock 43, SIG P365, SIG 938
3) Compact Glock 19, Glock 30, 1911 Officers with 3.5"-4" barrel
4) Full size: S&W Model 29 4", Glock 17, Glock 21, 1911 Government or Commander, etc.
These four guns should cover every concealment requirement with the rule of going as large as possible given clothing, activity and environment.