While I like a45 for myself, I know two friends that are in the process of narrowing down their search for a defensive handgun for carry, and want something smaller, both in size and recoil. They have a short list of quality gun models in mind, and the main question now is caliber.

Both want semi-autos,at least a 9mm, but I want to steer them in the direction of a 40 or 357sig, since both have more punch than a 9mm, but come in essentially the same size guns.

I'm very satisfied with the performance of the 40, but have no experience with the 357 sig, other than severalgovernment agencies issue them, and have not changed yet.