Protection by good and rightful law is often far less important than protection by a good and rightful lawyer.

Officer's unions have a bigger budget for legal support than do I.

Knowing those two things are enough for me to not give a damn about all of the pontification and chest thumping Mando is doing.

I think I will get a box of .45 and .38 and give them a try. Without a doubt bullet construction and matching the bullet to the purpose never goes wrong.

Yep. I'll forewarn you though. They are a weeee bit salty price wise. Not insanely so but they aint cheapos. In other words, they aint range bullets Unless yer daddy warbucks.

Yep I noticed that. More incentive not to miss.

Stand still dang you!!! These things are 2.90 a pop! Yer raggity butt aint worth 14.50!

As far as the OP's original question, IMHO, bigger is better in general for terminal ballistics but not if you miss or shoot slower than the bad guy in a gun fight. Most of my experience and training has been with semi autos (including duty and a gunfight). Although I have owned a couple of .357 revolvers and have shot various revolvers, they probably aren't my first choice as a CCW weapon. But that is simply my personal choice and does not make a revolver a bad choice.

Depending on the situation, circumstances, clothing and CCW limitations, I have carried many 380's, 9mm's, 40's, 45's and even an occasional .357 mag in off duty situations. It just depends on what type of CCW method you're comfortable with using and whether it works for you or not. A .38 with 110, 125 or 158 grain bullets wouldn't be my first CCW choice but at times, I've carried a slim .380 in a front slacks pocket because it was the only realistic choice. Not a great man-stopper but any gun is always better than no gun. By the way, ammo has tremendously improved in the last 5-10 years so today's 380 is almost as effective as the 20-year-old 9mm ammo you used to shoot back in the day.

Target shooting is good as it reinforces basics. Point shooting is the beginning of speeding up your ability to shoot at a close range targets under combat situations and prepare for a gunfight. From there, it depends on how much you want to learn, train and improve. If at all possible, you should only practice and train with good habits as those training habits are what you revert to under pressure. Each person is somewhat different and should carry CCW what they are sure they're going to shoot quickly, accurately and effectively (this includes drawing, reloads, etc.) under pressure in a gunfight. Avoiding the gunfight is obviously preferable but training for a gunfight is the wise thing to do since sometimes gunfights tend to find you and not give you that choice. And when you do find yourself in that oh crap moment of a gunfight and realize you're going to have to shoot somebody or be shot, you want a gun and ammo you trust your life with because you are.

You bring up a very salient point that's getting a bit of short shrift in the discussion. The law discusses legalities as far as prosecution for unlawful homicide. Nothing in that law can prevent a civil lawsuit which is a whole nother animal and can also mess your life up.

I went thenother way, I like 180s in my chiefs air weight. When you only have 5 each bad guy gets one each.

Warning on 110gr hot loads
High heat light bullets are being found to be severely Flame cutting revolver top straps ...it is very prominent and was first recgonised in the 38 and 357 110gr loadings where high velocity light bullets were pioneered ...but as other calibers have had lighter than standard bullets introduced the flame cutting of the top strap has appeared in those calibers also ...with that said ...and the problem has been real and identified for several years now.. one would think some powder maker has built a cure for this real and dangerous problem by now ..you just have to find the who and the what powder ...if it exists

With that said ...110 is bad ...158 or more gets results

Good luck
Bear

Effective .38spcl level loads with 110's running 1,000fps won't promote flame cutting of the topstrap or exessive forcing cone wear.

The loads in question are very different than the scorching culprits which drove this flame cutting rumor to the mill - there's a big difference in a 110-125grn bullet at 1,000-1,250, even 1,500fps and the same at 1,750-2,000. I fried a 686 with H110 under 110XTP's trucking just under 2,000 in two winters of indoor IDPA league. Alternatively, I've ran THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of them over 5.5grn HP-38 (mag cases) without any notable torching in the replacement S&W sent.