HELP PLEASE --one 9mm pistol for carry, range, and HD!

[Rex G]

Two is workable but three is preferable.

1) Vetted carry gun.
2) high mileage training gun.
3) Spare and /or dry fire gun.

Guns can break, get stolen, taken as evidence etc

Obviously having three identical Glocks is easier than three identical Stacattos…

I will quote/repeat, for emphasis, the “taken as evidence” part. Every firearm, at the immediate scene of a shooting incident, is probably going to be examined, for evidence of having been fired. This is a minimum, and may well involve all such weapons being taken “downtown.” Weapons that are deemed to require ballistics testing will be downtown, for some amount of time. Weapons that are held as evidence may be downtown for years, and/or until the case has worked its way through the court system.

If I lived in an oppressive state/jurisdiction, I might well want to have a spare weapon (or two, or three,) stored in a VERY secure off-site location. (Remember, curious kids WILL find EVERYTHING.) Even a not-quite-so-oppressive jurisdiction might want to take, into evidence, EVERY weapon in the home, especially in the event of a home-defense incident.

Edited to add: I do not want to take this thread down any rabbit holes, regarding evidence, legal stuff, and such. This is just to further emphasize why a mere one or two handguns will just not do, for me.

[mmc45414]

Two is workable but three is preferable.

1) Vetted carry gun.
2) high mileage training gun.
3) Spare and /or dry fire gun.

Guns can break, get stolen, taken as evidence etc

Obviously having three identical Glocks is easier than three identical Stacattos…

I have also always considered this covered with closely compatible versions of the same family, maybe not completely identical.
I have a total of five 9mm M&Ps:
Three 5in versions, one that stays setup with a light, one with FO sights and all the Apex goodies, and one with all the same Apex goodies and a direct milled SRO.
One 4in Compact
An older SubCompact.
IMO this is pretty redundant, even if not identical. If something were to happen to the 4in Compact that is carried the most I have it pretty well bracketed by larger and smaller cousins. Maybe a 4in with a RDO would make sense.

I also have two copies of the Shield Plus, probably the closest I have to being an identical pair.

And I have four J-frames, by wearing different grips fill slightly various roles (pocket, AIWB).

[Clusterfrack]

One more reason to have duplicates: air travel. After a gang-adjacent baggage handler was busted for stealing firearms in PDX, I’ve come to expect that I’ll lose a gun that was someday.

[HCM]

I will quote/repeat, for emphasis, the “taken as evidence” part. Every firearm, at the immediate scene of a shooting incident, is probably going to be examined, for evidence of having been fired. This is a minimum, and may well involve all such weapons being taken “downtown.” Weapons that are deemed to require ballistics testing will be downtown, for some amount of time. Weapons that are held as evidence may be downtown for years, and/or until the case has worked its way through the court system.

If I lived in an oppressive state/jurisdiction, I might well want to have a spare weapon (or two, or three,) stored in a VERY secure off-site location. (Remember, curious kids WILL find EVERYTHING.) Even a not-quite-so-oppressive jurisdiction might want to take, into evidence, EVERY weapon in the home, especially in the event of a home-defense incident.

Edited to add: I do not want to take this thread down any rabbit holes, regarding evidence, legal stuff, and such. This is just to further emphasize why a mere one or two handguns will just not do, for me.

I have sent a co-worker home with my duty gun after he was involved a shooting because 1) I was the only one in the office with a second gun on the books and : 2) the nearest issued spares were 5 hours away.

[Tannhauser]

I see this question as “what gun gives the best trade off between concealable enough for the majority of carry situations but shoot able enough I can do a multi day class without discomfort”.

For me, this would be a P365XL.

[Biggy]

I pretty much feel exactly like the guy reviewing his Sig P365 Macro Tacops in the link below. Having no gut I prefer to carry AIWB where I can easily and comfortably carry my (3.7" inch barreled) P365 Macro Tacops pistol with an Armory craft manual thumb safety and minus the mag well in my Tenicore Vello holster, as the holster's built in claw pulls the pistol grip into my side and doesn't interfere with getting a good grip fast like some other add on claws can. I do like to be discrete as reasonably possible when carrying but then again I'm not a wired narc and absolutely prefer the full grip controllability and shootability of the Sig P365X Macro's 17rd grip frame where *I* sacrifice little to no concealability compared to shorter grip frame pistols when I'm walking around Wally world or Micky D's. As we know in a self defense pistol reliability trumps everything assuming you can get good hits with it, everything else is just personal preference and where you choose to compromise.


https://youtu.be/VRFv89bP49M?si=TnnlPnKCbj4dxk3i

[jeep45238]

#5, #8, #9 if you need more detail, then #10/11/12/13

https://www.shootingfordollars.org/h...firearm-basics

Basically, we're in a golden age.

I think it's mattering less and less with so many options approaching the point of dimension returns, and the support gear/other life obligations are becoming a bigger part of the equation than in the past.

[Outpost75]

Mostly I am a wheelgun guy. But I own three 9mm Berettas, a couple dozen mags, 1000 147-grain Federal 9MS carry rounds and 5000 147 FMJ FN American Eagle for practice and training. No Glocks, SIGs or S&W bottom feeders. But - 9mm revolvers, oh yeah. A pair 940s.

[Kirk]

Two is workable but three is preferable.

1) Vetted carry gun.
2) high mileage training gun.
3) Spare and /or dry fire gun.

Guns can break, get stolen, taken as evidence etc

Obviously having three identical Glocks is easier than three identical Stacattos…

This is the way. I personally have 4 identical G19s set up the way I prefer:

1) Vetted carry gun
2) Vetted competition gun
3) high volume live fire gun
4) dry fire gun/competition spare

I find my G19s close enough on trigger pull and accuracy/precision with my preferred load that I feel they are truly interchangeable like this. If I were limited totally to 1 gun, I’d have a 5th for home defense (I use a G17 for that personally). Probably overkill, but 5 G19s set up the way I like total is still a little less than 2 Staccatos.

[HCM]

This is the way. I personally have 4 identical G19s set up the way I prefer:

1) Vetted carry gun
2) Vetted competition gun
3) high volume live fire gun
4) dry fire gun/competition spare

I find my G19s close enough on trigger pull and accuracy/precision with my preferred load that I feel they are truly interchangeable like this. If I were limited totally to 1 gun, I’d have a 5th for home defense (I use a G17 for that personally). Probably overkill, but 5 G19s set up the way I like total is still a little less than 2 Staccatos.

I appreciate you thoughts and would like to subscribe to your new letter.

Seems reasonable to me. Plastic people poppers are consumables.