Mike Solent, the mysterious and well armed husband of fair Natalie, pulls his piece

I agree with .40 S&W is an excellent round, with the caveat that it can be quite punishing to shoot over a long period, and I would contend that you need to shoot your self-defence weapon a lot before you can rely on it. 45 ACP has, like my favourite calibre (455 Webley, I own a Webley Mk VI and a Smith 2nd Model Hand Ejector) has the advantage that it can deliver an authoritative hit with a relatively low velocity load; even a light target load from a Colt can end an argument very effectively and more certainly than a lighter high velocity round. To quote (I think) Colonel Cooper:

There are many ways of making a bullet lose velocity; I know very few of making it lose weight.

I think magazine capacity is a chimaera in self-defense pistols; modern high capacity weapons have been driven either by a military/police agenda or competition requirements; there are going to be very few few self-defence situations in which you need more than five or six rounds. What is, I believe required is a pistol portable enough to be carried all the time, rather than an ersatz SMG.

Natalie and I own (In Belgium, these days I’m afraid,) a little Charter Arms Undercover, and a good friend owns its big brother the bulldog. On the day I bought it for Natalie I carried it for several hours in my trousers pocket before she even realised I had it. Only 5 rounds of 38 special, but practice and intelligent choice of ammo made it very credible self defence weapon, had we ever been in a place it were legal to carry one. Of course, If I were expecting trouble I’d make a different choice, but even with the little Charter I’d be prepared for it…

Mike Solent