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When I bought my Kahr 9mm pocket gun, that marked my foray into the 9mm world as an EDC. My wife has a G19, and I've had the opportunity to shoot a number of other 9mm guns over the years, but until I bought the Kahr, my semiauto carry guns have always been .45s with the exception of one .40—a H&K USP Compact.

I owned and carried that USP fairly regularly for a couple of years. I really liked the gun, and I have some regrets about selling it. But I sold it because I couldn't stand the caliber, and I wanted the money so as to finance the purchase of a double stack polymer .45. I ultimately bought an M&P45.

All of that is to say that I've had a fair amount of shooting experience now with all three calibers. I never had a lack of confidence in the wounding capacity of a .40. I just didn't have confidence in my ability to shoot it well. It wasn't until just before I sold it that I got to where the perceived snappiness of the round didn't both me anymore. To put that in some kind of perspective, it doesn't bother me much at all to shoot full-on SD loads in .357 magnum out of a scandium j-frame; so it's not recoil per se that bothered me about the .40, but just how much that snappiness made the gun rock back, making it harder to get back on target.

I figured I should go back to what I know best, and I am very comfortable with shooting .45 ACP, and it is hard to question its track record as an SD round. It is certainly as capable as any of the other "major power" SD cartridges, and maybe better than some. Plus, fewer issues with bullet setback and stuff like that.