Obviously, a more powerful cartridge is better. But I think it’s useful to look at cartridges that were popular in the past, as well as cartridges that are/were popular in Europe.gringop wrote:The 380 is a backup gun and a poor one at that.
A .380 generates approximately 200 ft lbs of energy. In the early 20th century, the lowly .25acp was very popular in pocket guns at 73 ft lbs. Even full size pistols were popular in .32 acp at 100 ft lbs. The .32 S&W was very popular in small revolvers at 87 ft lbs. The .32 S&W Long, aka .32 Colt New Police was a popular police cartridge at 132 ft lbs. The .38 Short Colt produced 165 ft lbs. The .38 Long Colt, which was the U.S. military cartridge from 1892-1911, offered 201 ft lbs. The .38 S&W, aka .38 Colt New Police, was carried by many police agencies until the mid 1900s at 150 ft lbs. The British adopted this round as their military round loaded with a 200 gr bullet as the .38/200. In that configuration, it ran 176 ft lbs.
All of the above were considered adequate defensive rounds in their time, yet only the .38 Long Colt, the predecessor of the .38 Special, is the equal of the .380 acp. I realize the poor performance in the Philippines caused the abandonment of the .38 Long Colt, but for 18 years our military cartridge had the same power as the .380.
Sure, carry the most powerful round that you’re comfortable with, but the weaker calibers should not be completely discounted.