Baddest Tactical Pistol I Can Afford

By John W. Myers, Internet Photojournalist

Top left, Steyr M357-A1; top right, Glock 29 10mm with G20 15-round magazine; bottom left, Kel-Tec P-11 9mm, since replaced with PF-9; bottom right, S&W 669 9mm.

I'm planning now for the purchase of my next pistol, which will fill a hole in SHTF/Home Defense plan. My pistol posse at present includes one compact pistol, Steyr M357-A1 in 357 Sig; two subcompacts, Glock 29 10mm and S&W 669 9mm; one pocket pistol, Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm; and one .22LR "plinker," Walther P22.

On the other, longer-range end of my firepower, I have a Remington 742 30'06 semi-auto rifle and an Ithaca 37 12 gauge pump shotgun, which has had its barrel shortened to barely-legal 18.5" which turns it into a excellent riot gun.

If time and circumstance allows, the Ithaca is my first choice for home defense. Five loads of double-ought buck will stop most anything or anyone, not to mention the bone-chilling "snick, snick" sound of a 12 gauge round as it's pumped into the chamber. That sound alone has been known to send a would-be robber into full flight.

So the "reach out and touch someone" defense area out to 200+ yards is handled by the 30'06; closer in from 30 to about 75 yards is 12 gauge buck territory, from there on in is pistol defense. And though my Steyr compact 357 Sig and G29 10mm are quite capable out to 75 yards ballistically speaking, they're both more carry weapons than longer-range pistols.

Therefore, I have concluded I need a full-size "Tactical" pistol in the baddest caliber and highest capacity I can afford, working with a planning budget of about $600 max.

I define "Tactical" thusly: Full-size semi-auto with as much capacity as can be crammed into a grip, which can definitely be as fat as the fattest Glock 'cause the Good Lord blessed me with big, skinny, long-fingered hands.

When I say "high capacity" I'm thinking at least 15 rounds or more. I realize that leaves .45 ACP out of the running with only 13 rounds max capacity for all but Para Ord's 14, so I decided to make an exception for that caliber and leave it in for all 13- and 14-round models.

Caliber Grains Type Mfg. FPS Muzzle Ft.Lbs. Muzzle

357 Sig 125 JHP Gold Dot DoubleTap 1450 584

9mm 124 JHP Gold Dot DoubleTap 1301 473

.38 Super 125 JHP Winchester 1240 427

9x23 124 JHP Winchester 1460 587

10mm 180 JHP Gold Dot DoubleTap 1300 676

.45 ACP 230 JHP Gold Dot DoubleTap 1010 521

Here's the caliber candidates first, with the hottest rounds I could find on any ballistics table or website. (I kept grain size equal at 124/125 for comparison purposes of calibers that all use a 9mm projectile. I went with 180 grain for 10mm and 230 grain for .45 ACP 'cause that's what I like best for those two. Hey, it's my table. Make your own for your favorite grain weights.)

High muzzle velocity trumps low muzzle velocity unless it's a featherweight round, but foot-pounds is at least if not more important than speed when it comes to pistol calibers. So what I'm looking for is the best combination of speed and impact of delivery, combined for "knock-down power." I know that's a highly debatable term, but that's how I choose to define "knock-down power," speed plus impact.

I read Massad Ayoob recently told one of his LFI classes about incidents where BGs hit with 357 Sig rounds went down "like they were hit by lightning!" Now that's smack-down power!

Winchester offers an excellent online testing tool to compare various calibers' penetration in various materials.

Handgun cartridge gel penetration comparison And here's another comparison in gel penetration, which demonstrates any of my choices will get the job done.

You may have noticed I left out .40 S&W. I always thought it was a great round, just looking at it on paper. Essentially, it's a "short and weak" version of 10mm, as some have dubbed it, same casing shortened. It's the most popular round with law enforcement nationwide and millions of cops can't all be wrong.

But cops have to shoot what their bosses buy. And when I bought my first .40, a Steyr M40-A1, I was underwhelmed. The round is not as powerful as 357 Sig or 10mm, but for some odd reason, the recoil is "snappier" than either and not as much fun to shoot, at least for me.

The only person I have to please about pistols is me, so I ended up shopping around and made a swap for my subcompact 9mm S&W 669. I used to be a 9mm snob back in the day when I thought 1911 .45 ACP pistols were the only "real" pistols made. But I got over that.

So to rate the calibers from baddest to least bad (but still pretty bad) on the numbers alone, 10mm is 1st, 357 Sig is 2nd, .38 Super and 9x23 are combined for 3rd place, .45 ACP is 4th (with the 13+1/14+1 handicap) and 9mm is 5th.

EAA Elite Match pistol I combined .38 Super and 9x23 because full-size EAA Witness and Elite Match pistols will hold 18 rounds of each and will shoot each interchangeably without any modification. It's a good twofer because .38 Super is cheaper ammo but that 9x23 Winchester round outperforms everything else on my chart except 10mm, plus ammo is cheaper than 10mm.

So now, let me consider pistols. The Glock 20 and the EAA Witness and Elite Match are, so far as I know, the only 15-shot 10mm pistols available. The EAA Witness and Elite Match are also available in .38 Super/9x23 with a full capacity of 18+1, which in my mind gives it a leg up over the 10mm EAAs.

Choices in 357 Sig are limited in 15-round capacity, plus in what I can afford, to probably a Glock 31. Wish I could afford a genuine Sig. But even if I could, they're somewhat handicapped by 12-round capacity.

Choices in .45 ACP are a bit better: Springfield XD, Glock, S&W M&P, all 13+1; and Para Ordnance Hi-Cap models at 14+1; all roughly same price range.

Choices in 9mm are even wider, including the above and many others, but as noted, 9mm is my last choice. But that's not to say it's out of the running. I just saw a real nice S&W full-size 9mm law-enforcement trade-in with 16-round capacity in a local gun shop at a very attractive price.

I still regret letting that Hungarian-made FEG Browning Hi-Power (see Pistol No. 5) I had get away from me. As Clint told the judge about peeing on the cop car, it seemed like the thing to do at the time. That was one sweet-shooting hunk of iron and I shoulda kept it.

Who knows, I might just decide the Steyr M9-A1 on sale at CDNN.com right now for $350 is the best deal going. It's hard to beat while those "bargain" Steyrs last, which probably won't be much longer.

In Page 2 of my "Baddest tactical pistol I can afford" plan, I'll investigate possible "options" for the leading pistol candidates, such as additional barrels and/or slides for more calibers, carbine kits, et c.

Join the discussion on this topic at Steyrclub.com, in two threads at Glocktalk.com, one on pistols and a second on carbine conversions, at CZForum.com on EAA Witness pistols and at S&WForum.com.

(John W. Myers is a former newspaper editor, reporter and photojournalist)