i carry a 38 most of the time reserve the big stuff for bad sections of town read that stored in truck , its below that i have trouble with , i have owned a 32S&W , a 32 kel-tec , 32 bretta , 32 browning , some 25's , a PPKs , sig 380 , a Mauser HSc and a couple more 380's ! none seen to have the power that makes me feel comfortable , if i up grade it will be to a light weight 357 , i have a g-27 to big , Kara's don't fit well for me , i carry in my front pocket , when i reach in the revolver seems to be easier to get a good grip on and get up and running , auto's are flat and hard to get a good grip in the pocket , i use a pocket holster also to position the gun !
I have taken courses to be a personal defense instructor , the important thing to remember with regard to equipment is it must work 100% of the time , so a revolver with 5 chances of a round going off seems better than an auto that would have to be cycled if a round failed , a couple of shots from a 38 may have a chance at slowing or stopping an attack better than a small calb. , a revolver works in a pocket , it works when the muzzle is in contact with the target ( like in a fight ) !
the rev. has no safeties that need to be wiped off nor a mag to fall out , as far as round count i would carry 2 if needed ,and to me it is important to carry the same all the time , i was taught this BUT one day i switched to a shoulder rig , got into a situation where the gun was not needed yet but a hand on it seemed a good idea , so under stress i reached in my empty pocket , so now now i keep the pocket gun even if a larger gun goes
I know this means little to the guy who wants the kel-tec in baby blue to match his girlfriends eyes but it does to me !
had a chance to go to a gun show last week-end , had to let a policeman inspect my gun at the door , he looked at my M-38 BG and smiled and said I carry mine all the time too , that was a stainless finish when it was new ?