Capacity or Caliber? Which is more important?

Editors Note: Please welcome Garrett from Primary Arms to the site. Primary Arms is a great source for firearms parts and optics. Their ACSS reticles are top of the line, and I urge you to check them out!

When considering a concealed carry handgun, or any defensive firearm for that matter, one of the questions that you’ll probably run into if you’re thinking carefully is: should I prioritize ammunition capacity or caliber when making my choice?

In this piece, we’re going to make the case for prioritizing both capacity and caliber, while noting some of the downsides of both. Ideally, you won’t have to choose between the two, but if we must pick one over the other, the thing that matters for us at the end of the day is capacity, though we also think there’s a case to be made for picking caliber as well.

The Cases for and Against Capacity and Caliber

Capacity as a Priority

The case for capacity starts with a simple observation that gunfights are awful and stressful situations. Shooting under life-threatening stress almost certainly means that you’re going to miss at least one shot, if not more.

Thus, the more rounds you have in the magazine, the greater the probability you are to score a critical hit against an aggressor. We think that this is the simplest and strongest argument for making capacity a priority in your selection of a defensive semi auto handgun.

Secondly, you might well face a situation in which there are multiple threats: some of the more organized home invasions of recent years come to mind here. If that does happen to you, then the same argument that applies to increasing the hit probability on a single target is multiplied for every additional target that you may be presented with.

While this is not the most likely of scenarios, neither is needing a firearm to defend yourself with in the first place. When we’re talking about defensive shooting in any sense, we do recognize that any of these scenarios are relatively unlikely in an average person’s life, though the danger is present enough that we want to take precautions against it if possible and practical.

A larger capacity firearm will also decrease the need for reloading during a defensive situation. If you’re concealed carrying, it’s unlikely that you’d even have a spare magazine on your body. So you will be fighting with the ammunition that is in the gun when you start. Even if you’re at home, the idea of needing to use fine motor skills to do things like reloading when you’re already under a great deal of stress is not a prospect that we enjoy.

The downside to larger-capacity firearms is that the magazines tend to be longer. The longer the magazine of a firearm is, the more difficult it is to conceal. For people who value the ability to carry a firearm undetected, trying to hide a long magazine and grip is something of a constant battle, so we understand why, in certain cases, people would want to give up capacity.

There’s also the possibility that your state forbids magazines over a certain capacity, and we do always highly recommend that people do their best to follow the letter and spirit of local laws.

Caliber as a Priority

The major argument for favoring a larger caliber (here, we’re assuming that means choosing .45 over 9mm) is that, with a larger caliber, it might be possible to end a fight sooner. Ideally, you do not want any defensive shooting scenario to devolve into a drawn-out fight. Thus being able to put a target down, or at least stop them from fighting, in fewer shots might be the way to go if you can achieve it.

Statistics are hard to come by on this, but it stands to reason that very few people are going to want to have longer defensive engagements than are necessary. This argument is known as the “stopping power” argument, and it’s one that fans of 1911s have favored for decades. All in all, we think it’s sound. Because a .45 is larger and slower than a 9mm, it will generally do more damage to a target. It will be less likely to pass through it, assuming both are ball ammunition. Thus, being able to transfer all the kinetic energy possible to the target is a good way of stopping that target from being a threat.

These days, a fair number of home invasions are committed by people who are, for one reason or another, not of sound mind. If someone is on drugs or has some other sort of situation going on that does not allow them to adequately process pain, then the greater stopping power of .45 over 9mm might be necessary to physically disable a target as opposed to relying on an accurate perception of pain to dissuade someone from continuing a fight.

Similarly, adrenaline can make people keep fighting unless they’re physically incapable of doing so. For some people, the most likely use of their firearm is against something like a bear: in that case, I’d want the largest caliber I could fire out of a handgun.

The major downside to a larger capacity firearm is twofold. First and foremost, fitting larger bullets in a similar-sized frame necessarily cuts down on capacity. This means that you must get the job done in fewer shots. Second, those large bullets cause greater felt recoil for the shooter, which further compounds your issues with accuracy: you’ll have fewer shots, and each shot has more recoil with which you’ll have to contend.

Conclusion

So, which is more important, capacity or caliber? For me, capacity matters the most in that we do not want to take the chance at running out of ammunition before a fight is over. If we were having this conversation in 1920, when you might be choosing between .32ACP ball ammunition and .45 ball, we might go with the .45 every day without thinking about it. But, modern 9mm is powerful and effective at stopping targets. So it makes more sense for us to have as many rounds as possible.

For more articles on handguns, please check out these articles:
EDC – Top carry/conceal handguns under $500
What you need to know about firearm accessories
Why you need to carry/conceal ALWAYS – An editorial
8 tips first time gun buyers need to know BEFORE they buy
9 firearm training tips to help you survive a deadly encounter
5 Gun Myths Dispelled

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I hope you found this informative. Do you agree or disagree about caliber vs capacity? Tell us in the comments section below.

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