5 Unconventional Calibers for Concealed Carry

These five unusual calibers can be used for concealed carry when the gun store’s ammo shelves are empty. We find ourselves in a constant state of panic every few years, much like the plagues in Egypt. (Those who didn’t stock up in the in-between periods. You can deal with this by having backups (or main guns), chambered in calibers not so popular. I know, I know. You don’t want your fellow gun club members to make fun of you for carrying ammo in “mouse gun” cartridges. But, when that happens, what do they say? It must be widely available so that other retailers and gun shops will stock it. Another example: The 7mm Remington Magnum is almost identical to the.280 Ackley Improved in terms of performance. Which do you think your local gun store will stock? You’ve never heard about the.280 AI. I’m done. The 9mm,.38 Special, and.357 Magnum are all out. .357 Magnum and.40 S&W, respectively. It also eliminates common backups like 10mm Magnum,.44 Magnum, and.380 Auto. In a panic situation, there will be no ammunition left in any caliber. You can still get creative with some unconventional calibers. Although it is just as powerful, it’s not the.380 Auto. Even though the.380 Auto is gone, there may still be some Mak. After the destruction of the Tokarev pistols and Nagant revolvers, shiploads of them have been imported from various communist countries. It’s equivalent to a.380 Auto in power and the Makarov pistols, which are traditional double-action pistols with back actions, can be used as FMJ practice ammunition. CCI makes aluminum-cased FMJ ammo for the 9mm Makarov. The barrel’s velocity is listed at 1,000 fps. However, repeated chrono trips have shown it to deliver just over 900 FPS from various Maks..38 SuperTake a 1911 in 9mm and Super and attach a barrel of the other. It will need to swap magazines but it will run fine. Although a lot of.38 Super ammo has the same power as 9mm loads, some loads can be more powerful than 9m+P or even +P+. You’ll only ever see.38 Super pistols that are 1911s or clones. This is an option if you have a 1911. A two-barrel gun could be used with magazines for each 9mm Parabellum or.38 Super. Keep a large supply of Super on hand, and practice with inexpensive (relatively speaking), 9mm ammunition. When you have ammo, carry it as a 9mm. You can always have Super on hand if you run out of ammo. Some Super is more powerful than 9mm, but most of it is the same. What’s the difference between a 9mm factory listing and a.38 Super listing at 1,175 FPS? And a CorBon listing for a 115-grain JHP at 1,400 FPS or a 135-grain JHP running at 1,350 FPS? This is the old spec for a.357 Magnum load. It was rarely delivered. It works great with both.40 S&W and.357 Sig guns. If you use a full-sized sidearm the recoil, muzzle blast and velocity boost aren’t as great as a 9mm +P, and I can confirm that it does so with a 5-inch Government model. Although I don’t like Glocks, a G31 allows you to have a pistol with two barrels. One in.40 S&W for quick ammo and one in.357 Sig for when you need it most. Unlike the 9mm/Super pair, you don’t need different magazines for each caliber..41 MagumOK, we’ve moved from the loud.357 Sig rifle to the real thumper,.41 Magnum. This can be used in single-action and double-action revolvers. However, if you can handle the recoil, you will still have some.41 Mag. There will be.44 Mags, just because gunmakers sell them. To.41 Mags. The ammo manufacturers do better, though, with a ratio of better than 10 to 1. I checked various online and retail sites to find that the.44 Special is still available..44 SpecialWhile it’s a unique caliber, the.44 Special offers many ammunition options. It also makes large holes. This is, if you’ll pardon my pun, a Special case. You can always find.44 Special to feed your.44 Magnum revolver, whether it’s a.44 Magnum for defense or EDC, or an S&W M29 or similar. A 180-grain JHP loaded at 900 feet per second is equivalent to a.40 S&W, which is downloaded for cowboy-action shooting. The Federal “Training” load (they call it that, although this isn’t just target ammo), is a good choice if you prefer something more traditional. That one is a 200-grain lead semi-wadcutter hollow-point at a listed 870 fps, and you can expect a solid 825 fps out of a 4-inch barrel.That’s like the old FBI .38 Special load, but with a larger-diameter bullet and 25 percent more bullet weight.Unconventional Caliber On The CuspThen, there’s the .45 Colt. Yes, that cartridge has excellent EDC carry options. But what about the ammo options? It can be a headache. There are many options, including the Sig JHP, but it is important to be cautious when you start looking at other options. A 250 grain lead hollow-point at 890 fps is a great thumper. The “cowboy” load that is next to it on the webpage might be a 255 conical bullet with a small flat point and 250 grains at a real-world 890 fps. For example, the 10mm is fuggedaboudit. The.45 GAP? It has never been chambered in Glocks, and was never loaded by many ammo manufacturers. It is rarely seen in gun shops as ammo or pistols. It’s often dusty and has been there for years, even though someone ordered it wrongly many years ago. You can’t count on ever finding enough. You can’t always count on finding much. These are certainly unusual times, considering the world we live in. Target grids and bullseye sizes can be downloaded in MOA. Perfect for long-range shooting! Get free targets