What's the best caliber? I'll tell you...

This is a question you see a lot of people ask when they're deciding on a pistol or rifle.  "I'm buying a new gun so what caliber should I get?"

If this question is asked on your typical gun message board or in a gun store that happens to have ass clowns working there, they will quickly answer.  "The best rifle caliber is 5.56 you gotta get a 5.56 AR-15...everything else sucks" or "You gotta get a 45acp, 1911... you don't want a puny 9mm glock they suck"

In my opinion the correct answer is both simpler and yet more complex and nuanced.  IMHO the correct response when posed with one of those questions is to ask them a question(s) in response such as "What kind of shooting do you intend to do?"  If someone says they want to shoot a rifle 1600 yards the appropriate answer is going to be quite different than if someone says they are going to be shooting at groundhogs in their backyard.  You're also going to want to consider their circumstances, maybe a .338 lapua is the perfect round for the job, but maybe they can't afford the gun or the ammo for it, perhaps in that case you'd suggest a .300 win mag instead.

If someone asks what the best caliber is for a pistol, you need to consider what they are going to use the pistol for and their personal circumstances.  By their personal circumstances I mean, what's their shooting experience, what type of recoil can they handle, what type of weight can they handle, what size pistol can they handle for their application, and of course the price of the ammo?

A reasonable person isn't going to recommend the same caliber to someone who wants a pistol as a backup weapon when going dangerous game hunting as you would someone who wants a subcompact for concealed carry.

Some times you'll see people who are so quick to answer these types of questions without even considering the application of the gun or the circumstances of the person asking the questions.  It seems these people generally act like the caliber they suggest is like a magic death ray and all other calibers are crap.  Guess what, shot placements matters a lot more than caliber.  While a 22lr is not an ideal self defense choice for various reasons (the first of which is probably reliability) if one was to shoot someone in the head with a 22lr the effect would likely be the same as if they shot someone in the head with a 45acp if you know what i'm saying.

Recently I read someone on a forum acting like the FN 5.7 caliber was basically a less than lethal option.  Really?  Perhaps this person isn't familiar with the ballistics of this round.  But I'm betting this person heard about the tragedy that took place at Fort Hood, and the 13 people were killed with 5.7 rounds.  That doesn't exactly sound like an almost less than lethal caliber to me.

"So Hammer what's the best caliber?"  Well, that depends on what you're using it for and your circumstances.  In some situations the choice of caliber can become pretty obvious because based on the application there may only be a few reasonable choices.  In other situations there may be many reasonable choices in that situation the best caliber may be based on the type of gun you want.