My normal warm weather carry for several years has been my G19 and cold weather carry has been a Kimber pro carry II.This last summer I have been carring my XDS 9.It is cooling down here now so I decided to carry my 19 the last couple of days and its not as comfortable as I remember it.Just for reference I use a double thick leather belt and TTgunleather MS VMII style holster for all three.This morning I Strapped on the XDS And its like its not there.I shoot the 19 well and like the capacity,I shoot the Kimber well and like the heavy round for heavy cloths season.But the xds is much more comfortable to carry.I shoot IDPA with the 19 and Kimber durring there respective seasons to keep in practice,not sure I want to play the game with the little guy.
sorry about the rambling just thinking out load.
It's true: Nobody in a gunfight wished he had a smaller gun and fewer bullets.
And, while we all agree with that statement, most of us don't carry G17's or full-size 1911's with 50 extra rounds on our belts--especially when wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Instead, we carry sub-compacts.
I don't worry about it. My chances of needing a gun, any gun, are remote. If I do need a gun, it's almost certainly going to be an up close self-defense encounter--a situation where I am protecting myself/family from an attack/mugging. Sure, a bigger gun and more bullets would be "better," but if I only have a sub-compact with 7 rounds, are my chances of survival reduced by any measurable amount? I tend to think not. My "draw and shoot" skills at 12 ft and in are about the same whatever the gun in my hand. Considering the fact that most people at those distances never use their sights during a self-defense situation (they point shoot), if I turned out to be a non-sight user, the longer sight radius wouldn't help me.
The bigger gun makes the most difference in your decision to get involved in defending others and/or trying to stop the mass shooter. If you're sitting in the seating area at a fast food joint and guy walks in and starts shooting, you might want to stop him; that might require you making a 40-60+ foot shot. Or maybe you're at one end of the mall and hear gun shots from the other end--if you plan to run to the sound of gunfire, a bigger gun will likely make a difference.
However, much of what guides my daily decision of which gun to carry is my environment. I live in small town America. In my county we get about one shooting per year and 99.999% of the time it's either bad guy against bad guy (like a drug deal gone bad), or it's a home invasion (homeowner shooting intruder). Fortunately we have virtually no street crime where a bad guy mugs a stranger, or violently assaults a stranger for kicks.
So, yeah, I'd say carry whatever you want. You're at least carrying a gun, and you're a practiced hand with whatever you carry. Even with "only" a compact or sub-compact, you're light years ahead of the vast majority of the public.