My only input to this comes from an experience over a decade ago with a fellow deer hunter and a 32 ACP.
SuperCore was out for his first deer hunt. He was hunting with a Garand. He mentioned to me that he was carrying a 32 ACP for a "finisher." I explained to him that, should he need a second shot, it would be better to stand back a bit and put another round of 30-06 into the chest and not dick around with a pistol. Sadly, SuperCore did not listen to the advice. I was over on the next ridge on the Opener, and I heard "Blam!" then "Blam!" and then a series of "Pop! Pop! Pop!. . ."
I won't go into details, but when I arrived, SuperCore was quite shaken. It seems he had popped a nice doe at 15 yards, and then spied a small button buck following her. He shot him too. The doe was not completely dead, so he pulled out his 32 ACP and started putting rounds into her head. He emptied the mag to no appreciable effect and then left the scene to meet me back up at the house. We later found the doe a good ways away. She managed to crawl off and die in some bushes over 50 yards away. SuperCore found out the hard way that 32 ACP just doesn't cut it on a deer-- not even shot at 3 feet with a whole mag emptied into the skull.
My reason for relating the incident is to explain my reticence to carry a small sub-compact piece.
BTW, my EDC is either a 5-shot Ruger LCR in 357 Mag in summer or a Ruger P95 9mm in Winter. Around the farm, I now carry a P38 variant in a chest holster.
