Foremost, accuracy and dependability come to mind for me. That being said, I have an addiction to the Glock pistols and the .357 SIG cartridge as both seem to encompass said qualities.
I'm not sure that there's anything more dependable than a Glock. They're butt ugly and (to me) at first they feel funny in the hand but I got over that quickly. In many thousands of rounds fired the only failures I've had were directly attribuatable to the weakest link in the system...myself, the shooter. For a carry piece I settled on the 32, small, light, and runs a powerful cartridge.
The .357 SIG shoots accurate, flat and hits hard and that's enough for me. I did find, however, that it was necessary to load Hornady XTP's to get any expansion. The Sierras seem to be a little bit hard and zipped right thru a pronghorn's chest like knitting needles on one occasion a couple years back.
I cannot light matches, hit asprin, or take the caps off bottles at fiffty yards with my 32. Can't do it at 25 yards either but this kind of accuracy is not what a defensive handgun is all about.
