To me it comes down to how well you shoot, & how long is your reaction time.
When I carry its the gun & the mag that it has in it on me.
Yes I have more with me but I don't bring more in the restaurant with me. So I pack the 9mm, 15 rounds, but I much prefer the .45 for stopping & shock.
As for dumbing down the .357, you are so right there. About 1983ish I took a .357 125 grain jacketed hollow point in my right shoulder.
Just dumb luck that I lived, it hit my collar bone & shattered the bullet, broke my collar bone in 2 places, ended up with a non-reunion and a gap of about a half inch in my collar bone.
I was out of action for months. Plenty of power there.
I think that the .45 is still popular some what because they "dumbed down" the .357. I mean hey short fat & slow has been getting the job done for a lot of years.

We had a guy in my town, fresh out a jail, still in his jail whites, shot in the upper arm with a Federal 125gr JHP, I just happened to be at the ER when pals drove up with him, and I saw the x rays, and no piece of bone larger than a toothpick from shoulder to elbow....I do not know if he kept his arm or not. You are indeed a fortunate man, and know you are thankful for being spared.

Full throttle .357 takes a big gun, to be any sort of shot, anyhow, and they are so fat and heavy, and at bestest when longest. The .45 is a puddytat in comparison, for controllable, rapid, accurate, as Cooper finally got folk to compare. Almost the exact same debate between .45 and .357 then, as we have between 9mm and .45 today.

Lofty,
Nope not getting old,just used to packing heat and not realizing that you have a piece on you.

About two years ago a friend of mine was shot almost point blank with a 12 ga during a home invasion.

Took the hit in his right shoulder. I thought that he was going to loose pretty much everything but his is pretty much back to 100% now.

Wayne

The (blank) I am not getting old! And same with your friend, who is likely too old to be invading homes, anyhow.

Glad to hear he is ok, and hope the perp got what was coming.

Classic older guy story told with Brit understatement. The older we get, the slower we get, but he knew where to hit.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/02/22/...ding-thugs.html

Lofty,
My friend is doing quite well and the perp is currently in the slam with a host of state,local and federal charges. Probably will be eligible for parole in 2099.

Little off subject,apparently the school in FL had an armed security guard,who when TSHTF,ran and hid. Could have stopped the whole thing before it started.

Sometimes,I think people want this stuff to happen,then blame everything else.

Wayne

Yep. Talk about "Branded". Some run to...some run away. And, as you know, almost nobody knows till he knows.

Well said Wayne & Duke......unfortunately it's too true!

Darn none of my business, but what is the story on your getting shot?

Short & sweet
She said she was divorced
He came home with a gun
He was losing it so I grabbed gun
wasn't fast enough, pulled it from center of my chest to a hit in the shoulder.
Needed another couple of inches and it would have missed.
the rest is boring.

Many have faced enraged exes...many have died, both sides, glad you survived.

As mentioned prior, somewhere, the military spends a lot of money to train folk to run towards gunfire, rather than away. It is even in manuals/handbooks as to proper reaction in certain scenarios.

And still, a hard instinct to break, the running the other way. That deputy was able to excuse inaction by following old SOP, establish perimeter, call in description, hold position and await reinforcements.

My gripe is he is old. Most of us older folk already can see we are dying sooner rather than later, and nothing really to lose and everything to gain by charging in. Some of us have already been there, seen the elephant as a Civil War soldier called it, and that is no guarantee of nuthin', as several disgraced prior hero soldiers have shown. I have no idea about this guy, but he was old enough to know better. Personally, can say I know what I would do, which is cross myself and ask for success but not my will be done...nothing heroic, but a chance to choose manner of death rather than guess what the short future holds, much of it downright pathetic....a younger guy, with a forever future, maybe wife and kids, I can see hesitating, but not grandpa...
As mentioned also prior, here is an old fart reaction typical....
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/02/22/...ding-thugs.html

That deputy will live in hell the rest of his life, and hear those shots and screams for the rest of it, and know he should have done more. He has his punishment, already. Folk should have only pity for him, now.

PS- the above was mentioned because what happened and didn't was cause for a great amount of soul searching, as it likely is for about everybody, after the reflexive reaction is passed.