best defensive caliber and why?

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I've been shooting for a number of years now and chose to progress in caliber size, not out of necessity but desire and I've landed where I have and am comfortable with mag cap limitations and felt recoil as a trade off

If that works for you, then I have no problem with that Just wanted the record to show that the 38/9mm family of bullets/cartridges is not as anemic as some of the gun writers or armchair experts out there would have you believe.

Now, if you were to go in the OTHER direction of the caliber scale, then I think we would have to have a discussion!