Reply #7: What benEzra said. [View All]

I was going to reply to this earlier, but BE beat me to it. ;-) So I'll just echo what he said. If you're interested in poking holes in bulls or bears, then yes your 9mm is underpowered. If you need to poke a hole in a human, it'll do just fine. Shot location is far more important than if you are toting a 9mm or a .45.

If you want a gun that makes a big hole, but that will be cheaper to shoot, look at a .357mag. You can shoot .38 specials through it pretty cheaply, and get some good hunting rounds if you need to power up. I don't know if it would be my first choice as a bull stopper, but it will beat your 9mm in that department. Don't ignore the .44mag either. Some of the target rounds will be fairly inexpensive.

Remember the internets are your friend. If you can't find it at Wal-fart (why the hell are you shopping there anyway?) you can order pretty much anything in the world on-line.

As for a trade in, I would be pretty confident that any decent gun shop wouldn't rip you off, bad for business and all that.