.22 LR. Its cheap, accurate, and fun!
With a brick of .22s you can spend all day at the range, practice the fundamentals, don't bother to collect the brass, not wear yourself out and have a darned good time. It don't get no better than that.
I'll give the .38 Special a close second.![]()
Like so many has already said, this is an extremely difficult question to answer. To make it a tad bit easier to answer, for me, I put it into a combination question. If I could only have one handgun, obviously, in one caliber, what would it be.
No doubt in my mind, a revolver, S&W .45 Colt Mountain Gun 4" Barrel. The .45 Colt can be loaded very mild for small game, etc., or it can be loaded pretty hot and can stop, almost anything, that lives in the USA.