Here's a list of handguns I want to own someday.
Glock 17 - I owned this for a while but ended up selling it to a very close friend. The Glock is very versatile, you can get a shoulder stock, a red dot sight, and a 33 round magazine and turn it into a civilian semi auto submachine in a hurry. Honorable mentions would be it's subcompact little brother, the G26 (also known as the Baby Glock). This would be my conceal and carry, it shoots 9 mm and holds 10 rounds. The G43 is the newer single stack subcompact but it only holds 6 rounds, so for versatility's sake I'd stick with the G26. Fact is, any size doublestack Glock in the same caliber can use any magazine of equal or larger capacity. So a 33 round magazine would fit in a G26 even though it looks hilarious.
Taurus .357 model 608 with a 4 inch barrel (ported)- This is an 8 shot revolver in .357. It is a big ass gun, I believe it weighs 3 pounds unloaded. This would be a "nightstand gun" or one that I could keep loaded at all times and have ready instantly if someone were to break into my house and I was asleep. Depending on recoil I might go with a longer barrel. I'd have a flashlight and a laser on it.
Ruger SP101 with a 3 or 4 inch barrel - I haven't decided which length of barrel would be best. Supposedly revolvers have a quickdraw advantage that semi autos do not. You can also "limp wrist" a revolver or shoot it through a jacket pocket, which you cannot do with a semi auto handgun. The drawback, obviously, is that you have to make those 5 shots count. A revolver is also supposed to be better at
"point shooting" which is an instinctive style of shooting. I guess in a fight or flight situation, it is very common to revert to point shooting. If I were to conceal and carry an SP101, I would get a laser pointer and "snap caps" and just drill point shooting every single day. Depending on the situation I would try to practice at least once or twice a week with actual ammo.
The biggest upside to the Ruger SP101 is that it's tanky enough to handle .357 without breaking a sweat. Compared to other revolvers at it's size, that is definitely not the case. It is a very easy shot with .38 special as well.
Using lots of .357 in a similar sized revolver that isn't massively overbuilt like the SP101 will result in quick destruction of the gun.
The upside of point shooting is that it's a lot faster in a defensive, close quarters situation and the downside is that you have a practice a lot to get any good at it.
Another handgun I'd like to own is the Thompson G2 Contender.
It's single shot and it's break action so I know what you're thinking. Hannibal, why the hell would anyone want anything like that? I'll tell you why. Not only does it come in bunch of different calibers, but you can switch out the barrels between calibers in seconds. Want a .223 handgun with a scope? No problem. Do you want to switch it to 30-30? Not a problem there either. You don't even need tools to pull this off. You can also "build your own" on the website to whatever specification you desire.
If I were to buy one of these, it would be for hunting and I'd have .22, .223, 30-30, 45-70 Government and 410. If you've ever looked up long range pistol shooting, this is THE gun to own for that purpose.
Honorable mentions include the NAA Sidewinder or Black Widow .22 magnum revolver, most any flavor of 1911 (I'd like to build one one day), the Taurus Judge because 410 in a handgun is hilarious, and the Serbu Super Shorty 12 gauge "shotgun" that's basically handgun sized.