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I would carry a Ruger SP101 in 357 Mag. I think it is a good option keeping in mind that is it easily concealable.

BigBoreRS

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"Easily concealable" varies tremendously depending on your environment and how many hours per day you're going to carry the thing. I have two .45 ACP 1911's (full-size Colt Gunsite, and Commander-length Ed Brown) and they are my favorite self defense platform. Toting around a couple of magazines worth of standard-pressure 230 grain bonded hollow points will give you a comforting feeling. But it's not necessarily comfortable, and it's very difficult to "accessibly conceal" a 1911 under business casual clothing even with very high quality gunleather (Milt Sparks' VM-II is my personal favorite). So I rarely carry a 1911.

For several years I carried a little Kel-Tec P3AT (.380 ACP) in a pocket holster. Extremely light, and simply vanishes in the front pocket of dress slacks. I carried mine with FMJs to maximize the potential for reaching something vital but I've never been comfortable staking my safety on the .380 ACP. I still own a .380 PPK but it's really heavy for the firepower it provides, and I only keep it around for the James Bond factor.

A few months ago I bought a 9mm Kahr PM9 for pocket carry. It's a small pistol, but still much heavier and larger than the Kel-Tec. I can pocket-carry it, but it "prints" worse in dress pants due to the additional size & weight. The upside is that I'm toting around 147 grain bonded hollow points that pass the FBI's penetration tests instead of the 90-grain FMJs.

I guess my points are as follows:
- it's only worth owning if you have it with you
- there's a very real trade-off between firepower and ease of carry/concealment
- what looks good in the store or on paper might be a real bitch to deal with when you try to conceal it for any length of time
- be realistic about the amount of training you're going to do, and what you're going to be capable of in the confusion/stress/excitement/fog of a life threatening situation

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