Is the 45 acp "dead"?

In my life the .45 ACP round has occupied an important niche at the range and as a self-defense option. Nothing has changed for me that would dislodge that round from its niche..
 
Dying? Hell I just bought me a new ZIG m45 Carry.
Shot 80 rnds so far. And yes .45acp is high...
I do load for a .45acp revolver and it works nice for that, not sure if this 1911 style auto will do with it, maybe after some wear...
 
No, it is not dead, or dying. Its still a viable self defense cartridge imho. I am planning to add a 45 back to my collection in the near future.
 
Guns in 45 ACP tend to be more expensive in both new and used format. Ammo is always more expensive than 9mm or .40 due to material cost and maybe economies of scale.

This will lead new gun owners to prefer a 9mm since it is cheaper to acquire and the ammo is cheaper, all things being equal.

Most production .45 ammo is subsonic out of the box. You get better capacity with 9mm.

Just checked ammo seek and 45 is about double 9mm for the cheapest offereing. Maybe not a huge deal when 9mm is $8/box and 45 is $15/box but it becomes significant at $12 vs $25 for new stuff.
 
This will lead new gun owners to prefer a 9mm since it is cheaper to acquire and the ammo is cheaper, all things being equal.
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Perhaps, but all things are not equal and there are people who buy guns that aren't the cheapest things they could get.
 
I have seen the slip in 45acp as well. I feel that much of that has to do with ammo prices and that 45acp (in my area) is more expensive than 9mm
 
There are a lot of articles in the gun mags about the upgraded 9mm Ammo's, also there are a lot of firearm Mfg's bringing out new 9mm stricker fired handguns in full Medium small and Micro sizes.

This has pushed their sales along with the price of the 9mm Ammo.

Not to fear there also are a lot of new 1911's being Mfg.ed but the push is in 9mm and 10 mm not 45acp, but they are not dropping the .45s.
 
veprdude said:
Ammo is always more expensive than 9mm or .40 due to material cost and maybe economies of scale.
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Not always the case when I got my first .45ACP. But that was when .38/.357 were more the norm for police and there weren't as many 9mm pistols in use.

So yes, economy of scale. Used to be .45 was as cheap or cheaper than 9mm just because there was more made.

Just like .32ACP is way more expensive than 9mm even though it uses less material; not as much made.
 
38 specials and .45acp

The .45 is as dead as the .38. It was an effective firearm for its time and will be around as a result. The demand has fallen because there are shooters chasing around the 9mm bandwagon and 10mm bandwagon.
 
BJung said:
The .45 is as dead as the .38. It was an effective firearm for its time and will be around as a result. The demand has fallen because there are shooters chasing around the 9mm bandwagon and 10mm bandwagon.
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10mm -- maybe. The classic selling point for 9mm these days is "Modern bullet design now makes the 9mm almost as good as .45 ACP." To me that's akin to "Damned by faint praise," since it has been reliably reported that modern bullet design also applies to the .45 ACP. 9mm will always be playing catch-up, trying to be almost as good as .45 ACP.

10mm is possibly a more serious contender for being equal to .45 ACP in effectiveness. If I didn't already have a bunch of .45s I guess I might look at the 10mm -- but I do have some .45s, and I don't need any more guns at this point.
 
When I sort on highest expansion for 45, I get penetration less than most 9mm.

When I look at HST, I see 9mm goes deeper than 45 and is pretty much the same size.

https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#45ACP

Maybe I'm missing something, cause 150gr HST 9mm "Micro" at less than 900fps seems to best most 357 loads.

Even if I am totally wrong by any example, all Gold Dot, HST, Ranger, Golden Saber 9mm falls into the "perfect" spots while best lots of 45 other loads.

Luckygunner test can be flawed, but it would be reliably flawed to all calibers.
 
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Imho 9, 40, and 45 are all equal given modern bullets designed. If we are talking ball ammo thats a different story. But all 3 cartridges and a few in-between get the job done well. I lean towards 9mm due to the price, increased capacity, and faster follow up shots due to the milder recoil.
 
I never had a .40, having 9mms, .45s even .357s and some others, I could never see the point to a .40.

Since I began reloading before factory JHP ammo was common, the cost difference between factory loaded 9mm and .45acp has never been anything important to me, either.

yes, the .45 does cost even the handloader a bit more than the 9mm, because, well, its BIGGER....
There's no free lunch...

Nor have I ever noticed any milder recoil from the 9mm. Since both rounds produce about the same amount of energy, physics says they are the same (Newton's 3rd law) but people FEEL it differently in different guns. To ME, in guns of similar size and weight, the recoil feels about the same. The muzzle jumps the same amount in MY hands. The 9mm feels like it does it faster, but the amount of movement is the same, for ME.

The .45acp isn't "dead", isn't even dying, certainly will be "alive" longer than I will be. People claiming otherwise are looking at things through a warped lens of their own creation and desires, which distorts reality.
 
I've cut back to owning five .45ACP handguns; and I can still find and afford the ammo to buy, so I'm good. I did have more .45ACP guns at one time, however. Now I've got more 9mm handguns and .38/.357 revolvers than .45 pistols.
 
44 AMP said:
Nor have I ever noticed any milder recoil from the 9mm. Since both rounds produce about the same amount of energy, physics says they are the same (Newton's 3rd law) but people FEEL it differently in different guns.
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You're confusing muzzle energy with recoil force. They are calculated with different formulas.

The 9mm Luger has a little over 1/2 the recoil in the same weight gun as a 45 Auto.

RECOIL:

9mm: 124 grain at 1150 fps, 6 gr powder, in a 2.50 lb gun = 2.97 ft lbs recoil

45 Auto: 230 grain at 850 fps, 6 gr powder, in a 2.50 lb gun = 5.24 ft lbs recoil
 
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