Quick Question - pistol caliber choice

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shadowgunner93

Inactive
I am 17 and very tall skinny person. I'm 5"11 130lbs. I enjoy shooting and have shot a Glock, XD, and a S&W all in .40 I don't have a problem to weight or anything but I have been told that the .45 would be better for me because it has a different kind of recoil(I tend to throw my shots a little high and to the right). More back then Up i guess. Is a .45 a better option for me to try to shoot than a .40 to fix this problem? Or should I just stay with the .40s?
 
You might be better off using a .22 and learning proper shooting techniques. It sounds as if you are jerking back anticipating recoil, and your finger is too far into the trigger guard.
 
a .22 is what I originally learned to shoot. I know the basics about shooting. And ur right. You can tell the difference in my shots when I anticipate it. When I do I pull it and when I don't its dead on.
And I have very long fingers too so that could also be a problem.
 
Welcome to The Firing Line!

You can tell the difference in my shots when I anticipate it. When I do I pull it and when I don't its dead on.
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Changing from .40 to .45 won't help with this. Sounds to me like you just need more range time and plenty of dry fire practice. Focus on the front sight, squeeze the trigger, and let the shot surprise you.
 
What they said.

Seriously get the best 22 you can find that will fit your budget and then spend your money on ammo and your time on the range. By the time you really get good with the 22 you will have a much better idea of what you want to step up to next. You might not want a 40 or 45, you might be a 9MM guy or a 10MM guy or want a 357 single action. Don't rush it, you have years and years and years, start with the fundamentals first and you will carry the skills over to whatever comes next.
 
45 will work if thats what you want. One of the best Hard Ball (45 ) shooters I ever saw was a young lady who shot for the AMU, she weighed about 100 lbs and stood 5 foot nothing.

Looking at me now you would never know, but when I first went in the army (1966) I was about your size, I didn't have any problems with the 1911a1.
 
The caliber of the gun will not affect your accuracy at all. You may, or may not, react differently to different calibers. You may tense up with a .357 Magnum. You may relax with a .22 but, the fundamentals of shooting are the same.

You are almost exactly the same age and size of my oldest son. He likes a Sig P225 in 9mm and, he is very very good with it. He doesn't really like the recoil of a full on .357 revolver or a heavier caliber auto, so, he shoots them less and, is not as good with them.

Years ago, a buddy of mine had a Ruger made up in .475 Linebaugh. (I think that was the caliber, it was ferocious)

We set up a Milpark target and he handed it to me. I knew it was a bad round and really took my time lining up the sights and pressing the trigger. After a very deliberate trigger pull, the gun fired and there was a single hole in the absolute dead center of the A ring.

I was smug as I handed the gun back to him....

His response was "Ohhhh no. ANYBODY can do that once...try it again!"

The second trigger pull was at absolute glacial speed. I could feel myself tightening up anticipating the recoil and, the slap of muzzle blast on my face. Honestly, it took FOREVER to get that second shot off. I had to fight off every single impulse telling my brain "Hey, stupid, remember the last time you did this? You hurt your hand. Your right hand came up damned near vertical and pulled out of your left hand. There is about to be a low yield thermonuclear explosion in front of your face, jerk the trigger and get it over with you idiot!"

Anyway, after an eternity, the gun barked, my hand hurt, the gun was damned near vertical over my head, but, the two holes were touching.

It ain't the gun. You are simply the machine that makes it function. Physically, you are just as capable of firing a .22 on through a .500 Magnum (well, within reason, if you have old brittle bones or old injuries, I understand) and, be just as accurate.

Get back to work on the basics and THEN decide on a caliber. You are entirely capable of shooting any one of those guns...

Good luck,
 
The second trigger pull was at absolute glacial speed. I could feel myself tightening up anticipating the recoil and, the slap of muzzle blast on my face. Honestly, it took FOREVER to get that second shot off. I had to fight off every single impulse telling my brain "Hey, stupid, remember the last time you did this? You hurt your hand. Your right hand came up damned near vertical and pulled out of your left hand. There is about to be a low yield thermonuclear explosion in front of your face, jerk the trigger and get it over with you idiot!"
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That whole post just kills me!

It also made a lot of sense.
 
In my experience it is a matter of learning to keep the sights aligned and squeezing the trigger without disturbing that alignment. Keep the focus on the sights and see the target peripherally. IOW, the sights remain in focus and the target is there but blurry. As others have said this is better learned with a 22. Handling recoil is just a matter of getting used to it. Personally I love the 40 and I don't think the recoil is significantly more or less than that of a 45 if the pistol is of an equal size.
 
to post inline with the .22lr comments, reducing the recoil of the firearm exposes the faults of the shooter.

to even further compound on that fact, removing the recoil entirely will isolate shooter error

when you shoot a lighter recoiling load, it is easier to see how your front sight moved. did it go straight up? or to the right?

and when you dry fire the gun, you can see if you have a flinch/jerk when the front sight bobs down when you pull the trigger
 
I'm 5"11 130lbs
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Your build should have nothing to do with how you shoot. For what it's worth, shooting similar weight handguns, I've found the .40 and 9mm have much snappier recoil as opposed to the .45's push.

Based on my experience once being 17, 5'11, 145 pounds and positively unable to gain weight as a teenager, that will pass ;) One day I woke up as a 185-pound college student. Now I'm a 205-pound 30-something dad.
 
Practice, practice, practice. While a .40 can have a snappier recoil than a .45, switching alone won't help your form. I'd start with a .22 and and learn proper control there. Worse case, stick with your .40 and learn not to flinch and anticpate the recoil of the gun.
 
I basically agree with everyone else. The caliber of the pistol is not going to mean anything in terms of accuracy. Its all in the practice. Looking back at when i was 17, there wasnt alot of money to be had. If I were to have purchased a .45, I would only be able to shoot a box a month. By far not enough practice to get good.

A 22 is really a good place to start. You can shoot all day for little money, and you will be building the necessary skills to be a good shot.

Remeber, right now you should not be interested in "stopping" power. The absolute best thing you can do right now is start with something that is comfortable and cost effective. The skills that you will learn with a 22 will directly cross over to a larger caliber.

-George
 
The thing is I shoot the .40 because the Glock is my dads service weapon. We own the S&W .40 also as the home defense one so its not just for me but also my mom and eventually my sister to know how to use it. Seeing as the .22 doesn't have much stopping power were not going to purchase one. Plus I never really enjoyed shooting a .22 which I do shooting a .40
 
I like my 45's. I find the recoil easy to handle. I shoot it much better than my brother's 40. When shooting plate racks I am much quicker. That being said, why not a 9mm? I truly believe quality 9mm jhp would met any need for which I would have.

With ammo prices at there current levels, I have re-aquinted myself with my 22s, luv them
 
Standard .45acp loads are less fierce than the .40. They move at a rather sedate 850fps. Fired from a full sized gun the recoil is imho pleasant.

If you've already spent time on a .22, moving to the .45 is not a bad choice. Keep up with the .22 though.

Consider spending some cash on lessons. It really is a way to improve your shooting.
 
Changing from .40 to .45 won't help with this. Sounds to me like you just need more range time and plenty of dry fire practice. Focus on the front sight, squeeze the trigger, and let the shot surprise you.
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I agree. Sure, the .40 is usually considered more "snappy" vs. other loads, but to me this argument is somewhat egregious as almost any "heavy" caliber comes with a learning curve. If you want simple to shoot/precise loads, by all means, go with the .22 or 9mm. But, at some point, you will have to learn to adapt to recoil. Being accurate with a .22 does not mean one will be accurate with a large caliber weapon, IMHO.

Hence, besides trigger management, recoil management is of paramount importance here. Learn to deal with the recoil. Once this becomes second nature, focusing on trigger management and the like will be much easier for you. At least this is what I believe.

Having said all of this, it does seem to me that more range time, along with specific focus on the fundamentals of shooting/weapon familiarity, may be of more benefit vs. simply relying on a different caliber in hopes of improving things.

Also, I personally do not believe that going with a .45ACP will make much of a difference. Given that you already shoot a .40, if you want to truly make a difference, in terms of ease, I would go with a 9mm (not a .22 as others have suggested). The .22 would be good if you were a child starting off for the first time. But, as an adult already acquainted to the shooting world...there is no immediate need in going that far back, IMHO.

If you are simply considering the .45ACP as an alternative to what you already have, I would stick with the .40. Give it some time. Learn to manage and get used to the recoil. Also, as suggested before, try plenty of dry fire practice (good for trigger management, however, not compensatory in terms of recoil). Is the .40 S&W ideal for starting out? No. But, then again, neither is the .45ACP. However, simply because you are not able to consistently hit at POA, this does not necessarily indicate that you need to switch calibers.

Sight adjustment? Maybe. More practice? Yes. Implementation of the fundamentals of shooting? Yes. A dire need of changing calibers? IMHO....no.
 
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