What are the Pros and Cons of the .45 ACP?

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Pros, I like the .45 and I like the 1911.
Cons, I do not like 9mm or the .40, screw magazine capacity.
Nuff said.:D
 
Pro - it won the Moro insurrection for us. Hit anywhere for knockdown and a kill

Con - fire one and it will tear your arm off.

- Knowledge from the Internet and people I know.

I like to shoot it and I like the gun. My 1911 would be a pain to carry as compared to others.
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Big +1! Also, the 45 is what made the dinosaurs extinct....I read it on the Internet.:D

CON
It is so powerful, they outlawed it for shooting people in Africa! Too dangerous!
 
I have really enjoyed this thread, being a 45 fan myself. This has been a good discussion without snarky attacks on others via their opinions. So in recognition of that, I will add a couple of things everyone can agree on.


1. Whether or not you are a 45 fan, it does not matter what you carry. The math is simple. If you want to DOUBLE the effectiveness of your carry gun, just put another round ON TARGET.

2. Again, whether or not you carry a 45, I believe if you ever need that tool, you should do whatever it takes to be absolutely confident that you CAN put a round on target. I say this because I know of a conceal carry person who has stated he has never fired his concealed carry piece. Wow !
 
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There has never been any test, study, or research showing it out performed any other handgun round. Most of the mythology of the 45 can be traced to the fictional writings of Jeff Cooper who had no data to back up any of his claims. But some people still believe it.

Actually, there was a test. One may have issues with the way it was conducted, but its called the Thompson-Lagarde test.

http://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/TLGR/tlgr.html
 
I bought my first 45 in the mid 80s. My Dad told me if I hit someone in the hand with their arm out, it would spin them around. Another fella told me I would not be able to hit a garbage can if I were standing in it. It made a great bullseye gun with a Wilson barrel. I fired tens of thousands of rounds out of it.

Cheap and Easy to reload.
David 45 R


This is a 3.5" Officers ACP. I am comfortable carrying this with 6+1. It now has CT laser grip.
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Back in the days of the true Cavalry, it was once considered "bad form" to shoot a soldier's horse. Right after WW1 things began to change. Shooting horses to force Mounted Cavalry troops afoot became more acceptable. A well-placed round from the .45 ACP will drop a horse pretty quickly.
 
All interesting comments. 45 must be good as it has stood the test of time and is readily available.
Intended use seems to have the biggest bearing on choice. Recently I was told that a 45 should be my next caliber handgun for all the reasons stated.

After careful consideration, I chose 9mm. I won't go into why here, but I see no cons at all with a 45.

7+1 should be plenty ( if you can shoot)
Size is fine for most people ( but there are now smaller carry's)

100 plus years of use doesn't occur by mistake.

If you want a 45, no reason to not buy it.

Carry on

Rich
 
You could argue that a .45 caliber bullet flying at 800-ish fps has by now seen about 165 years of continued use, most of it military service.

The .45 ACP essentially copied the ballistics of the BP loaded .45 Colt, which in turn duplicated the stouter .44 percussion loads such as were obtained with the Colt Dragoon of 1848-50. Similar projectiles with similar ballistics were in front-line service ever since the Texas-Mexico war. How cool is that?

Of course, most of the rounds which are still popular today have also a long lineage. Things don't stay in active service for 100 years for no reason.
 
The .45 ACP essentially copied the ballistics of the BP loaded .45 Colt,
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"Essentially" (if you stretch it enough) but not exactly. The .45 Colt is a little "heavier".

The .45 Colt came along in 1873 with the Colt SAA (Single Action Army) the now famous "Peacemaker" (civilian market name). The .45 Colt was loaded with a 250gr bullet and 40gr of black powder, and delivered 900fps (+/-) depending on barrel length.

In 1875, the Army got some S&W "Schofield" revolvers, and with them came the .45 S&W cartridge, now commonly called the .45 Schofield. This was a slightly shorter case than the .45 Colt (the S&W cylinder was too short to take the Colt round) and fired a 230gr bullet in the 800-850fps range. (approx. 28gr black powder)

The shorter S&W round could be used in Colt pistols, but not the reverse. The Army carried both rounds in inventory until they were replaced by the .38 Caliber in 1892. This time period is probably when the name "Long Colt" became attached to the .45 Colt cartridge, as an easy way to distinguish it from the .45 Schofield (which was also known as the .45 Govt for a time)

While not quite as powerful as the .45 Colt, the .45 Schofield was good enough to do the job, and I can find no great dissatisfaction with it in period writings.

Due to the "disastrous failure" of the .38 cal round in the Moro Uprising, the Army reissued (for a time) the .45 SAA.

When the Army began looking at the new "auto pistol", they decided that it had to be a .45 caliber, and wanted a 230gr bullet at 850fps (+/-) because they knew that combination worked well enough from their experience with the .45 Schofield.

Browning was able to meet those requirements with the .45 ACP round, and the rest is, as they say, history.
 
Actually, there was a test. One may have issues with the way it was conducted, but its called the Thompson-Lagarde test.
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Interesting thanks, some more intereresting reading.

As I promised you I got ahold of a copy of the 1983 GunDigest in regards to its evaluation of the Mythical Thompson Tests and here are some shocking facts that prove once and for all how totally invalid the Thompson tests really were.

Did you know that only 13 animals were shot and-------

1. That more animals were shot with the .45 calibers making the statistical outcome irrelevent.
A. 8 were shot with the .45 calibers.
B. 2 were shot with the .30 Luger.
C. 1 was shot, thats right just only 1 was shot, with the 9mm, the 38 ACP and 38 long colt.

AS YOU CAN SEE THE EXPERIMENTERS WERE ALREADY DESPERATE TO STACK THE TEST RESULTS IN FAVOR OF THE BIGGER CARTRIDGES. AS I SAID BEFORE THEY DEFINATELY HAD AN AGENDA RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE TEST.

2.The .45 calibers were also given the advantage of using expanding bullets as well as solid bullets(the smaller bullets were not tested with expanding bullets just solid ones (ARE YOU READING THIS CAREFULLY: IF YOU THINK THAT OLD STYLE EXPANING BULLETS WERE SO INFERIOR TO WHAT WE HAVE TODAY!)

3. Later in the test after the .45 calibers had failed so miserably the testers shot the animals rapid fire and they never did this with the smaller calibers. ONCE AGAIN STACKING THE RESULTS IN FAVOR OF THE .45 CALIBERS.

4. AND HOW ABOUT THE BALLYHOO OF THE CADAVER TESTS. The smaller calibers busted up bone just well as the bigger calibers and in the case of the .45's some of the expanding bullets failed to penetrate adequately as the ranges were increased.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I PREVIOUSLY POSTED IN REGARDS TO THE SHOOTING THAT WAS TOLD TO ME BY THE POLICE OFFICER THAT WAS THERE. NAMELY THAT AS THE RANGES INCREASE THE LETHALITY OF THE .45 CALIBER GOES DOWN BECAUSE OF A SLOWING DOWN OF THE BULLET THAT MAY NOT ENABLE IT TO ADEQUATELY PENETRATE. ALSO THAT AS THE DIAMETER OF THE BULLET INCREASES ITS ABILITY TO PENETRATE GOES DOWN AS COMPARED TO THE SMALLER CALIBERS IF VELOCITIES ARE NEARLY EQUAL BETWEEN THE TWO ROUNDS. AS THE VELOCITY GOES UP AND THE CALIBER GOES DOWN THE PENETRATION GOES DRAMITACALLY UP AS WAS PROVEN WAY BACK IN 1945 IN THE U.S. MILITARY TEST TRIAL OF THE 9MM V/S THE .45ACP.
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About twenty years ago or so I bought a Colt Gold Cup .45 ACP. This pistol was super accurate, and I developed a load using the Sierra 185 gr. Jacketed Hollow Cavity bullet that exceeded 1200 fps out of my pistol. This was explosive on crows out to about 75 yards or so. Pretty good varmint and medium game gun, but had the nasty habit of throwing my empty cases away into the brush. Seems like I lost a case or two every time I shot the pistol. A Colt New Frontier in .45 Colt came available and I traded it off.

Bob Wright
 
Pro - best auto pistol round ever designed, made, or conceived.

Con - what are you trying to do, start a fight on the forum?
 
As I promised you I got ahold of a copy of the 1983 GunDigest in regards to its evaluation of the Mythical Thompson Tests and here are some shocking facts that prove once and for all how totally invalid the Thompson tests really were.

Did you know that only 13 animals were shot and-------

1. That more animals were shot with the .45 calibers making the statistical outcome irrelevent.
A. 8 were shot with the .45 calibers.
B. 2 were shot with the .30 Luger.
C. 1 was shot, thats right just only 1 was shot, with the 9mm, the 38 ACP and 38 long colt.

AS YOU CAN SEE THE EXPERIMENTERS WERE ALREADY DESPERATE TO STACK THE TEST RESULTS IN FAVOR OF THE BIGGER CARTRIDGES. AS I SAID BEFORE THEY DEFINATELY HAD AN AGENDA RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE TEST.

2.The .45 calibers were also given the advantage of using expanding bullets as well as solid bullets(the smaller bullets were not tested with expanding bullets just solid ones (ARE YOU READING THIS CAREFULLY: IF YOU THINK THAT OLD STYLE EXPANING BULLETS WERE SO INFERIOR TO WHAT WE HAVE TODAY!)

3. Later in the test after the .45 calibers had failed so miserably the testers shot the animals rapid fire and they never did this with the smaller calibers. ONCE AGAIN STACKING THE RESULTS IN FAVOR OF THE .45 CALIBERS.

4. AND HOW ABOUT THE BALLYHOO OF THE CADAVER TESTS. The smaller calibers busted up bone just well as the bigger calibers and in the case of the .45's some of the expanding bullets failed to penetrate adequately as the ranges were increased.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I PREVIOUSLY POSTED IN REGARDS TO THE SHOOTING THAT WAS TOLD TO ME BY THE POLICE OFFICER THAT WAS THERE. NAMELY THAT AS THE RANGES INCREASE THE LETHALITY OF THE .45 CALIBER GOES DOWN BECAUSE OF A SLOWING DOWN OF THE BULLET THAT MAY NOT ENABLE IT TO ADEQUATELY PENETRATE. ALSO THAT AS THE DIAMETER OF THE BULLET INCREASES ITS ABILITY TO PENETRATE GOES DOWN AS COMPARED TO THE SMALLER CALIBERS IF VELOCITIES ARE NEARLY EQUAL BETWEEN THE TWO ROUNDS. AS THE VELOCITY GOES UP AND THE CALIBER GOES DOWN THE PENETRATION GOES DRAMITACALLY UP AS WAS PROVEN WAY BACK IN 1945 IN THE U.S. MILITARY TEST TRIAL OF THE 9MM V/S THE .45ACP.
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Have a link to this, Manta? BTW, Julian Hatcher had no trouble with the test at all, and seems to be a pretty good authority. In addition, whoever the author of this piece is, they missed a few things as to what the test was actually testing for, or have some sort of bias as to the cartridges tested.
 
Have a link to this, Manta? BTW, Julian Hatcher had no trouble with the test at all, and seems to be a pretty good authority. In addition, whoever the author of this piece is, they missed a few things as to what the test was actually testing for, or have some sort of bias as to the cartridges tested.
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I am having trouble finding it, i think it was a article in GunDigest.
 
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44 AMP said:
I agree with every part of this, except for the Sig being a "big" pistol.

It's not. Its the approximate size of a Commander, considerably smaller than a Government Model 1911A1.

I realize that attitudes change over time, and the "small" Sig seems big compared to the more recent micro mini compact models out there. I don't consider the P220 to be "big". A 1911A1 is "standard" size, a 7.5" Ruger Blackhawk is "big", and a Desert Eagle is "freakln' HUGE", in my book. :D

Over 100 years ago the Army spec'd a caliber, bullet weight and speed that they knew from experience would stop a man, or a horse (with a proper hit).

It will still do that today, although we seldom have the need to stop horses anymore. TO me, the biggest drawback to the .45ACP is the myth that it is a magic bullet. Nothing is, nor can be.

The .45 has a long history of working pretty well (not perfectly but pretty well) with the least effective bullet possible (in terms of stopping power,) the FMJ RN.

It suits my needs, and I like it. That's good enough for me. Its fine with me if you have a different opinion. I'm not in your shoes, and won't tell you what's best for you. Do the same for me, and we'll get along fine. ;)
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My baby Sig is a 938. Big by comparison.
 
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