What handgun caliber would you rather never hear about again?

I'm tired of hearing about the .410 shell out of the Judge. The .45 Colt is a MUCH better HD/SD round in my opinion, and there are so many better options other than the judge chambered for it.

I may be a little biased though. I am REALLY enjoying my new Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt/ACP.

Also:
I feel that anything below a .22 in caliber is for air rifles.
Rifle cartridges in a handgun seem a little ridiculous (BFR, I'm looking at you). BUT! It doesn't stop my curiousity, I kinda want one in 30-30 to go with my Marlin.:)
 
.327 Great For Defense!

A while back, I did a lot of research on ballistics. I looked closely at the speed and energy in various bullets fired from SHORT barrel handguns--the kind many prefer for CCW.

I would agree with most of the previous comments, and confine my purchases to mostly those calibers where ammo is fairly common, thus the .22, .38, .357, 9mm, .40 S&W, .44 Magnum and .45 ACP. However, for my research, I looked at several others, less common, but that in my opinion, are interesting from a CCW standpoint. Those are the .32 H&R Magnum; the .327 Magnum and the 10mm.

I have the data for all those calibers, but limited my results to short barrels--defined for this purpose as 3* inches or less. For those the data shows:

*Ruger SP101 3.063 inch barrel

The .327 is the FASTEST (1,356 fps) and SECOND in energy (469 fpe)
Ruger SP101; Gold Dot 115 grain

The only SHORT barrel with MORE energy was the .44 Magnum (611 fpe)
S&W 629-5 (3 inch, ported); Cor Bon 225 grain DPX

That makes the .327 a round that has great possibilities, especially in CCW REVOLVERS because of 6 shot capacity (J-Frames) vs 5 shot in .38/.357.

My point is that I do not consider this a dead round!

However, I do not own any weapons chambered for .327, and would not be likely to purchase as of this writing, because of low availability of the ammo and a shortage of platforms. But I WOULD--in fact--it would be second in line for a new purchase (for me) behind the KelTec PMR30 (which I think is cool because of 30 round capacity in .22 Magnum). All that is needed is for the manufacturers to get .327 platforms out, and the ammo to be readily available.

By the way, not to slight the .357 which was SECOND in speed (1,248 fps) and SECOND in energy (546 fpe) but the data was from a S&W 686 with a 4 inch barrel. Shorten that barrel by an inch, and the round would be slower, and less energy, and not that much more powerful than the .327, plus in a revolver of equal size, you'd have 5 rounds vs 6 rounds for the .327.

The 10mm (which I think is a great round) was THIRD in energy (533 fpe) but that was from a 5 inch Colt Delta Elite. Personally, I like the 10mm, but the ammo is expensive and not as readily available as the .38, .357, .40S&W and 9mm. I do own a 10mm (S&W 610 Revolver) that shoots both the 10mm and the .40 S&W using full moon clips. I love the gun, and love the thought of the devastating 10mm bullet, but would limit carry to dangerous areas (bears, wildcats, etc). That S&W 610 also shoots the .40 S&W, which is what I use for practice.

By means of this post, I am not "knocking" any round and think that everyone should shoot whatever they want--or can find--or make.

What I am suggesting is that the .327 should not be considered a "dead" round because of its extremely fast acceleration from a short barrel and strong stopping power and barrel capacity. Now if any manufacturers care to develop a pistol, that uses the .327, this could be a VERY popular round. (Kel Tec--are you listening?)

Hopefully, this post will give everyone some data on which to base your conclusions.

BTW--I own handguns in .22, .22Mag, .32H&R, .38, .357Mag, .40S&W, 10mm, .44Mag and .45 ACP. I do not, and probably would not purchase any other handgun calibers EXCEPT the .327! In a heartbeat!
 
It's amazing how heated, even in subtle ways, the .45 is God / .45 is obsolete and sucks argument is on every gun forum, sometimes I think in every post. This is all one needs to know about it.

For the sake of this reply I will chose the 9mm to compare it to

9mm advantage: magazine capacity
9mm disadvantage: power level low, yet over-penetration possible with FMJ ball

.45 advantage: the projectile is s large that worrying about whether or not it will expand in the bad guy is needless as it drills such a large hole. Not to sway the argument, but this is a BIG advantage as bullet expansion is an inexact science at best that often will depend on what the bad guy is wearing.

.45 disadvantage (except for Glock .45's, to some extent) magazine capacity.

Depending on our situation, some of us want to leave our castle with 19+1 rounds in the gun and another 19 on our belt. Others, possibly the more experienced shooters, are comfortable with 7+1 rounds or 10 in the case of the Glock subcompact. Some are OK in trusting that the latest XYZ hollow point will show up to work the day they need it, and in all likelihood it will. Other old timers like me (see my age at left) don't want to rely on that.

My personal feelings:

I'm in a shopping mall and someone starts shooting the place up: I want my Springfield XD(M) in 9mm with a high cap mag.

I'm walking alone and a guy approaches me with a knife: I want my 1911 or G30.

Anyway that's just me.

Yep I am very new to this forum, however I have been on forums for ever it seems. I've done enough of going through the motions of being a 'noob in my time so figured I'd skip that phase for once ;)
 
The "magical" 45acp. I guess it's more aimed at the close minded one's, who are stuck back in the 1950's and it's technology.
 
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group17 said
As long as they are making guns that shoot it they can have as many calibers as they want. I'll just buy the ones I need for the guns I have.
Click to expand...

I.m with ya bro....but I would rather hit 'em with a rock than a 25acp.:D
 
So, let me get this straight...Speer, under Glock's general guidelines, simply shortened a .45 ACP case by .143" and changed to a small pistol primer and that was enough for ammo houses to take down a machine running a "legitimate" caliber and run GAP here and there? And the only thing it does for anybody is allow their gun to be about an eighth of an inch shorter? I think what really happened is more of an ego thing...Gaston wanted a caliber in his name but unfortunately some really, really uncreative people were in the brainstorming room that day.
 
.40 S&W

It's not a bad cartdridge I guess, but it isn't the end-all-be-all that some people like to make it out as.

I have just never warmed up to the .40 S&W, but would LOVE to get my hands on another 10mm.......thats what a .40 caliber cartridge should be.
 
Indeed.

I thoroughly enjoy the 10mm, I want a Colt Delta Elite in it something fierce.

However, while the .38 Super may seem outdated to some, it proved it's mettle plently during the 20's I would say. I would compare it to the .40 Short and Weak;) of today in it's popularity and across the board acceptable preformance,

However, the .45 GAP just boggles my mind. What does it do that the .357 Sig can't?
 
380/9x18.....just make it in 9mm!!!!! for gods sakes!!!!!!!
40S&W this caliber sucks i don't care what everyone says. 45auto bends 40 over its knee and spanks it.
25acp.....um,yeah
22magnum...oh look its only 19.99 a box!
400corbon Gaaaaaaay
 
The only reason people don't like the .40 is because they got sold on 9mm or .45's at some point, then stuck their fingers in their ears and went "na na na na na na na".

The 9mm is an OK round. Has trouble piercing auto glass, but it's ok. .45 is a great round, you just have capacity issues.

The .40 in the right pistol is a blast to shoot. It has better penetration through objects like auto glass, more capacity than a .45. Its a great round, get over it.

One of these days I'll do the barrel conversion on my sig for the 9mm, simply because I can. Either that or do the .22lr conversion.

I really really like the 10mm, but finding ammo can be tough and expensive.


Now if I wanted to get rid of a caliber, which i generally don't, I'd ditch the .22 magnum. To big for varmit sized animals but not big enough for anything else. :p
 
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