Originally posted by Nailer
I have owned both .45 and 9mm and will take a .45 acp anyday over the 9mm. If you want stopping power the 45 has it
That is completely your choice, and a good one at that. However not everyone can handle a .45, and they do have a couple of disadvantages. For example
a .45 pistol will be larger and have more recoil than a 9mm equivalent. This makes it harder to conceal and more difficult to make rapid follow up
shots with. This is very important in a handgun shooting, as no pistol round can reliably knock down a human target with a single bullet. That is a
simple fact.
The 1911 .45ACP can take severe punishment and still fire accurately. The original test for the military , buried the gun in mud for x amount
of days and when they dug it up ,wiped it off and fired every round in the clip.
So what? This is entirely possible with many handguns available these days. The torture tests that many modern pistols are put through are staggering.
Take a look at the Glock reliability test for the Australian Army. They were running over the pistol with trucks and all sorts, and the weapon still
fired.
You keep advocating the 1911, but do you realy think that the single action pistol is best for concealed carry for most people? Single action carry
requires considerably more training to carry concealed than a DA or DAO weapon. You can either carry it cocked with the safety on, hammer down on a
loaded chamber or with an empty chamber. All of these require extra fine motor movements to bring the weapon into play - not easy in a high stress
confrontation. You could carry the pistol made ready with the safety off, but this is not advisable with a light single action trigger.
many agencies /law enforcement/Government are slowly going back to the 45 ACP becuase of the accuracy and stopping power of the
round.
Firing a .45 quickly and accurately generally requires more practice than a 9mm or .40. These agencies have plenty of time that they can dedicate to
handgun practice. Joe Bloggs with wife, kids, mortgage and full-time job generally does not. I know that we all say "practice as much as possible",
but when you have a house full of commitments, unfortunately handgun practice is limited to a few rounds in the range every few weeks if your lucky.
This is far from ideal, but it is real life. Johny Cop has access to more range time and expert tuition than most of us.
Also law enforcement agencies tend to put the concealability factor further down the list than most of us. A .45 is larger than a 9mm of equal
capacity.
The 9mm round is a high velocity round and does not have the impact force of the 45.
The "impact force" of a pistol round is puny. Isac Newton prooved this over 250 years ago. Don't take my word for it, take the FBIs' Ballistics
labs' word.
Goddard amply proves the fallacy of "knock-down power" by calculating the heights (and resultant velocities) from which a one pound weight and a
ten pound weight must be dropped to equal the momentum of 9mm and .45ACP projectiles at muzzle velocities, respectively. The results are revealing. In
order to equal the impact of a 9mm bullet at its muzzle velocity, a one pound weight must be dropped from a height of 5.96 feet, achieving a velocity
of 19.6 fps. To equal the impact of a .45ACP bullet, the one pound weight needs a velocity of 27.1 fps and must be dropped from a height of 11.4 feet.
A ten pound weight equals the impact of a 9mm bullet when dropped from a height of 0.72 inches (velocity attained is 1.96 fps), and equals the impact
of a .45 when dropped from 1.37 inches (achieving a velocity of 2.71 fps).
Link
I feel that I need to edit this after reading. I don't want to come across as anti - .45ACP. I'm not. I believe that it is an excellent defensive
round, and that it offers several advantages over 9mm, the most useful of which being that it simply makes a bigger hole.
My point is that I would rather carry a 9mm or a .40. I know that I can fire a 9mm quickly, planting 3 accurate shots centre mass in under a second at
7 metres. From the holster I can do this under 2 seconds. This took a lot ot training. With a .45 it would take longer simply due to the recoil. If
you can do this with a .45 then well done. Most people can't.
Carry what you can shoot well and carry safely. If that's a 1911 then so be it.
[edit on 15-12-2007 by PaddyInf]
screw over the gun owners of the USA. Ruger went along and encourage the assault weapons ban with the 10 round mag. rule.
Then S&W pulled a deal with the Clinton Adm. and then got a fast track to government contracts. I can't remember the details, sorry. 
) 
