Caliber Wars

"Is the .45 automatic still king of the pistols or has the .40 and 357 sigs suprpassed it...?"


Caliber wars have been going on for, what time is it now...maybe 500 years... and they're not going away anytime soon. A full sized .45 ACP or GAP can be an incredibly effective sidearm. Especially with modern munitions. But the shorter the barrel, the lighter the bullet because hollow points need velocity to expand. If you can easily conceal a full-sized .45 ACP then all is good. If you step down to a compact then you're stepping down from 230 grains to 200 and under, and a .40 S&W cartridge can out skeedaddle the same weight bullet, so whats the point. The semi-auto .45 was designed to be a 4.5 to 5 inch barreled gun. Nothing wrong with the smaller versions but you're losing the very reason for the caliber, which is the weight of the bullet. It therefore isn't heavy and slow versus light and fast, it's medium and medium and average isn't what we strive for when selecting a weapon for self defense.

And even from a 5" tube I've seen far too many modern HP's fail to expand because they weren't getting enough giddyup. I've chronographed Winchester 230 grain HP's as low as 780 fps, and place ANY barrier between the bullet and the boiler room and penetration will suffer. And how many people are going to chrono their carry loads? a 20th of one percent? Maybe?

If I were to carry a .45 auto it'd be stoked with Buffalo Bore or Double Tap ammunition. Maybe Federal HST and crossed fingers. Bottom line is the majors intentionally under stoke their products for greater controllability and I want 950-1000 fps from the tube or it's a no-go.

As far as the .357 SIG, it does nothing the .40 S&W cannot do. Except drive the owner nuts looking for off-the-shelf ammo.