Replies

The 45 has a bigger bullet and you can't argue with the bigger hole, but the the one-shot stop percentage is only 5% greater than that of the 9mm and bullet design has narrowed the gap even more.

A small, concealable and CONTROLLABLE 9mm is preferable to the big honking .45 left at home.

Uh...not to start a technical argument....:-)....but.... A 230 grain .45 ACP round exits muzzle at approx 830 FPS. It delivers 1.61 ft lbs per grain, for a total of 368 ft lbs.

A 125 grain 9mm round exits muzzle at approx 1000 FPS. It delivers 2.22 ft lbs per grain, for a total of 277 ft lbs.

That's a difference of 7%. Yeah....I know...not far off from the 5% you mentioned. However, the terminal ballistics characteristics (what happens when the projectile enters a semi-fluid mass) is a lot more pronounced with the additional mass of the .45 projectile.

I don't know enough about terminal balistics to really tell you more than to make some home made ballistic geletin and try it out (the difference is VERY noticeable). Maybe some other Freeper who is an expert in this can fill us in on this detail. :-)

I agree that the .45 has the numbers.
But, against animal/human targets, it's penetration, organ and nerve damage, and blood loss that get the kill. My 5% figure was the calculation some time ago (FBI?) of the percentage of One-Shot Stops (where the target went down with one round). The 9mm can come close to the .45 in that area. When it comes to penetration of harder targets (windows, doors, walls), bullet weight, diameter, design and velocity become more important.