.45 ACP vs .40 Cal Which one do you think is best?

[Defensor Fortis]

Many Opinons and studies differ about which caliber of pistol round is superior. However, i want to know what you all think. Who is the top dog?

[zachomega]

.40 - Cheaper to shoot which means you can shoot more. Easy to find at any Walmart. Higher magazine capacity.

-Zach

[Pagoda240]

What is best or what do i prefer?

I like shooting 45acp for fun (range/competition) but if I was have to go to war I would carry my Sig in 40 because of the capacity. I guess you could get a double stack 45 and that would do both, so i guess i really don't have an answer. SOrry, no help..

[SCBaldr]

Standard pressure loadings in both calibers deliver similar terminal performace numbers. I have never heard of a +P .40 S&W load, so that leaves only the .45 which can be had in a high pressure load.

In the 80s, when the FBI was testing the 10mm auto cartridge, they cut it down and eventually ended up making the .40 S&W. In the same trials that the .40 was born in. The FBI conducted a series of terminal ballistics tests on skeletons cast in spec ballistics gelatin to ditermine lethality and the factors that influence it.

What was discovered was that somewhere between roughly 280 ft-lbs of energy and 330 ft-lbs of energy, shots in the center body mass had a much better chance of being lethal than shots with less than 280 ft-lbs. That is not to say that 280 ft-lbs of kinetic energy is the minimum required for lethality, just that 330 ft-lbs was a good reference point for minimum kinetic energy required to make a kill shot more likely than not. This has to do with terminal expansion and penetration requiring a certain amount of force.

Both .45 ACP and .40 S&W have more than 350 ft-lbs of kinetic energy, then again, so does a 9mm in a +P loading. If its capacity you want, then a 9mm with 147 gr. +P rounds is what you want. Some people, myself included, are quite happy with .45 though.

[Pete D.]

You do know that this is a question that will have no decisive resolution. Even in three posts, your question about which is the best of two cartridges (I assume that when you wrote .40 cal. that you meant 40 S&W..or did you mean .40 S&W and the 10mm Auto, also a .40 cal cartridge? How about the 400 CorBon? The 38-40?) - even asking about the best of two, you have responses about a third. Normal for this kind of question.
I like the .45ACP. I use it for match shooting. I use it for SD. Since I load my own, cost is not a factor. It can be had in a bewildering array of choices, some of which yield tremendous power (.45 Super - a +P+).
I have never felt insecure carrying a single stack magazine of six or seven rounds.
I have loaded and carried the above mentioned 400 CorBon - another powerful cartridge - but gravitate back to the .45 ACP.
Pete

PS - Caliber means one thing; cartridge means another. They are not the same.

[Chip W]

Currently carry .40 but prefer shooting .45, when I have the cash I will very likely be switching things up.

[bripro]

I think either one is just fine for my needs. If I had to pick only one it would be .45.

[phill]

OK someone has to say it so let the old fart.
About 100 yrs. of use to back-up the .45acp as a defense round with few complaints. Taking nothing away from the .40S&W but it does not in my mind do anything that can not be done just as well by the 9mm or .45acp.
My experience is that the recoil is way sharper than a .45acp. or a heavy 9mm. This made the Glock 22 have the shortest stay at my house of any handgun.

[normanvin]

I have two 40 cal handguns. A Kahr and a glock. I think the recoil in both of these are sharper then my 45s.

[milatchi]

I tried the .40 and the .45 ACP and decided the stick with the .45 ACP
-- still loving my Springfield Armory XD .45 ACP.