40 or 45

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All of my M&Ps (3) have a distinct reset to them after polishing the striker block. One uses the Apex sear and block and became the pattern for the other two "home fixed". They may not be as audible as my 1911 but I shoot with muffs on and wouldn't hear the difference anyway. Also haven't shot enough people to know if I'm a "double tap" kinda guy or not, I just train to hit what I'm aiming at.

As far as caliber goes I like the 40 S&W primarily for the availability of brass. Every trip to the gun club yields as much as I care to reload and it's free. Rare are the times I can gather more than a dozen .45 ACP casings as they seem to follow the shooter home.

I may yet add a few more M&Ps to my pile in the future and the .45 would certainly be in the running. The other would be the new VTac model offered currently in 9mm and 40 S&W with both tritium and fiber optic sights (stacked 3 dots atop 3 dots on the same sights).

Neither caliber carries the magic bullet guarantee so decide which is economically feesable to train with (or just *GASP* enjoy) and choose the platform you feel comfortable with be it Smith, Ruger, Springfield or Glock. You've got two great questions to consider and a whole lot of right answers available.

Good luck and good shooting.
 
.45acp

....and M&P triggers do kinda suck as others have mentioned.

(Try an XD-45 before you buy another M&P or Glock.)
 
FWIW, my cousin has an XD-45 and it does indeed have a nice light trigger but of the big 3 listed above it's the only platform I've ever witnessed fail. The issue was light primer strikes, the particular pistol was the XD-40 and after 3 attempts on one round alone the gent was at a loss. (This was a fellow at the range shooting next to me). He asked if I had any idea what he should do with the rounds as he did not own a kinetic hammer and I do not tend to travel with mine. I loaded the offending rounds (WWB) in my M&P and discharged them all for him. Problem solved.
 
Well, I pulled the trigger...

I mentioned in my earlier reply that I was weighing my options between a M&P 45 and a M&P 40. In spite of leaning more towards the 40, I found a 45 with the thumb safety and jumped on it. I can flat out shoot the 45 better and faster. The extra rounds would be nice, but I'll take the trade off to shoot more accurately and to shoot faster.

I'll probably start reloading, soon; .45 acp is a little easier to reload safely.

Google "Michael Bane" and ".40 s&w". He has an article that states why he has never warmed up to the cartridge.
 
I have the 40 and 40C, 45 and 45C. My favorite in terms of size is the 45C, the 40 has no comparison in size to it. The FS 40 is'nt much bigger but grip length may be an issue, the same as the FS 45 in length. Great thing about the 45's is you can get four pistols in two. The 4.5" slide can go on the C frame and vise versa. The 40C has a short grip like a small Glock but it carries very well. The M&P 40's have much less recoil than the 40 Glocks IMO and most other peoples opinion also. You can't go wrong with any of them, the M&P's are great guns.
 
The .45 ACP ammo will make the overall weight of the
gun you choose a little heavier.I like the .45 ACP
but carry a 9 M.M. simply to cut down on carrying
a brick around all day.Those that have the crossbreed
super tuck holster will disagree with me?My house gun
is a .45 ACP.
 
I faced this same question last month when replacing a stolen M&P c 45. I have seven other 45's including my 3 1911's, and only one 40, an HK USP. I compared both compacts side by side at my LGS, and the 40 was so much smaller [same size as the 9mm], I decided it would be easier to carry, so I chose it. It also carries two more rounds. I only have about 300 rounds through it so far, but have not regretted my decision. I has been perfect as I expected, and I found the 3.5 inch barrel is no less accurate the the 4 inch on the 45. Being smaller and lighter does make it easier to carry and it was even a few dollars cheaper.
 
I guess I'm gonna have to go ahead and give the M&P .40 a try. Just too many positive comments and reviews from all directions and I don't recall seeing anything to the contrary. May end up wishing I had done that BEFORE buying the others. You'd think I'd learn to be as comprehensive when test driving guns as I am with cars. Sometimes wisdom doesn't come with age.
 
The 40 recoil is more violent, making it more fun to shoot!
I can barely tell the difference between my G19 and G21. The G21 is just a bit slower to get back on target. It makes it hard to justify the extra cost of shooting 45. 45 guns typically cost 100-200 more than their 9mm counterparts, and the ammo costs almost twice as much. I don't see the point for range work when the handling and recoil is so similar.

There must be some kind of correlation between the abundance of 45's and SUV's only in the US. Some form of compensation, or something. :)
 
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Everyone talks about the "push" recoil of the 45 and the "snappy" recoil of the 40, I can't tell the difference. I'll shoot my 1911 and my Glock 22 back to back, and they feel like loud, bucking guns to me. Maybe my "seat of the pants" isn't very sensitive, but I think these discussions of the different recoil characteristics is just silly. In a blindfold taste test, I'd like to see how many people would truly distinguish the two.

At any rate, here are some practical considerations. If you buy factory ammo, the two are about the same price, $20 for a box of 50 (at least where I live). If you reload and you shoot at a public range, you're gonna be crawling around policing up your brass. It can be hard to pick out .40 cases amongst the 9mm and .45 all over the floor! As it is, I end up picking up a lotta .40 when I'm looking for .45. If you reload .40, I'm guessing you'll be picking up 9mm and .45 as well as your .40's. This sounds stupid, but I'm telling you, it happens.

As far as ballistics go, its a wash. Velocity counts for more than mass in terms of momentum, and both calibers have roughly equal muzzle energy. The .45 bullet punches a 26% larger hole than a .40, if that matters.
 
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0to60 said:
Everyone talks about the "push" recoil of the 45 and the "snappy" recoil of the 40, I can't tell the difference. I'll shoot my 1911 and my Glock 22 back to back, and they feel like loud, bucking guns to me. Maybe my "seat of the pants" isn't very sensitive, but I think these discussions of the different recoil characteristics is just silly. In a blindfold taste test, I'd like to see how many people would truly distinguish the two.

At any rate, here are some practical considerations. If you buy factory ammo, the two are about the same price, $20 for a box of 50 (at least where I live). If you reload and you shoot at a public range, you're gonna be crawling around policing up your brass. It can be hard to pick out .40 cases amongst the 9mm and .45 all over the floor! As it is, I end up picking up a lotta .40 when I'm looking for .45. If you reload .40, I'm guessing you'll be picking up 9mm and .45 as well as your .40's. This sounds stupid, but I'm telling you, it happens.

As far as ballistics go, its a wash. Velocity counts for more than mass in terms of momentum, and both calibers have roughly equal muzzle energy. The .45 bullet punches a 26% larger hole than a .40, if that matters.
Click to expand...
It matters. .45 ACP wins.
 
Wrong, but not backwards. Velocity counts the same as mass in terms of momentum. Velocity counts more than mass in terms of energy. Mass does not count more than velocity for either case.

There may never be a consensus as to which is better. Let's just agree they're close.

Now that we agree on that, let's move on to platform size and firepower. Those aren't close. 40 wins by a good margin.

Therefore 40>45, unless you're recoil sensitive. Or you're overcompensating for something with the size of your caliber. :)

40 is sort of a hybrid between .357 magnum and 45ACP, stuffed into the smallest possible cartridge. I love it.
 
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So then what is the better load? The 230 grain .45 traveling in the 800 - 950 fps or the 160 grain .45 traveling around 1100 fps?:confused:
 
Velocity counts the same as mass in terms of momentum. Velocity counts more than mass in terms of energy. Mass does not count more than velocity for either case.
Click to expand...

So you believe a 1000 pound missile at 5,000 feet per second has more momentum than a 1,000 ton freight train traveling at 75 miles per hour? Because the kinetic energy would be the same at 390 million foot pounds.

ETA:

To keep it on a smaller scale, a 500 grain arrow at 200 FPS makes a paltry 87 FPE. A .22 Long rifle fired from a handgun launches a 40 grain bullet at 1,000 FPS for a similar 88 FPE. Which one suitable for bringing down an 800 pound Elk?

I submit that mass counts for a whole lot more than velocity where momentum is concerned.
 
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Double a bullets weight and you double its kinetic energy.

Double a bullets speed and you quadruple its kinetic energy.

Momentum is figured on a whole nuther level...more weight equals more momentum with less speed.

Lighter bullets need MUCH more speed to equal the momentum of a 230 grain slug...look over some power factor figures from the pistol match shooters.
 
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MachIVshooter said:
So you believe a 1000 pound missile at 5,000 feet per second has more momentum than a 1,000 ton freight train traveling at 75 miles per hour? Because the kinetic energy would be the same at 390 million foot pounds.

ETA:

To keep it on a smaller scale, a 500 grain arrow at 200 FPS makes a paltry 87 FPE. A .22 Long rifle fired from a handgun launches a 40 grain bullet at 1,000 FPS for a similar 88 FPE. Which one suitable for bringing down an 800 pound Elk?

I submit that mass counts for a whole lot more than velocity where momentum is concerned.
Click to expand...
So take a .22 LR Stinger HP at 1,645 fps 32 grains vs. the Aguila 30 grain .22 LR HP at 1,750 fps. Which one is going to do more damage to a rodent/pest?
 
So take a .22 LR Stinger HP at 1,645 fps 32 grains vs. the Aguila 30 grain .22 LR HP at 1,750 fps. Which one is going to do more damage to a rodent/pest?
Click to expand...

They both have the same momentum....the damage done to the rodent will depend solely on bullet construction...both will kill the rodent.
 
Ridgerunner665 said:
They both have the same momentum....the damage done to the rodent will depend solely on bullet construction...both will kill the rodent.
Click to expand...
How about a 40 grain .22 LR? All of these bullets would be in HP form. What will adding or using the heavier bullet do?
 
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