Don't forget you also have to remember what the 45 was designed for, simply...people.
Any given direction you are looking about 24" at most of muscle and bone. With a range of usually less than 30 feet probably closer to 15 in most instances of practical use.
It does not need to be flat shooting. It does not need explosive, massive, lung crushing capabilities of a hunting rifle that you have to get 1 perfectly placed shot and DRT performance. You are simply looking for the target to
"stop" what its doing, whether that is attacking you, chasing you, shooting you, etc.
The bullet must be heavy enough and fast enough, JUST enough to stay on course through the bone that it goes where you aimed at. So if you are aiming at the upper chest you want it to punch through that breast plate and continue its path to the bag o goodies that lies underneath.
Many faster pistol rounds simply cannot accomplish that, they deviate there intended path after striking bone significantly. I won't point fingers as to what calibers but I think you can get the idea pretty quick. Ask yourself about bone penetration, a heavier (even way slower bullet) will come through far more often than the others.
Think about the 45 Colt or even black powder cap and ball very slow round did plenty of killin way before JMB ever thought up the 45 acp. The 45 acp was supposed to I believe duplicate the 45 Colt loads in a smaller higher capacity automatic.
Now if you crank those same bullets up to say a 200 grain at 1400 fps or even a 185 grain up to 1500+ those same bullets will most likely NOT penetrate as well as they tend to "explode" on impact opening and fragmenting rapidly. Hell just talk to someone that has tried using a light bullet with a 300 Win mag under a hundred yards that has shot deer, most of them have had issues with the deer simply taking off! They find that they did not get full penetration and that it may perhaps have only made it through the shoulder into one lung and they had to follow the blood trail for miles.
Now as someone posted earlier, the slow and weak (comparably) 30-30 at closer ranges seems to work quite well with its heavier bullets at lower velocities. (this is turning into a big and slow vs light and fast discussion yet again)
Remember what we are still talking about is handguns. NOT rifles, they are all so similar it's darn near moot point. Go to the extremes though one way or the other like say a 22lr and you will hear NO it's a horrible caliber for SD, not that a few rounds won't kill you any deader than any other though. Or if you start talking about 500 S&W Mag for SD you hear the same thing NO horrible caliber for SD. So obviously the optimal "people stopper is somewhere in between.
The 45 seems to be more effective than most regardless or not if it is a "weak" round. It is a low pressure round yes. And in a time when bullet manufacturing I would have to say was no where near it is today if you had a case blowout or weak gun it would most likely not be devastating. (yes I am stretching hear) but if you look at the main 45 acp pistol, the "original" 1911 was made to handle pressures far above what the 45 acp round could dish out. For a military fighting gun this is optimal, and by todays standards of the uber super light polymer combat pistols of today it's heavy and clunky. I for one still love them, same reason I buy Rugers or other similar over-built revolvers for any round, they can take the punishment.
So what makes a caliber not "weak"? What must its performance do? Let forget about numbers for a second. Do you want it to penetrate the rib cage? Do you want it to blow a softball size hole out the back after it penetrates? Perhaps you wish it to "detonate" inside the chest cavity like a varmint round? Do you want it to fragment, or stay intact? How much expansion is optimal? What about hard object penetration? Windshields? Walls? Doors? Metal? All these things are to be considered. The "weak" 30-30 will still penetrate a 1/4" plate steel within about 25 yards, I've done it. With big old fat, round nosed 150-180 grain bullets.
As posted before, I haven't seen anyone out there hunting elephant with a 300 win mag or anything similar. Yet take an old 45-70 with a big slow flat nosed bullet has taken just about every game known to man. Just as the 45 has taken just about any sized man known to man.
Most military and police rounds are not big and slow anymore. They are light and fast why? Let's examine for a moment. First Police agencies employ both big bear types of guys to little tiny frail women (and some men
) they have big hands and small. Also take into consideration how much they actually practice range time and you have the gun "dumbification" that has happened.
The lowest common denominator. Must work well with low recoil for frail types and be easiest to shoot for those that do not practice often, higher capacity for missed shots and considering that most only carry 2 at most spare mags you can empty them pretty darn quick while not even really trying. Smaller bullets weight less, so less weight for their already heavy load they have to pack around. Take into account that 99% of people being shot at do not continue there attack (most find the nearest escape route), the odds that they actually need to stop the threat by putting them down is slim. So what you have now is most agencies going with a 9mm or 40 caliber. Now if you could find a 45 that did not recoil what the 9mm or 40 does and give anywhere near the same performance even say at 300 ft lbs of energy in a lightweight carry option with more ammo they would jump on it in a heartbeat.
On the military side same similar situations. Here it's a bit different and mostly plays into logistics. You need to be able to wound the target (not kill) carry as many rounds as possible with the least weight in the smallest package, have the longest, flatest trajectory possible, with light recoil. Walla you end up with the .223. Personally I would rather have an M1 Garand with 30-06 any day! But if you told me I had to hike 20 miles a day and had say 5 mags of ammo to keep you in a firefight for a week, I might just take the more ammo, and get that weight off my back!
So unless you need ultra lightweight arms to carry around for days on end without replishment, and the chances of using your gun are slim to none and add up all the other unlikely variables described above, I'd say the 45 is still one hell of a round. If I am going to pack a SD auto it's going to be the good old 45.
Merry Christmas! (For a few more hours anyhow)
Oh, and that was just the first chapter LOL~
