how did the myth of the .45 acp come about?

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the thread about what will a 9mm, .40 and .45 do to a man got me thinking.

i'm sure everybody has heard someone tell them how a shot from a 45 will take a man off his feet and throw him against the wall or how even if you wing the bg the power of the bullet will spin him around.

how did myths like this come about? it couldn't be from real world experience, it couldn't be from first hand accounts. so, where did these exaggerated claims come from? i've heard people tout the 45 acp and turn their nose up at the 44 mag., 10mm and other higher power bullets because the big fat slow 45 acp is like getting hit by a sledgehammer taped to the front of a freight train.

thoughts?
 
Lol at that video link. That is so fake looking that I almost spit up.
 
There are reports of people dying because they were shot "at" with a .45ACP.
 
Oyeboten said:
Like this?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmoSEyYPwdY&feature=related
Click to expand...

Eh, back in those days they didn't have the special effects technology to show what a .45 can really do without, like, blowing up the whole studio! :rolleyes:

Evenflo76 said:
5 to 10 million GI's
Click to expand...

That and the fact that other militaries used smaller pistol calibers. If the Nazis or USSR had used a .50 caliber round with higher kinetic energy, then perhaps the .45 would be considered totally inadequate. ;)
 
The myth of the knockdown power of the .45 came from US soldiers shooting other soldiers with the pistol...most of which likely came from WW1, when the 1911 was used more extensively in actual combat than in following actions.

First of all...different people react differently to being shot. Some jerk and fall backward...some pitch forward...some seem to be flung violently backward...more as a result of muscle spasm than anything else...and still others show no sign of being hit at all.

Second...In a war zone, the soldiers being shot are likely to be exhausted...underweight and/or undernourished...and possibly even half-starved. Men in such weakened states are much easier to put down than steroid-enhanced, high calorie subsidized hulks who spent the last few years pumping iron in the prison yard.

So...the myth may not be all myth. The reports had to have at least some truth woven in.
 
There were stories like that for the 45 colt too. And that was long before movies showed up. Shooters seem to enjoy spreading various myths about guns. Quite a few show up on this site.:scrutiny:
 
What Myth.....?
That the .45 is a real "Man Stopper"....? It is.
Does what it was designed for.....and does it well.

A hell of a lot better than a 9mm, 10mm or 40Cal.....who needs them when you have a .45, IMO ?
 
There were stories like that for the 45 colt too. And that was long before movies showed up. Shooters seem to enjoy spreading various myths about guns.
Click to expand...

Now, the .45 Colt was pretty thumpy as handgun cartridges go. A big, soft, heavy slug at moderate velocity has always been strong medicine, as per the old British dictum for battlefield effectiveness:

"Heavy Ball/Light Charge."
 
I don't know the exact origin of the tale of the .45ACP being a "man stopper" but I knew more than a few old military guys who believed it with a passion. I used to hunt with an old doctor who served in WWII and he said he had seen lots of guys (both friend and foe) who had been shot with a .45 and it never was pretty. My dad was retired military and he was a firm believer as well. He said a .45 or 30.06 could cure just about any evil on earth.
 
All myths/lies have to have a bit of truth in them somewhere. It's not possible to have a 100% lie. But based on physics, if a bullet passes through a body, there will be a certain amount of energy that is not absorbed into the body, but instead will be wasted after penetrating and exiting the body. The 45acp, is both a very large/heavy (Mass) bullet; and it also travels quite slow. As such, it has a much less chance of exiting the subject being shot. Especially with a hollow point. Therefor, depending on which other caliber/bullet you are comparing the 45acp to, it's quite possible that more energy can be transferred into the body from the 45acp. Even if the other caliber/bullet has more initial energy.

Is it enough to knock the person off their feet? No. Again, physics would dictate that that much required energy, would also knock the shooter off their feet. However, there is a major difference in a 9mm shooting someone in the leg and it passing through, and a 45acp traveling at 850-900 fps with a bullet twice the weight/mass, and it doesn't exit the leg at all. There will be a lot more energy transferred to the leg.
 
i've heard people tout the 45 acp and turn their nose up at the 44 mag.
Click to expand...

Who's turning up their nose at .44 Magnum?

You can argue 9 vs 10 vs .40 vs .45 till the cows come home.

But saying any of 'em can touch a full house .44 Magnum load, well...:rolleyes:
 
When I worked as a gun salesman in a shop a customer said he shot a racoon in the head with a 45 Hydra Shok and it bounced off the raccoon and hit him in the face.

I just said when I shot raccoons with 45s they died.

And people say its the gun store workers who do not know anything.
 
Why do people think the same thing about rifle and shotgun rounds? Because people is stupid ( :D MiB - a person is smart, people are stupid). Basic physics, if the shot person goes flying backwards, so would the shooter.
 
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