the .45ACP for home-defence

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ThePerfectOne

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hi there

I'm interested in buying a .45ACP just for good ol' fun :D
but I would also like to use it for home-defence since it is a better man-stopper than the 9mm para and has less problems with overpenetrating.

now here's my question: does the .45ACP make more noise than a 9mm para :confused:

personally I think 9mm para is about the maximum of noise your ears can handle when you use it inside your house without hearing protection. if a .45ACP would make more noise, than I don't think it would be a good choice for home-defence (and of course I wouldn't buy it than).

any comment on this would be highly appreciated.
 
I would tend to say it is deeper rather than louder, although the .45 ACP may be a bit louder.
 
If you ever have to use a pistol for self defense inside a house, the noise level will be the very least of your concerns. Afterward, you won't be able to tell whether it was louder than anything else.
 
Some months ago I saw a comparision chart regarding different calibers.
As far as I can remember:

9mm Para 163db(a)
.45 ACP 157db(a)

Because the scale is logarithmic 9mm Para is much louder than .45 ACP but both will damage your hearing without protection!
 
Amen Pistolsmith-

and often the participants in these little festivities do not remember hearing or even firing individual shots.
 
Most cops report that during a gunfight, the auditory system shuts down. Medical science explains that blood is rushed to the systems required for survival (though I'm not sure how nature figured out hearing isn't required for survival).
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the noise. It's not like you are going to be firing your pistol in your house everyday.
 
I assume we're talking a supersonic 9mm round and a subsonic .45, though the opposite is possible. That sonic crack makes a lot of difference, as does barrel length.

I have an electronic headset I keep in the bedroom for just this reason. It amplifies low level sounds and damps down loud ones. But if Mr. Burglar breaks into my house, he doesn't need to worry about handgun noise. A 12 gauge is louder than any handgun I own.
 
Having known several people who fired a handgun in SD and having had two NDs in the house myself, noise is vastly overrated. Not even firing a .45 in my bedroom rang my ears. Fired a .357 six times in a car (don't ask :rolleyes: ) and got some ringing, but I have no hearing loss.
 
I think they are comparable with niether of them being noticably loader without ear protection. The 9mm feels loader to me because of the sharper crack.
 
Elmer Keith was once hunting with his hot loaded .44 revolver. When he sighted game and fired, bringing it down, he stated that he did not hear the shots he fired and that it must have been a trick of the wind. Actually it was a trick of the mind...auditory exclusion...and it can happen inside or outside.
I can remember firing an M1 rifle at a moving target, feeling the stock recoil into my shoulder and the spotweld jamming into my cheek, but I could not recall the rifle's report, not could I recall the number of shots I had fired. Not being an Infantryman or a Marine, I had not learned to count shots backwards from 8.
In a civilian situation, it is extremely important to count your remaining cartridges and remember how many shots you have fired...before the police arrive on the scene. They will ask you, and if you give a different number, you will have lots of trouble explaining the fact in court. For example, did you fire a shot BEFORE the final confrontation, etc. etc., etc.
 
Pistolsmith, I'd venture to say that the best thing one could do in the aftermath of a shooting would be to NOT answer any questions. A simple "I'll answer questions after I calm down and my lawyer arrives" should be sufficient.
 
In a civilian situation, it is extremely important to count your remaining cartridges and remember how many shots you have fired...before the police arrive on the scene. They will ask you, and if you give a different number, you will have lots of trouble explaining the fact in court. For example, did you fire a shot BEFORE the final confrontation, etc. etc., etc.
Click to expand...

I don't know, nor do I care, where you bought that crap, but you should take it back and get a refund.:rolleyes:
 
I agree with Al, No statements until you calm down....even trained officers can not immediately tell number of rounds fired in a hot situation........
as to noise....you are not gonna realize it!
Dan
 
.45 is more of a boom, 9mm is a boom and a crack, sound wise.

I would not want to be in an enclosed area shooting either if I could get away with it, but an HD situation kinda makes that a necessity.
 
Would I shoot either for fun without hearing protection.....

No!

Should someone come to threaten myself and my family.....who cares about noise.

I use a .45 for HD. .45 tends to be a deeper more bass like report then the 9mm which is a sharper, for me, more painful report.

Worry more about putting your shots where they count and overpenetration then how loud it will be. If the time ever comes and I pray it won't for all of us, you will not here it. It may still damage your hearing but that will be the least of your worries at the time.

Chris
 
thank you all for your kind responses gentlemen!

most of you tend to find the .45 less sharp in noise than the 9mm, altough some say otherwise :confused:

I always beleived that since the .45 doesn't break the sound barrier it would make less noise.

I can't buy hollow-points here in Belgium, so FMJ's would be the ammo used for SD.

I'm definately not planning to shoot without hearing protection (even with a .22LR), but for SD you simply have no other option, so I tought I would choose ammo that has good stopping power and a low noise level, and the only ammo I know of with those characteristics is the .45ACP.

the current gun in our house for SD is a Ruger GP161 / 6" barrel with .357 magnum 158gr JSP ammo. great stopping power, but way too much noise, and I don't like to sacrifice my hearing just to shoot a burglar (esp. since I'm only 19, and I don't want to spend the rest of my live with hearing damage.

just wanted to comment on a few things that were said here.
 
I don't think you will have to worry about it, unless you plan on fighting of robbers every day or week. And as long as you don't fire the gun extremely close to your ears, which the blast itself would be pretty bad anyways.
 
The standard .45 round operates at considerably less pressure than the standard 9mm round. Depending on the different loads, though, that mileage may vary quite a bit.

You may not be able to realistically tell the difference in loudness levels, but your ears can.
 
Maybe you don't hear shots in a defense situation, but your ears do. I knew one cop who fired a hot loaded .357 in a 10 ft wide alley between brick buildings. He was in pain for hours and he never recovered full hearing. I had a Walther PPK .32 fired next to my left ear and attribute at least part of my hearing loss in that ear to the incident.

Jim
 
As others have stated, most of the time the noise level of any handgun will go unnoticed at the moment of truth.
Click to expand...
Auditory exclusion. However, just because you didn't notice the sound doesn't necessarily mean you won't suffer the physical damage to your hearing.
 
Any sounds above 90 db can damage your hearing. Just about all pistols, because they're so close when you shoot them, produce sounds that exceed 90 db. Wear hearing protection otherwise you'll end up like the old rangemaster who's ALWAYS saying, "Huh?" or "What'd he say?" I know because I'm that old rangemaster. :banghead:
 
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