45 or 40 caliber-which should i buy?

Answer 1

.45 is the best self-defense gun there is. .40 is a good gun also. It mostly depends on what you can handle.

Answer 2

The .45 acp cartridge has been around a long long time and from day one, it has proven to be an outstanding man stopper. Law enforcement found out the hard way that the 9mm cartridge just didn't cut it for their needs, but they found that the .45acp was to "powerful" for female officers or even male officers with smaller hands. They wanted something more powerful than the 9mm but with less recoil than the .45acp. Thus the .40 S&W cartridge was born. I myself am a died in the wool .45 acp fanatic. I've carried 9mm, 357 mag, 45 acp all on duty, and fired and played with just about every cartridge out there in a handgun. You have to remember that no handgun cartridge is perfect, some don't penetrate metal well, some over penetrate, some expand well in soft tissue some don't etc etc. The idea is to pick the one cartridge that does the best for you needs, or that you can use to fight your way to a long gun!! The .40 s&w cartridge has shown itself to be a pretty good round, and although, like I said, I prefer the .45acp, I would not hesitate to use the .40 S&W. You need to decide if you have the experience and stature to use the .45acp or if you have smaller hands etc and would be better served with the .40 s&w
Go to a range where you can rent a couple of different pistols in both calibers, thry them out for yourself, check your accuracy, see how they fit your hands etc, then you can make a good sound choice.
Good luck and good shooting.

Answer 3

.45 is slightly better than .40 but I personally would go with .40. The reason is that the bullets are cheaper and recoil is slightly less. Another thing to think about is that .40 guns hold more bullets that similar.45 guns. BTW, prices of bullets ar on the rise, in the last year, bullets have gone up in price nearly 20% because of the war.

Answer 4

Personally I'd prefere a .357 Magnum or .44 Spl, or .45 LC revolver to either semi-automatic caliber.

Picking between your two choices, I'd go with the .45 ACP over the .38-40 ACP, aka .40 S&W.

Doc

Answer 5

I personally prefer the .10mm or .357 Magnum for defensive purposes but either the .45 acp or .40 S & W will serve you well. The .40 was designed to duplicate the .45 acp performance in a smaller frame pistol. So just pick the one that fits your hand better.

Best.

H

Answer 6

Get a 10mm Glock. The 10mm has almost double the power of either a .40 or a .45.

Answer 7

45 ACP .Its up there with 9mm as one most common pistol rounds (not including the rimfires).This means there is an enormous selection of guns and ammuntion to choose from.40 S&W is more of a specialized caliber that is fairly uncommon and expensive.

Answer 8

The 45 acp is time tested and proven; the military is in the process of switching back to it after discovering that there is no point in trying to reinvent the wheel. Go for it. A wider selection of ammo is available and more reasonably priced; unless you are a multi-millionare and don't care.

Answer 9

If you want a defense handgun, either round will do fine.I shoot the Colt Govt. MK IV Series '70 in .45ACP, and the Glock model 22 in .40 S&W. Recoil is moderate, but can be easily controlled after shooting a few magazine fulls.

Answer 10

45 or 40 caliber what?? Handgun ? Revolver or Semi-automatic? Manufacturer you like? You want to use it for?
A little more info would be nice..

Answer 11

I prefer the 45, so does my husband. We have a Springfield 1911. It has a lot of kick to it, but if I can handle it anyone can. We keep it for target practice. We don't rely on it for protection, really, because we have a child, therefore we keep the bullets away from the magazine and the magazine away from the gun, so we'd have to go to 3 different places, unlock the safe, then put the gun together, LOL.