One of the gun world's oft repeated old wives' tales. Newton's 3rd Law also has an issue with it.
Perhaps you don't understand Newton's third law. The 45 has 10% more area over which that pressure is acting, and hence at the same pressure as the 44, the 45 is going to have a greater reaction. Conversely, the 45 requires less pressure than the 44 to achieve the same velocity, a proper application of physics not some old wives tale.
Blah blah blah. Why not just repost the entire outdated Linebaugh article? Sorry but it's not quite so cut & dried as .45 Kool Aid drinkers would have us believe.
I've been shooting a matched pair of custom 4 5/8" Ruger Bisleys for 15yrs, one a .44 and the other a .45 and I'll be damned if I can tell a difference in recoil or muzzle blast. IMHO, this bullshit about less pressure is just wishful thinking. It yields the shooter nothing. If you think there's a difference, you're probably not using comparable loads.
No one ever mentions that the .45 uses 10% more powder to do it.
As far as which is a bigger hammer, it depends. EVERYONE always assumes that the .45 really is always bigger. It depends on the bullet. No one ever mentions meplat diameter. With cast bullets, the only dimension that matters is meplat diameter. If a 330gr .44 and a 325gr .45 have the same meplat diameter, then the .45 has no advantage whatsoever. Except that the .44 penetrates a little better. I tested a 335gr .45 with a meplat diameter of .345 and a 310gr .44 with a massive .370 meplat and they penetrated the same. In that case, the .44 is decidedly a bigger hammer. A 355gr .44Mag with .340" meplat greatly outpenetrated that 335gr .45 load (by 40%).
As I already said, the two are all but interchangeable and no amount of fanboism, fairy dust or wishful thinking will change that.
