Dan & Whelen get it. The 45 solid, in LC and ACP iterations, has a 140+ year track record of stopping highly motivated combatants, all over the world.
Substantial bullet weight, bullet diameter and enough velocity for penetration across the torso, guaranteed these cartridges success.
They work as well today as they ever did and this causes much angst among marketeers, bullet designers and those bent upon convincing themselves (and the rest of us) that a smaller, lighter handgun bullet can do the same work because the front end of it becomes a sea anchor. We are supposed to watch slow motion videos of jello blocks swelling on impact and believe it is so.
Obscene amounts of bullet-design money (some of it taxpayer funded) have been thrown at the problem of trying to make a small bullet act like a big one. Improvements have certainly been made; but until gelatin blocks have arms, ribs and spines they will never be fully representative of the organism those bullets are intended to defeat.
The 45's can be improved by the simple addition of a half-caliber meplat to the nose of the bullet; and it gives up nothing in the process.
Ask yourself a simple question. If you were being attacked by a 110 pound attack dog and a 250 pound assailant at the same time, which would you rather have- 17 rounds of 9mm or 11-13 rounds of 45?
16 rounds of 357 Sig
