Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Best 45 ACP Load in a Short Barrel

I run 6 gr W231, 230 gr Ball in my Commander, which is my carry gun. It's accurate & never fails to feed or eject.

I have to respectfully disagree, 5" is insufficient regardless of distance. There is a reason the FBI spent time and money to determine 12" or more is necessary to reach the vitals for a handgun cartridge.

Gold Dots are great rounds, but can fail like any other bullet.

Exactly. 5" is only good for a frontal chest shot without heavy clothes and is a very bad approach. No one knows ahead of time the shot angles or amount of penetration ne ssecary ahead of time.

We're not talking about a firefight here.Short barrel gun= close encounter of the bad kind.Read the post-shooting info on some of the SD shootings..max 7 yards,most 5' to body contact distance.

What LE/FBI have to do is nothing like a civilian protecting himself.Most citizen shooters are in their homes/cars. My 5" statement may be off a bit,however "Gold Dot have proven themselves time after time as reliable,but a head,neck,chest shot from any angle will stop the threat.
Measure your own head or distance to your heart and see where 5" of massive tissue damage will get you.....

Again you miss the point, you assume all encounters are close and frontal. May or may not be the case. Good luck

GoldDots penetrate more than that.

Where'd that 5" guesstimate come from?

My 5" statement is distance to brain or heart when damaged will shut off,either stop working they both die.
I had assumed that since most everyone here knows about bullets, that they knew GD/Hshoks/Golden Sabers/HST's will penetrate over the 12" mark,more than enough to reach vitals after shooting thru leather,cotton hoodies and whatever clothing is worn

LE/FBI have the most experience in shooting people so therefore their information is relevant. Hence where do you get the vital information that Gold Dots are so great?

What difference does the scenario make? A firefight requires more penetration and a knife wielding attacker needs 5"? Maybe a rapist needs 3" inches since he is so close? The logic here escapes me? You are assuming too much in this aspect as well as being able to recognize a threat, make a response to threat, initiating response by getting your weapon drawn from a concealed method, and accurately firing to connect on a head shot/neck shot ect? A lot has to take place in a small amount of time. It is very unrealistic at best. Most police department shootings are dismal on hit percentages under these circumstances.

There are several reasons for low hit rates since physiological responses occur when placed under stress as your heart rate climbs, vision narrows, auditory exclusion, you urinate/defecate as your body prepares for your survival mode. You lose fine motor skills; which shooting is.

I agree most "tackleberrys" want what the police have and demand the same requirements. Yes, most citizens won't come across the situation to warrant firing at a moving vehicle or shooting through barriers to stop a threat? It could happen but unlikely.

Don't put much faith in bullets or cartridges! Your ability to detect danger first, have a proper response, use tactics, and getting off the 1st shot and hitting a vital will give you the best results added with a lot of LUCK to survive a deadly force situation! You can do everything right and still end up dead......remember that!

I hope you got something out of this?

If not well.

Merry Christmas Eve! :o)

Yes,I have had defensive and low-light training,spent my own money to do so. All taught by LE instructions and a few military ones as well.I can give names and hours spent,but it's not needed is it? I too,know how the motor skills go to [bleep] along with a lot of other things.
However,here is my conclusion,you carry what you wish,I'll carry mine and pray we never have to use them....Merry Christmas

Gotcha. I've shot deer with the GDs, and they definitely penetrated more than 5". Can't say how much, though, as they exited the rib cage on broadside shots both times.

Agreed on carry what you want. We live in a Golden Age of bullets. You have to try hard to find one that doesn't work well, especially in the standard calibers and weights.

What caliber and weight did you use on the deer?

.45ACP, 230s. "5, 1911 Gov't Model. I know they were 230s because that's the only weight I've ever shot in that one.

I'm not sure I buy all this 'short barrel' load stuff.

From what I can tell, the whole premise of the short barrel load is about making the smaller handguns more pleasant to shoot.

If I was going with a smaller pistol in 45 ACP, I'd put performance over my personal creature comfort, and go with a high performance load like a 230 gr +P.

Then I'd practice with it to be comfortable with some basic stuff like double tap, failure drill, etc.

There you go again making sense. You should know that doesn't work too well around here on the Campfire.

Sheesh.

Exactly.

^^^This^^^.

Except in a LW Combat Commander.
I've shot a few Whitetails with that same load and I was pretty impressed with the Penatration and expansion of the 230gr Gold Dot + P Load.

I've also killed one small Buck with the 230gr Remington Golden Saber +P load. Expansion was about the same as the Gold Dot load, but with a little less Penatration.
IMO, both of those loads should be great personal defense ammo.
Sure hope I never have to find out, though!

Which 230's?

Um, the GoldDots I mentioned earlier. Speer GoldDot 230 grain JHP .45ACP factory loads from a 5" Gov't Model 1911. Two deer (does), broadside. Both shot through and through.

It's a sample of exactly two, but it's a sample and I liked the results.

Thanks.

No problem. I wasn't, and still am not, quite sure if you were trying to get at something else or not, though.