I saw a feed about 9mm vs 45acp here somewhere.
Either one is good for self defense, but, there’s the worry of over penetration. I have a 9 and a 45 and I can say that the 45 aka man stopper is a bit more powerful than the 9mm. You’ll feel it.
The choice is really about your comfort. But I will say this, there’s real life videos and docs where attackers went body to bullet with a 9mm and stood fighting. I’m yet to see that with the 45. Maybe someone can prove different…
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Gun Death Statistics by Caliber: A Review of Calibers and Crime in 2024 (ammo.com)
If the data used in this report is accurate, 9mm seems to be quite effective.
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Nothing to prove here.
Penetration, speed, energy… these are one side factors.
What I advocate is to choose the caliber that you can handle better and which stops the threat efficiently from your hands.
I personally cannot handle 45 so it is not an option for me at all.
40 S&W doesn’t do any better than 9mm for me so price is the priority here.
So, in general, there is no “better” caliber. Just the caliber that works better for you.
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When splitting logs, I will go with the 45. Humans, I’ll go with 18 9mm over 8 45’s
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Can’t say i want to be hit with either!
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Right! And Im sure an attacker would feel the same way.
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I have seen several stories in the past of bad guys being hit with multiple .45 rounds and not being stopped right away. Here is one of them:
A single .45 may be a little bit better than a single 9mm under certain circumstances but all pistol rounds are fairly ineffective stoppers if the bullets don’t hit something critical. Sometimes even when they do hit something critical they still don’t put the threat down immediately.
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Well,… there is this.
https://bowhunting.net/2017/07/45-caliber-round-found-in-bears-skull/?amp=1
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I’m sure there are more. 
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Let’s not lose sight of the target (literal and figurative). The caliber doesn’t matter if you can’t put lead where you need to. It is not a matter of firing off one round and waiting to see what happens. It’s about stopping the threat. Larger calibers increase the probability of a one shot solution, but they don’t guarantee it. Ask any cop who has tried to stop an active shooter high on PCP.
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Perspectives on post-shooting survival
Excellent article, and I really like the final part of the article and it’s tips on dealing with what you will go through afterwards. I understand the importance of consulting a lawyer as soon as a shooting has occurred, but your lawyer may or may not have real-life experience of being personally involved in a shooting. I would want to consult others who have been involved in a defensive shooting incident and keep in touch with them. They have been through the gauntlet and understand what you are going through.
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I do believe that if the .45 was truly superior to the 9mm in ALL aspects, it would be what the majority of law enforcement use…not the 9mm. The .45 may deliver more energy to the target, which is irrelevant if you can’t hit the target, but the recoil make follow-up shots more challenging. The limited capacity of most .45 caliber handguns is another drawback. Weight, yet another. I’d much rather carry two extra 15 round magazines of 9mm than 30 rounds of .45 in however many magazines that may mean, typically three to four.
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i have 2 1911’s 1 in 45 and 1 in 9mm the 45 holds 8 rounds the 9mm 10 rounds, i carry 2 spare mags. more rounds does not make better stoping power shot placement does, 4 well placed rounds will do better then 8 that are not put where they should be.
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True. However, with trained police having a hit rate of about 20%-30% I can only imagine what the average person does in a stressed, self defense situation. Having more rounds gives us a little better chance that we have enough to get at least one hit. Granted, most self defense situations are over rather quickly using a fairly low number of rounds, which is a valid counter argument. Still, I’d rather carry 15+1 rounds in my 9mm than 7+1 in my .45.
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https://www.pewpewtactical.com/9mm-vs-45-acp/
This is a good article explaining the differences.
It states some of the key reasons why most LEO agencies have switched to 9mm over the past decade or so:
- LEOs have a 20% to 30% accuracy rate in shootouts, so magazine capacity is important.
- 9mm Luger rounds have a deeper penetration than other handgun calibers.
- FBI agents have been observed to shoot faster and more accurately with the 9mm.
- The wound tracks of a 9mm and a .45 ACP are almost the same.
- The 9mm’s lighter recoil makes it easier for follow-up shots.
For the slight advantage in a wider wound track with .45 I am giving up a fair amount of capacity and speed, assuming I am carrying a similar sized pistol. If I only get one shot I might choose my .45 over my 9s. But since I train to keep shooting till the threat has stopped the 9s work better for me since I can shoot them faster and more accurately even though the one .45 I own is a larger, heavier and more comfortable to hold pistol than all my 9mm options.
Another interesting consideration is 9mm tends to penetrate further than .45 when using similarly designed bullets. This could create a noticeable advantage for the 9 with certain shots at certain angles, especially when dealing with thicker targets or when having to shoot through barriers. Though the less penetration could be an advantage for the .45 in situations where you might be extra concerned about over penetration.
In the end the differences aren’t that big assuming the person has trained to deal with the extra recoil from the .45. Though I do think the vast majority of shooters would benefit at least a little from the added capacity and speed with follow up shots that most 9mm pistols allow compared to most .45s. The vast majority of LEO agencies in the U.S. and militaries around the world seem to agree.
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i would agree that 9mm follow up’s are faster but by far shot placement is most important.
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I’d like to see comparison between the two calibers against body armor. More and more criminals these days wear it. While neither round should be able to penetrate armor, a 230 gr bullet must have more impact than a 124gr one.
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But in a dynamic fight where our adrenaline has spiked through the roof and the target and ourselves are likely moving erratically, getting a perfectly placed shot is a lot easier said than done. Getting as many shots as close to the center of our target as possible significantly increases the odds that at least one of them will be placed where it needs to be to stop the threat ASAP.
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Penetration has more to do with velocity, bullet design and material, and diameter. If you think about it, a larger diameter bullet spreads the force over a larger area making the force per square less. A smaller, faster, bullet is more likely to penetrate than a slow large bullet. A 5.56mm (.22) travelling at 3,000 ftps is much more likely to penetrate armor than a 9mm or .45 traveling at around 900 to 1,200ftps. Velocity has a much bigger impact on the energy delivered than weight of the bullet.
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I don’t know that the energy difference would be all that noticeably greater since the .45 is heavier but the 9 is traveling faster. The heavier bullet might be able to maintain momentum a little better but the 9 would be focusing its energy on a smaller area. In the end I don’t know that the impact would be all that noticeably different through a vest especially one rated for rifles.
If you really want someone to notice the difference in what they are being hit with through a vest then I think you need to steep up to a shotgun, or a rifle.
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