GUNS Magazine April 1956

Heavy 1/^" steel plate fired at in tests reveals comparative power of U.S. .45 cartridge and German service bullet.
call it an old fiend. The .45 actually
has more stopping power than smaller
calibers, which is the main argument
put up by supporters. But that doesn't
mean it has much, if any more killing
power. If the argument of stopping
power would hold water as well as a
shotgunned Stetson hat, why not re-
place the .30/06 rifle with the .600
Nitro Express? As a matter of fact, we
are going to have an even lighter rifle
and cartridge, and for very good rea-
sons, that also should apply to the
pistol.
Much has been written about com-
parative tests between the .45 and the
9mm Luger load. Any user of the
Luger knows that the gun is subject to
malfunctions of one kind or another
which can be traced directly to the
weak American ammo of low power as
loaded by Winchester and Remington
commercially. Although glorified by
"Super-X" or other high speed trade
names, the U.S. cartridges are inferior
to the European loads.
To settle in my own mind the dif-
ferences between the .45 and 9mm, I
ran some penetration tests for GUNS.
We don't have much ice down here in
Texas, but wood and steel were used.
Five 1" x 6" boards 25 inches long
were nailed together to make test
blocks. Bullets were fired into the cen-
ter board from 12 inches away.
A Luger and a Smith & Wesson 1917
.45 were used for this test. The block
was reversed so that it could be used
German service 9mm bullet shed its jacket (left) in penetrating l/C steel plate
but .45 slug burst jacket, flattened out and stopped -cold (right) on steel.
18
to test both calibers in the same wood.
The bullet channels were cut open
when the blocks were disassembled.
Ammo I used included the hot Ger-
man 9mm load, a 124 grain bullet ai
about 1300 feet per second in a 12"
barrel. The exact figure in my shorter
Luger barrel I don't know. The G.F.L.
38 cartridges, used in Italian subma-
chine guns and loaded by Fiocchi, also
used in my tests, developed 1250 f.p.s.
in a 6" barrel, according to the Fiocchi
factory records. It gained this velocity
with a 115 grain bullet developing
slightly more than 25,000 pounds per
square inch pressure.
The heavy German bullet pene-
trated Sy^," of pine. Contrasting, the
.45 fired in the 5 q S & W revolver
barrel which maintains velocity equal
to or greater than the auto pistol's
short barrel, penetrated only 4%" in
the same board. No expansion of the
jacketed bullets was noticed in either
caliber.
On Vyr' steel plates, the difference in
penetration was significant. The 9mm
went through (from 12 feet distant) ;
the .45 didn't. Even on a curved plate
at an angle, the .45 ricocheted doing
little damage, while the old Western
truncated cone bullet made a huge
dent.
I cross checked my results with Val
Forgett, formerly of Aberdeen Proving
Ground and now a hot-temperec