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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ripnbst" data-source="post: 1615804" data-attributes="member: 16136">While I agree with practically everything you said this quote was taken out of context.  He was saying that in handguns you largely give up the advantage of velocity.  In a handgun the 9mm is traveling faster yes, but is it fast enough to overcome practically doubling the weight?  If the guy wasn't an ME, and was an engineer like me he could tell you using...wait for it....wait for it...MATHEMATICS!!!KE=Kinetic EnergyKE=(1/2)M X V ^2 (^2 means squared).45 ACP using 230 gr and 890 FPS Velocity as pulled from ableammo.com for Speer Gold DotKE=.5 230 gr X 890 FPS ^2.5 X 230 = 115890 X 890 = 792,100KE = 792,100 x 115KE=91,091,500 units (whatever they are)9MM Using 124 gr and 1220 FPS as pulled from ableammo.com for Speer Gold DotKE=.5 x 124 x 1220^2KE=62 X 1,488,400KE=92,280,800 units (whatever they are)You can see the 9mm actually wins there by a small margin but I have some bad news, that calculation is done at the muzzle.  The .45 will lose a smaller percentage of its energy at 25 feet than 9mm will due to its lower initial Velocity.  So the .45 wins mathematically in terms of energy in real life but loses at the muzzle.  I'd bet it only takes 10 feet to make them equivalent in terms of energy but then lets consider inertia.  Would you rather have your house hit by a Honda civic or an Escalade?  An object in motion tends to stay in motion and heavier objects resist any change in velocity or trajectory better than lighter faster ones. ie .45 v 9mm.I shoot the .45 because I prefer its recoil characteristic of a push over the snap of the smaller calibers.  Has little to do with the ballistics, but the .45 ACP is still more than adequate and knowing that I chose it for the preference listed above.</blockquote>

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