10mm or .45 ACP?

[WestKentucky]

I try really hard to like 45acp but I just never can figure out why it’s so popular. I don’t dislike it, but other than slinging a bigger wad of lead I can’t really find anything that it excels at when compared with other rounds that are all smaller faster and lighter which means more capacity and more energy (velocity gets squared, mass just gets multiplied). 45acp isn’t a good hunting round, it’s not especially good as a target gun (not bad but not notably better or worse than others) and it’s arguable whether it’s better at self defense. 10mm however is a nice medium game round, with good ballistics and a lot of energy. My love for the .45 is that other people like it well enough to get large framed guns made which will house the 10mm as an afterthought. I vote 10mm.

If this were any time before about 1980 I might find some love for .45, but ammo technology has advanced and like most traditional cartridges the ammo doesn’t advance much due to limitations of old guns. A 45acp in a strong action and well supported can be a whole lot of fun, and that’s where revolvers come in, but you have a big fat cylinder that’s long on the guns built to take a .45, so you might as well use that length for more than just a nose hanging out.

 

[Dan-O]

Have a 1006 in 10mm and a revolver in same too!

View attachment 1196012

Whether it's 10mm or .45acp, SA or DA, I like the combo too

Those were the days…..

 

[Dan-O]

If you are into 10mm, then 10mm is a good choice.

If you’re into 10mm, then chances are you also like the .45

Can’t go wrong either way

 

[sparkyv]

My Dad was a big 1911 fan, but I never warmed up to the 45AARP. I am a 10mm enthusiast and am pleasantly surprised to see so much M610 love on this thread!

 

[StrawHat]

10mm or 45 ACP in a single action revolver misses the biggest and best reason to chamber a revolver in a rimless cartridges. Moonclips!!!

45ACP/10mm in a single action revolver is like lowering your truck and running low profile tires on it. May look cool but not that useful.

^^^Please explain.^^^ In real terms. Curious on this. Thanks.

45Coltguy,

My take on this, moon clips allow a much faster reload of a double action revolver. I prefer the cartridge for which S&W originally designed the moon clip, the short and stubby, 45 ACP. The clip holds them as a unit and with properly profiled bullets, the drop in the chambers, simultaneously, as if guided. Ejection is easy and instead of six pieces to pick up, there is just the one, big and easy to find!

I have a couple of single action revolvers in ACP. Even when using a 1911 magazine as a speedloAdler, moonclips are still faster to load and unload.

I try really hard to like 45acp but I just never can figure out why it’s so popular…

For the same reason the 50-70, 45-70, 45 long Colt, 30 US, 30-06, 308, and 223 all became popular, acceptance by the military.

45acp isn’t a good hunting round, …

I have harvested quite a few white tails with my ACP revolver. How is it not a good hunting round?

it’s not especially good as a target gun (not bad but not notably better or worse than others) …

Yes, all the records set with the 45 ACP mean nothing.

it’s arguable whether it’s better at self defense.

No handgun is “good” at self defense, merely acceptable. I find the 45 ACP a better balance of power, accuracy and recoil than the other cartridges available.

Others may have different opinions. That is great! The same reason most races have more than one contestant.

Kevin

 

[Anchorite]

That's a tough call for me. I like the big bore, low recoil of 45acp in a 1911. I would like to try it in a revolver. I enjoy casting and reloading the .45.
I would like to try 10mm also.

Size matters. Meplats matter. Pass me the 45.

 

[mcb]

^^^Please explain.^^^ In real terms. Curious on this. Thanks.

Moonclips are the fastest most fumble free way to reload a revolver quickly. A bit faster than a speedloader and much less fumble prone then a speedloader. They blow most any other reloading method out of the water. The cartridges that work best on moonclips are rimless cartridges as the extractor grove allows for thicker more robust moonclip and since the extractor grove is part of the SAAMI spec the pairing of moonclips to brass is far less finicky. This later point is not true with rimmed cartridges. Also short fat cartridges work best for the fast reloading and 45 ACP hits that short fat aspect ratio very nicely. 40S&W comes in a moderately distant second.

So there is nothing really wrong about chambering a single action for a rimless cartridge but it does miss out on one of the biggest advantages of chambering a revolver in a rimless cartridge and that is robust moonclips. That is all a very mute point if you never see yourself trying to reload a revolver quickly. The fastest I was ever able to reload my one single action revolver was about 10 second and that was with the aid of a speedloader I had made and it was really easy to fumble that dropping rounds on the ground. With my N-frame and moonclips I use for USPSA I am pretty consistently ~2.5-3.0 second reload even when on the move. Standing still I occasionally hit a sub 2.0 second reload. Gerry Miculek has hit 1-second reloads in a few of his world records using a 625 and 45 ACP on moonclips. Again if fast reloads are not your thing moonclips might just be more trouble than they're worth but an empty gun is rather useless so being able to reload quickly has always been of interest to me independent of the gun type.

 

[TTv2]

This is probably the toughest one for me personally because I've come around on 10mm revolvers when there was a time I thought they were dumb compared to a .357 Mag. Then I learned about 10mm Mag and that will be a hobby horse of my for the rest of my life. Being able to ream chambers deeper in a 10mm revolver to chamber 10mm Mag means I'll always have that ability in the future.

Now, I also like .45 revolvers too as it's the finest caliber a revolver can be made in. The drawback is always going to be size, all .45's except maybe the Charter Pitbull will be quite large.

I'm leaning slightly to 10mm, if only because I feel it in the GP100 is an excellent pairing, but I could just as easily say give me a .45 ACP in a shaved Webley and I'll load it down with 250gr lead pills.

 

[Ks5shooter]

10mm just because and why not.

 

[.45Coltguy]

Moonclips are the fastest most fumble free way to reload a revolver quickly. A bit faster than a speedloader and much less fumble prone then a speedloader. They blow most any other reloading method out of the water. The cartridges that work best on moonclips are rimless cartridges as the extractor grove allows for thicker more robust moonclip and since the extractor grove is part of the SAAMI spec the pairing of moonclips to brass is far less finicky. This later point is not true with rimmed cartridges. Also short fat cartridges work best for the fast reloading and 45 ACP hits that short fat aspect ratio very nicely. 40S&W comes in a moderately distant second.

So there is nothing really wrong about chambering a single action for a rimless cartridge but it does miss out on one of the biggest advantages of chambering a revolver in a rimless cartridge and that is robust moonclips. That is all a very mute point if you never see yourself trying to reload a revolver quickly. The fastest I was ever able to reload my one single action revolver was about 10 second and that was with the aid of a speedloader I had made and it was really easy to fumble that dropping rounds on the ground. With my N-frame and moonclips I use for USPSA I am pretty consistently ~2.5-3.0 second reload even when on the move. Standing still I occasionally hit a sub 2.0 second reload. Gerry Miculek has hit 1-second reloads in a few of his world records using a 625 and 45 ACP on moonclips. Again if fast reloads are not your thing moonclips might just be more trouble than they're worth but an empty gun is rather useless so being able to reload quickly has always been of interest to me independent of the gun type.

Ok, thank you for the reply. I see your meaning with this explanation. Much appreciated.

 

[jmorris]

...is like lowering your truck and running low profile tires on it. May look cool but not that useful.

Reminds me of when one could sit on the tail gate and your feet would still be on the ground and easily reach over the bed sides and pick something from inside the bed.

Now "useful" is designing a tailgate with a ladder in it so one can climb into the bed thats too high and make it so light weight and fragile even a soccer mom can close it without breaking a nail...

A 45 acp revolver and gap brass is my winner, get the benefit of moon clips without needing any tools to moon/demoon.

 

[SDGlock23]

I've had my share of revolvers that shoot semi auto cartridges, be in Blackhawk convertibles or S&W 610's, etc. I came to the realization that for me, I'm keeping my revolvers to revolver only cartridges. The single action Blackhawk convertibles did it better, but a dedicated .45 ACP or 10mm revolver of any sort is just odd to me. I don't know why and I don't have a great argument against them, I just don't care for them.

 

[WestKentucky]

I have harvested quite a few white tails with my ACP revolver. How is it not a good hunting round?

For that reason I guess 22lr is the optimal deer round, 7.62x39 is the absolute peak elephant round, and since there’s a picture of it the largemouth bass is the best rattlesnake control on the planet. Because it works does not make it optimal. Big and slow generally means no expansion, and it also means shots at any real distance are questionable as you start compensating for drop. Faster means a better chance for bullet action inside the animal, and also flatter shooting which means easier to shoot accurately, at least for hunting purposes. Most handguns don’t do much in the line of expansion, fragmentation, or other intended bullet effect, but the big and fast ones do. 10mm is one that does.

And as far as a .45acp setting a record, that does make sense. If the hole it leaves is the size of a freight train then it clearly hit square on the x. I don’t take that as a win, I take that as engineered margin of error.

 

[Rexster]

The more readily-available option, that fits my hands, and is a double-action revolving pistol, would be a 10mm GP100, if I were shopping, today. Fortunately, I managed to acquire a Ruger Blackhawk Bisley, 5.5”, stainless steel, with .45 Colt and .45 ACP cylinders, some number of years ago, when a run of them were released. I think that it may have been a Lipsey’s edition. For a while, my wife liked it, and held onto it, with the .45 Colt cylinder installed*, even though I think that she never shot it. Then, as she found other favored toys, I regained possession of my stainless Bisley. Life is good. The down side of this Bisley is that it is a relatively heavy beast, to carry, or for shooting .45 ACP. The mass of all that stainless steel makes it more of a weapon for using heavy .45 Colt loads.

I always keep my eyes open for a .45 ACP-chambered Colt SAA or USFA Single Action. Now and then, they do show up, in the pre-owned inventory of a large local gun store, in nearby Houston, Texas.

*My wife is quite a fan of .45 Colt.

 

[WisBorn]

I have both cartridges in semiautomatic pistols and enjoy shooting both.
If your purpose is wilderness defense I would give the advantage to the 10mm. If it is primarily for range fun, the lower pressure 45acp.
Please note: I am not a fan of semiautomatic cartridges in revolvers, but that is a personal choice...
10mm got my vote.

 

[ms6852]

This is a tough one to choose. I carried a full size 1911 for about 40 years than saw a 686+ with a 3" barrel and fell in love and now it is my EDC. I have a 6" barrel longside TRP in 10mm and is a beauty to shoot, maybe I would choose the .45acp in a revolver since I do not own one and to me the .357 and 10mm are very similar.

 

[bangswitch]

I'm sure .45 will win on popularity alone, but I was trying to think of more calibers to make these poll topics about and thought for revolvers a rimless head to head would be interesting.

So, the plot here is you've decided you want a bigger bore revolver that shoots a semi auto caliber. Either you just want the accuracy of a single action or you want to play with moon clips, whatever the reason you woke up this morning and got to get yourself a new gun and mama always said you'd be a choosin' one, so between 10mm or .45 revolver, what will you choose?

If the stated criteria was my only choice, I'd go with a 4" S&W M25-2. The only reason I'd go that direction is that my M25-5 (.45 Colt) would have some company. Otherwise I don't care for revolvers chambered in rimless cartridges, they were designed for semiautos. .45Auto ended up in revolvers as a matter of military expediency, and we now have plenty of semiautos available in about any caliber you want in a rimless case.

 

[Styx]

I'm sure .45 will win on popularity alone, but I was trying to think of more calibers to make these poll topics about and thought for revolvers a rimless head to head would be interesting.

So, the plot here is you've decided you want a bigger bore revolver that shoots a semi auto caliber. Either you just want the accuracy of a single action or you want to play with moon clips, whatever the reason you woke up this morning and got to get yourself a new gun and mama always said you'd be a choosin' one, so between 10mm or .45 revolver, what will you choose?

Between the two, 10mm. Neither would be my preference for self-defense, but 10mm would be my preference for defense against 4 legged predators.

 

[StrawHat]

…I'd go with a 4" S&W M25-2. …

Something like this?



Or like one of these, all ACP.



Kevin

 

[Targa]

I like the 10mm and would like to add one to my collection one day but if I had to choose one over the other it would have to be the .45 for me. I just like that big .45 caliber hole in the paper..

 

[Miami_JBT]

@Y-T71



.45 for the win, since they don't make a 10mm Auto-Rim cartridge.

 

[LV Gun]

That's a tough call for me. I like the big bore, low recoil of 45acp in a 1911. I would like to try it in a revolver. I enjoy casting and reloading the .45.
I would like to try 10mm also.

You would like it in a revolver I have it in semi auto and a revolver being a S&W 625-6 Model of 1989 5 inch barrel instead of moon clips I use Starline 45 Auto Rimmed cases . Nothing against moon clips I have 2 other revolvers that use moon clips for 38 super and 9mm .

 

[bangswitch]

Something like this?

View attachment 1196472

Or like one of these, all ACP.

View attachment 1196473

Kevin

Sho-nuff, I'll take whichever one you send me. One of the .38/44HD conversions would be nice

Ya got one in nickel?

 

[silicosys4]

.45, since If I need more power out of a revolver I've got better than a 10mm to choose from. Realistically neither, i'm over rimless rounds in revolvers. I have found I am not a fan of moon clips.

 

[flightsimmer]

BOTH!
I cast, load and shoot both of them.
These are my 10's.