I went ahead and picked up the Citadel M1911 this weekend. Paid around $50 more than I hoped to and $25 more than I wanted to, but I think it was a fair buy. Standard 5" barrel. Front and rear slide serrations. Widened and flared ejection port. Don't know if there was any work on the feed ramp. Skeletonized trigger and hammer. 8+1 single stack. Extended grip safety. Beavertail. Ambi safety. Checkered hardwood "double diamond" grips. Low profile sights. Not thrilled with the sights. I'm used to dots on the sights and these are plain. Even my .357 has an orange front blade. From what I've read the Parkerizing isn't great and initial wear seems to validate that. Trigger isn't terrible. Need to put some rounds downrange before I say more. But today I picked up some slugs to feed it and my first impulse was "HOLY SHIT. AM I HUNTING BUFFALO!?" I thought this was the most imposing handgun caliber I'd seen. So I pulled out the Smith and extracted a shell from it. Potayto/potahto. Lined up you get a nice AT&T signal graphic, with the little .380 standing next to the 9. Proportionately taller is the morbidly obese .45 before going to the significantly taller and slender .357. It is a little bit the "Sesame Street" "one of these things is not like the other" with the fat, fat .45. From what I've read thus far, on paper (and possibly anecdotal) the .357, pushing a 125gr JHP narrowly edges out the .45. Not having shot a .45 in oh, 20 years or so, I don't have a basis of comparison yet but I have a pretty good theory. (As a sidebar, I would be the worst baby sitter ever. I just got done pulling a loaded clip of .380 and 9mm out of their respective sidearms. They may have even had one "in the pipe." For now the wheelgun is the go-to "Oh shit, there's someone in the house gun, loaded all 'round while the others will sit with an empty clip in 'em and a loaded clip next to them. None of the long guns are loaded. I figure if I'm going to need a long gun I'll have time to get it ready. I can load the 12ga pretty quick and just racking the action goes a long way towards not actually needing to fire it. I should just stick the bayonet on it. Then I could stand it in the corner of the closet on its nose--hoping I never kick around said closet barefoot.)
Either one works. I like automatics, so I go with the .45. Time was, Evan Marshall's statistics showed a particular Remington 125 grain JHP .357 round to be the most effective defensive round, achieving a one-stop shot up to 99% of the time. link: Stopping Power Statistics, Part 1 link: Stopping Power Statistics, Part 2 However, this data is now years out of date. Since bullet designs have improved remarkably in recent years, I'd guess that there are many loadings in many calibers that will achieve similar results. (And for those who would disparage the lowly 9mm: 20 years ago most 9mm loads were getting one-shot stops close to 90% of the time.)
Well not a lot of conversation going on. Maybe I should give it a couple more hours but... I'm going to say that for general tactical shooting the .45 wins. My reasoning is thus: Both rounds have similar performance. The .357 does it by pushing a smaller bullet a lot faster. The .45 pushes a great big bullet at a slower rate. ... and my physics is crap. I was going to say that the slower rate meant less recoil and therefore faster recovery for a second shot, but that negates the whole "equal and opposite reaction" thing. I will argue that the cycling action of a semiauto eats up some of that recoil, creating a faster recovery. I'll have to hold off on further comment until I've taken it out to the range to shoot. The .357 was definitely inconvenient, as each shot twisted the gun in my hand making natural point of aim shooting impractical without a whole lot of training.
I've always preferred automatics to revolvers and since there haven't been many of the former chambered for .357 magnum (the Desert Eagle is the only one that comes to mind, though I know there've been a few others), it's not really been an option for me.
A .357 will fire .38 Special. My big Highway Patrolman is quite pleasant to shoot, loaded with .38. Less so when you feed it .357. With the .38 ammo the gun doesn't twist in my hand on recoil like it does with .357. I'm too lazy to do my research right now, but offhand I'd say a .38 is pretty similar to a 9mm as far as performance.
About double(maybe a third more) the recoil of a .38 spl - so it's got some bark, but tolerable unless you have a very short barrel.
The .38 Special's not far off. The .357 is noticeably louder and has a bigger, sharper recoil (though not unpleasant to shoot, except in very light pocket guns)--if you fill a .357 revolver with 5 .38s and 1 .357, you will not have any trouble telling which one is the magnum when you fire it!
I'm going with .45. Last Saturday I had an occasion to fire the .357 at a semi-enclosed firing line--the kind the Marines make you wear double ear protection to shoot 9mms on. I got distracted and forgot to put in my ear plugs (and I wasn't using muffs, so the ears were totally unprotected). While it is a lot better and I don't notice it if there is any ambient noise, my ears are still ringing as I type this. A little online research indicates the higher pressure wave caused by the hotter round makes it much harder on the ears than a big slow .45 slug. A fair number of people sharing anecdotal information said their hearing returned to more or less normal after a couple months, but more said they experienced some kind of permanent significant hearing loss--most often tinnitus. Obviously though, I don't intend to repeat the event with a .45 to validate the theory.
.357 used to be the predominant carry weapon for cops. I'd hate to fire one off in a parking garage stairwell.
I picked up some ammo called Lawman a few years back and they made the standard .357 loads sound like .38s. My ears rang for two days.
My ears still have a low background ringing like cheap electronics are plugged in somewhere. Of course working with power tools today probably didn't help--even with hearing protection.
You mean these? It's what I carry in .357 Mag. I am one of the increasingly rare wheel gun guys. I love 'em. Concealment issues aside, I'd take a 4" S&W Model 66-4, 3" S&W Model 65-4, or a S&W 629-4/5/6 Mountain Gun any day over any semi-auto outside of a 1911.
I have the capability to use both, but if you really want to wake the neighbors get a 7.62 x 25 Tokarev semi-auto from Russia (or China). DO USE EAR PLUGS PLEASE! The .45cal, 230gr hollow point is great for those pesky engine blocks that keep attacking you while out for a walk and the .357 is useful for varmints like coyotes and bob cats, lynx etc.
