No, you didn't comprehend what I said, because you looked at it from a reloading standpoint.
Ammunition companies do not have unlimited money to throw at development--the sort of development I'm talking about. Now, if I'm running Federal/Speer/Winchester/Whatever, and I have X dollars to spend on developing and improving defensive ammo, do I spend that money on 9mm, .45ACP, .380, .40S&W, or .44 Special?
Hint: I do not spend it on .44 Special.
So most of the "big-name" factory ammo is pushing better numbers in popular cartridges. Boutique ammo makers specializing in more niche cartridges have spent all of their time and money optimizing their .44s and .45 Colt loadings, for instance. That is what I'm referring to when I talk about development.
Certainly not pressure. Pressure matters very little to most folks when it comes to how abusive a loading is. 9mm, for instance, is quite pleasant to shoot, even in itsy-bitsy guns--and that's a cartridge that runs at 35,000 PSI. All 9mm is, is a little noisy. And mostly for other shooters, at that. The guy behind the gun doesn't notice it much.
What matters is projectile weight times velocity first--and the mass of powder in a distant second. The gas exiting the barrel has a very slight effect on perceived recoil, and when you burn a larger amount of powder to achieve the same velocity, you get more gas. Most people won't be able to tell the difference, but it can matter to a Grand Master action shooter.
Anyways, how about whether .44 Special really does lag behind .45 ACP.
Let's take two loads. The first is Buffalo Bore's standard pressure .44 Spl "Anti-Personnel" 200-grain wadcutter ammo. It's loaded to 1000 fps, out of an actual gun (as opposed to a test barrel). That's a PF of 200.
Federal's standard-pressure .45 ACP HST (*ugh*)--the Wally World-stocked ammo of choice for mall ninjas everywhere--claims 890 fps with a 230-grain jacketed around--or 204.7 PF. That's about 2% more.
Personally, I'd call that quite competitive. As I said earlier, the difference is so slight that personal preference is a much bigger factor.
Going up to +P loadings in .45 ACP gets you 218.5 in a 230-grain Hydra-Shok, or only 209 in a 185-grain.
But Underwood sells a bonded hollowpoint .44 Special that delivers 1100 fps with a 200-grain bullet--or 220 PF. And a 240-grain JHP that, at 950 fps, works out to 228 PF.
Loading up some Hodgdon load date, a 240-grain LSWC can be propelled to 950 fps at a mere 13,600 CUP. And a 200-grain JHP breaks 1,000 fps easily, at 13,100 CUP.
So really, one could say that the .45 ACP has to be loaded to +P to match the .44 Special, but that's simply not right.
What's right is what I said earlier--the differences are so slight that they just don't matter.
