45Auto for personal protection

leeharrysouth

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I have a model 457 and currently load it with 230 fmj ball. I was told by my gun shop that a hollow point would be a better choice to protect agianst over penitration or ricoshey. I wonder if a glasser blue round would be the best choise for over all safety. I noticed that glasser blue only comes in 45 auto +P. Is the +P ok to use in my 457.

leeharry
 
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I'll tell you what I tell my students.

Any major brand ammunition designed for defense use in the .45 Auto should be adequate if it feeds 100% and you can hit with it. I happen to use Gold Dot 200gr in .45. Your model 457 can stand +P if you can, although they are not necessary.

Glaser are specialty loads for those circumstances where penetration through walls is the most important factor, and are not considered general purpose defense loads.
 
Reliability is the most important factor in choosing ammo for an autoloader, and it far outweighs bullet design in importance. It is hard to go wrong using 230 grn. ball ammunition. Personally I use Remington 185 grn Golden Sabers (non +P) in my 457, but I selected it only after being convinced that it is totally reliable.
 
Glaser Safety Slugs are my personal pick. All my carry and home guns , from .380 to .45 ACP. are so loaded. Yeah , they are expensive , but extremely effective. A well broken in modern pistol will have no issues with them.
 
What are you major reasons for using glaser rounds and have you experianced any auto pistol feed problems. With the 45 auto +P will I have significantly more recoil than ball ammo. I do use them in my house gun, but, it is a revolver.

leeharry
 
I carry my 1911 with 230gr HST +P or 200/230gr golddots, personally I would never use Glasser rounds they do not penetrate enough to meet my standards.
 
L/H/S,
Just about any loading of .45 ACP is good. As was mentioned already above, anything from any of the "majors". For me, I tend towards the 200+ grain weight with a 230 preferred. Everyones entitled to an opinion, so here's mine. A Glaser of any kind would be well up on the list of last choices for me. But that's just for me?
 
I personally prefer Golden Sabre 230 grain in my .45acps. Just about any solid bullet design will be fine since .45 ACP is such a good cartridge. Here are the criteria I use for selecting a load:
1. Will it function in the gun reliably? if not it does not matter how it looks on paper (stats or target)
2. Can I hit with it? Shot placment is key. A hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .45.
3. Will it penetrate deep enough? If the projectile doesn't enter the body far enough to do damage to vital organs, it is much less likely to produce a stop.
Glasers are one of the few loads I would find unacceptable because:
Glasers fail on ALL of these.
A. Gasers are so expensive that purchasing enough of them to test #1 & #2 is really cost prohibitive for most of us. Also they are so light that they require major sight adjustment in most guns (IIRC a M457 has fixed sights) and then finding reasonable practice ammo is out of the question.

B. Glasers were specifically designed to NOT penetrate. They are meant to not go through walls etc. The problem is they also do not penetrate heavy clothing, or fat or muscle. So they are a great choice if your attacker is dressed in a t-shirt, not overweight, and not to muscular. Don't plan on a head shot to help you unless you are sure you can hit your attacker in the eyes. Glasers will not penetrate the human skull.

+P will be fine in your gun, but not needed.
 
The 230 gr ball round will serve you well. If you can shoot it accurately and you gun runs 100% with it, no need to change.
 
thanks for all the input. Guess I am a little overwelmed with all of the noted choices. Ball 230grn, Gold dot 200grn and golden saber 180 grn seem to be the popular choices. That is with ball not as highly recommended as the others. I guess I want the most safe round for my 457 in terms of over penetration and ricochey. But, its got to feed well.

leeharry
 
I have located 185 grn +P golden sabers in my area. Considering how hard ammo is to get now days makes that point worth stating. My only concern is what extra recoil that I can expect when the +P rounds are used in my 457. Can I expect a great increase in recoil.

leeharry
 
When in doubt, I'd try to find something that the large law enforcement agencies, i.e., FBI, NYPD, LAPD, etc., use/authorize for their LEOs. These agencies have the resources to adequately test ammunition for reliability and effectiveness.
Some of the currently used .45 ACP loads include the Fed 230 grain HST, the Win 230 grain SXT, and the Rem 185 grain GS.
The 230 grain ball/FMJ is great for practice, but a poor substitute for a modern JHP.
 
Originally posted by leeharrysouth:
What are you major reasons for using glaser rounds and have you experianced any auto pistol feed problems. With the 45 auto +P will I have significantly more recoil than ball ammo. I do use them in my house gun, but, it is a revolver.

leeharry

I've shot 2 attacking dogs with Glasers and they just stopped and howled and hacked till they died. I've run at least a pack thru each of the guns I use them in , AMT Back-Up .380 , Kel-Tec P3AT .380 , CZ-75 9mm & .40 , as well as several Colt Commanders and GMs and a few .38 wheelguns. Living in the suburbs , I like the non-complete penetration and non-richochet factors , If I miss. I read so many articles on how they really work in actual shootings from M Ayoob , Marshall & Sanow , Leroy Thompson , Sgt GP Johnston.
I've also read where many 'skinnies' or thinly built druggie types are shot with modern hollow points and because of such little body mass , they just go thru. Glaser hits look like a .410ga contact wound.
 
45 ACP ball is not BAD, although it is the only caliber in which I would willingly carry ball for serious purposes. Standard velocity 230 grain JHPs from a quality maker is a perfectly good choice. We had 230 grain Ranger +P for a few years, and it worked well in shootings; we now have 230 grain Gold Dot, and it too has worked well. Over-penetration is a buzz phrase, but I am not aware of a (reported appellate) case in which any civil or criminal liability was found. That does not mean it's not a consideration, but it is not as big a deal as some make it seem. This may of course depend on your local litigation/gun owner climate.

However, you also are not likely to need as much penetration as the FBI prefers, due to the differing dynamics/circumstances of private citizen vs. LE encounters. Reliability is your first issue, and marksmanship is right next to it. Remember that your preferred target area on a human is higher than most targets show - draw a horizontal line through the nipples and a vertical one through each of them, and include the throat.
 
Doug, thanks for the input. I guess I have just about decided to go with remington 185 grn JHP (230 GRN is subsonic) or remington golden saber BJHP. Acording to all that I have read the GS is far superior in design and is less likely to have feeding problems. Ofcourse you get half the bang for the buck and spend about ten more dollers on a purchace. GS is available in 185 or 230. It sounds as though you would recommend 230. If the GS is as good a round and as advertised I dont mind the extra expence. I figure just load the GS for self defence and use ball for practice. I could cycle a 25 pack of them about twice a year to keep extractor dings on the casing rims to a minimum. I would like to stay away from +P rounds if possible as the M457 is a compact pistol and heavy recoil kind of gets on my nerves. What say you.

leeharry
 
Originally posted by leeharrysouth:

"I would like to stay away from +P rounds if possible as the M457 is a compact pistol and heavy recoil kind of gets on my nerves. What say you."

.45 ACP Plus-P is still a fairly low pressure cartridge. I don't find that it kicks much if any harder than standard pressure ammo of the same bullet weight, even in a lightweight pistol.

I had a department qualification shoot last week. I shot my lightweight Colt Commander and used Federal 230 grain HST bonded in their Plus-P flavor, and Federal American Eagle 230 grain FMJ, a standard pressure round. If I didn't look at the loaded magazine before I inserted it in the pistol, I wouldn't have been able to tell which cartridge I had just shot.
 
I have not shot any HP rounds out of my pistol. I have only had it for a few months and put two or three hundred fmj 230 grn threw it. I have never had a feed problem with this ammo. As soon as I can locate a box of JHP I can see how they do. Sounds as though the +P grade is not going to be an issue as far as excessive recoil.

leeharry
 
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