45 ACP being stopped by heavy clothing?

[sqlbullet]

A thirty carbine would be pretty anemic at 500 meters.  Running ballistics on a 110 grain FMJ with a muzzle velocity of 1990 fps, at 500 yards (457 meters) it is going 867 fps and carrying a whopping 183.91 ft-lb of energy.

I am not going to stand in front of one, but I also don't find it completely unbelievable that the right clothing might stop it.

The better question here is accuracy.  And not just a soldiers skill.  Hitting a man sized target at 500 M with a GI issue M1 Carbine carrying iron sights is pretty good shooting.  General reports are to expect about 4MOA out of one at 100 yards.  That puts you at a 20" circle at 500 yards best case, in the hands of a really, really good shot.  Add to that the instability of transonic flight at about 250 yards and the skill of the average rifleman and hitting anything that far out is pretty iffy with a 30 carbine.

[Pinsnscrews]

The .45 round not penetrating should be listed in the FBI penetration testing in the '80/'90's

[Rojo27]

The bullet drop alone from m1 .30 carbine would be about 225" or almost 19' at 500 yards. 

[4949shooter]

It would be interesting to test the .30 carbine issue some day. Problem is, we don't have a 1950's Chicom coat to test it out with.

[Rojo27]

Raggedyman did an interesting soft point test of .30 cal fired out of M1.  Also tnoutdoors9 did an interesting test with same rifle with soft point & fmj.  Been awhile but think he fired from 25 yards and the fmj traversed 26" of calibrated block of semtest then 6" of sand in a large plastic tub used for back stop. 

Don't know too much about 1950's vintage chicom winter wear but can't image it was too technologically advanced gear.  Now I'm not sure how much knockdown power the round would have beyond 250 to 300 yards (and hell no, I don't want to stand in front of one to test it). 
Would be interesting test if enough powder was reduced from a .30 round to simulate the velocity of projectile at several hundred yards then fired into a frozen coat for effect. 

Lot of work test an a pretty dated rumor. 

[DeltaSteve]

Back to the simple statement in the opening  :'( ,  I for one would not hedge my life on that.

[harrygunner]

This question has popped up recently on a few sites. The best answer others posted is to look at:
   
http://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-8-the-rags-o-truth/
   
The answer is, thick clothing won't stop the .45 ACP. May clog the hollow point cavity, but won't stop the bullet.

You'll be ventilated. 

[enidpd804]

Myth. 

[Bozz10mm]

Raggedyman, the bullet failed to penetrate the clothing. I do recall it was a lightweight round, just not the weight specifically.

Probably a 185gr bullet.  Just conjecture tho. 

[my_old_glock]

A thirty carbine would be pretty anemic at 500 meters.  Running ballistics on a 110 grain FMJ with a muzzle velocity of 1990 fps, at 500 yards (457 meters) it is going 867 fps and carrying a whopping 183.91 ft-lb of energy.

I am not going to stand in front of one, but I also don't find it completely unbelievable that the right clothing might stop it.

The better question here is accuracy.  And not just a soldiers skill.  Hitting a man sized target at 500 M with a GI issue M1 Carbine carrying iron sights is pretty good shooting.  General reports are to expect about 4MOA out of one at 100 yards.  That puts you at a 20" circle at 500 yards best case, in the hands of a really, really good shot.  Add to that the instability of transonic flight at about 250 yards and the skill of the average rifleman and hitting anything that far out is pretty iffy with a 30 carbine.

The effective range of the M1 Carbine is/was 300 yards. The PPSH41 had an effective range of 150 yards. The only advantage the PPSH had was a 70 round drum magazine over the 30 round M1 Carbine magazine. If the 30 carbine wouldn't penetrate heavy clothing neither would the 7.62x25 Tokarev.

The M1 Garand was better than the SKS rifle. I think the Garand could be reloaded faster. I don't know of any other rifle used in Korea. Maybe the BAR.



.

[sqlbullet]

I don't know about an SKS, but I can reload a Garand faster than a Mosin Nagant from stripper clips.  Gotta assume the SKS is about the same.

[Pinsnscrews]

Raggedyman, the bullet failed to penetrate the clothing. I do recall it was a lightweight round, just not the weight specifically.

Probably a 185gr bullet.  Just conjecture tho.

More like 100-150gr in an attempt for a High Velocity light recoiling round.

[Retired LTC, USAR]

Even if it did not penetrate the clothing, would you still not get the impact from the bullet hitting you?

Much the same way the vest does not allow the bullet to penetrate but you still get the impact, but spread over a wider area.

I still believe that it would stop, if only temporaily, the bad guy.

[sqlbullet]

Even if it did not penetrate the clothing, would you still not get the impact from the bullet hitting you?

Much the same way the vest does not allow the bullet to penetrate but you still get the impact, but spread over a wider area.

I still believe that it would stop, if only temporaily, the bad guy.

Yes, but a 45 acp moving slow enough to be stopped by heavy clothing isn't moving very fast.  It would be interesting to do some destructive testing on denim to see at what speed a typical defensive HP stopped penetrating clothing.

I would guess the "hit" wouldn't be that hard.

[Mike_Fontenot]

[...]
I would guess the "hit" wouldn't be that hard.

If the clothing stops the bullet, the feeling of the "hit" depends mostly on momentum.  The .45acp is slow and doesn't have much energy, but it does have a higher momentum than a 9mm or a .40S&W (because of the .45acp's very heavy 230gr bullet).  Its momentum is less than a 10mm, however.  The perceived "hit" of a .45acp would be more than most other handgun rounds, but a "hit" from a 10mm would be greater (and a 10mm is also much less likely to be stopped by clothing).