Today was interesting.
It was seven of us, four 9mm guys and three 45 auto guys all going way down range, shooting fifty and one hundred yards away. This all started because one of the 9mm guys had said that we few old idiots with our ancient 45 autos could not hit anything more than twenty yards away. We all knew better and challenged them to a shoot off. Oddly, I had to remind those pups that 9mm is even an older round than 45 auto, by about three years, but hey they started this shit.
Now, that shit all happened back in the summer.
Today, we all finally got together at a respected range and had a shoot off. All hand held, no bench rests.
Well, you know I would not sound all braggy if it had not gone well for my position. Three of the participants were local police officers, who NEVER have to pay for their own practice ammo. Two were 9mm guys and one was a 45 auto guy. So, they know their shit, basically, AND still disagree.
One guy brought a velocity scope recorder thingy to check each round as it went down range. Our targets were cut up 4x8 sheets of plywood, 3/4 inch thick and two feet wide by four feet tall - representing basically the size of the center mass of a human body.
Anyway, down to it ... Four of us can actually shoot well off hand, on our hind legs, my grandfather used to say, standing up straight, holding your gun in your hands and shooting. Pretty good test for a police officer's ability to shoot well, I might add as an editorial note.
As it turned out only two of the 9mm guys could hit a human size target one hundred yards away, while all the 45 auto guys hit with every round but one AT ONE HUNDRED YARDS!
Understand that in my book some threatening influence that is one hundred yards away is not yet a deadly threat to me, in my way of thinking. So I would never shoot at any threat while it is one hundred yards away. This was just an exercise in comparison between two schools of thought.
On the target at the maximum range, I missed one shot and another 45 auto guy missed one and one of the 9mm guys missed one shot. One of the 45 guys hit with every shot! The other 9mm guys all missed with more than one shot. One guy, the loudmouth who started this contest, missed four shots at one hundred yards.
I am so tired of hearing how out of date my chosen carry weapon is. "That old shit is over a hundred years old! What can you do with that old thing?"
Well, I can do anything you can do with that same ancient 9mm crap.
I guess some of it has to do with the fact that so many manufacturers have continued to "redevelop" and continuously improve the modern 9mm types while the same manufacturers have mostly just refined and only brought up to date, the venerable and long lived 45 auto.
But no more shit about how the 45 auto is only effective as a close range (meaning inside one room) combat weapon. These things can still surprise.
Another item: at one hundred yards there were multiple hits off target that hit the structure of the targeting area. Only the 45 auto penetrated the plywood target AND the four by four posts holding everything together. All the off shot 9mm rounds ended up inside the big posts and none of them penetrated that much mass at that range.
