[luckydog]

My new 45 Shield showed up today from Buds guns. I now have another compact 45 to use for EDC. I've owned a ton of 45's but never really carried them that often. I had a Kimber 1911 Officers model that I carried for a while but I never really liked carrying it. This new Shield feels great. I'll be taking her out on Sunday and if everything goes fine, she will be my new EDC except for when I'm at work.

New Shield 45

My 3 M&P's

 

[Sturgis]

I love my S&W 45c.---Sturgis

 

[Tundra5.7]

Nice family you have there!

 

[gqllc007]

Awesome. Load that .45 Shield up with some Golden Saber 185+P! It is an excellent performing round out of the Shield short barrel. One of the very few rounds that works out of the short barrel .45. Corbon DPX 185+P is also a good performer but hard to find and doesn't penetrate as far as the golden saber

 

[HoustonB77]

Looks Great to me. Congrats on the new Pistol and let us know how she shoots.

 

[SouthernBoyVA]

You'll be surprised how your 45 Shield shoots. For such a small and light pistol, it handles the powerful .45ACP cartridge very nicely. Not as much recoil and you might think and the sights come back pretty quick on target. All in all, a very nice big bore package.

 

[luckydog]

Awesome. Load that .45 Shield up with some Golden Saber 185+P! It is an excellent performing round out of the Shield short barrel. One of the very few rounds that works out of the short barrel .45. Corbon DPX 185+P is also a good performer but hard to find and doesn't penetrate as far as the golden saber

I just checked all of my 45 ammo. I have a little more than 1200 rounds. Everything I have is 230 grains. The only JHP I have are Winchester WB 230 grain JHP and Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 Bonded 230 Grain. I have zero 185 grains. Thanks for the input.

 

[Nano65]

Congratulations on your new shield. I love to shoot .45. My everyday carry is a Springfield XDs45.

 

[AzQkr]

Awesome. Load that .45 Shield up with some Golden Saber 185+P! It is an excellent performing round out of the Shield short barrel. One of the very few rounds that works out of the short barrel .45. Corbon DPX 185+P is also a good performer but hard to find and doesn't penetrate as far as the golden saber

Incorrect, based on your own testing data results posted in another thread/. .

 

[rmak]

Good for you! I love my Shield 45. The only downside I've experienced is that after shooting it my two adult sons want me to buy them one each. All I can say is they better be putting a lot of project time at my house this summer.

 

[Chief1297]

Incorrect, based on your own testing data results posted in another thread/. .

OUCH...:gah:

 

[BigJon10125]

I just checked all of my 45 ammo. I have a little more than 1200 rounds. Everything I have is 230 grains. The only JHP I have are Winchester WB 230 grain JHP and Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 Bonded 230 Grain. I have zero 185 grains. Thanks for the input.

Those are good. I do not like light for caliber stuff, especially in .45 acp. Stick with 230 gr JHP. I like Winchester Ranger ammo, but it is getting kinda hard to find. PDX seems like good, but pricey stuff. I want a shield in 45. Let us know how she shoots!

 

[molleur]

Commander size is as short as I would go! The compacts seem lacking for me.
230Gr. is my only load, both JHP & HP are frequently used. Nothing less.

 

[AzQkr]

OUCH...:gah:

Interpretation of findings is subjective at best. The tester discounted the hst or ranger simply because it made 11.5" instead of 12" of penetration and some didn't expand. Well, ask anyone in forensics and they'll likely state that the majority of HP's don't expand perfectly on the streets as they do in gel testing.

I use HP's, but I don't rely on their expansion/bloom to get the job done. Expansion is NEVER a guarantee with any load in any caliber. As an example, decades ago the WSTip was supposedly the load to carry, but firing a 9mm wstip through a 2x4 showed NO expansion, the bullet was found on the ground less than a foot away. It could have been reloaded.

In our own testing into wet phone books soaked overnight in a tub [ 9mm and 45acp ], the Golden Sabre showed it was middle of the pack for penetration and expansion, the Ranger T and HST's providing the best of both for 5 various loads tested. GS is a good bullet, but depending on the medium used, it may not provide the best penetration and expansion. That's why it's a subjective statement that the GS is the better bullet.

 

[gqllc007]

Incorrect, based on your own testing data results posted in another thread/. .

And where might that be? The Golden Saber is ONE of the very few that works out of SHORT barrel. The other one is Corbon DPX 185+P The Federal HST 230+P failed miserably on it's latest test so I am curious to what you think you are talking about! You might be unaware of the "FINAL" Shield test...here it is below

So I did some more testing with my .45 shield. I used a clearballistic gel 6x6x20. I used 4 layers of denim that I purchased through clear ballistics.
Corbon DPX 185+p is the most consistent with penetration to 13-14 1/2". Expansion .819.
Golden saber 185+p penetrated to 16-17" expansion .740.
One failed to expand out of 7 rounds.
The surprise this time was 230 HST +P.
5 out of 6 failed to expand and penetrated past 20" into the wood. One only 2/3 of round expanded.
So now I will carry golden saber in the winter and Corbon in the summer.

 

[gqllc007]

Interpretation of findings is subjective at best. The tester discounted the hst or ranger simply because it made 11.5" instead of 12" of penetration and some didn't expand. Well, ask anyone in forensics and they'll likely state that the majority of HP's don't expand perfectly on the streets as they do in gel testing.

I use HP's, but I don't rely on their expansion/bloom to get the job done. Expansion is NEVER a guarantee with any load in any caliber. As an example, decades ago the WSTip was supposedly the load to carry, but firing a 9mm wstip through a 2x4 showed NO expansion, the bullet was found on the ground less than a foot away. It could have been reloaded.

In our own testing into wet phone books soaked overnight in a tub [ 9mm and 45acp ], the Golden Sabre showed it was middle of the pack for penetration and expansion, the Ranger T and HST's providing the best of both for 5 various loads tested. GS is a good bullet, but depending on the medium used, it may not provide the best penetration and expansion. That's why it's a subjective statement that the GS is the better bullet.

You are correct there is no guarantee since we can't actually shoot into people to test them! However gel provides us a consistent baseline to compare various loads. I have tested HST and Ranger T extensively in 9mm, .40mm and 45mm. I solely carry the 124gr HST standard pressure in 9mm as it's performance through every type of material in front of the gel has been stellar regardless of barrel length. For .40 the Federal HST 165gr has been excellent in a Glock 23. In .45 the SHORT barrel tests have been as inconsistent as you can possibly get. The standard 5" barrel was a different story as the HST and Ranger T were excellent. It's the short barrel .45 that causes major issues in all sorts of rounds with testing. The .45 was designed around a 5" barrel. Performance suffers greatly out of a 3.3" barrel. I also tested all of the loads with the MP .45c with barrel length of 4" and results were the same as the 3.3" Shield. Not until I used a 1911 did the results dramatically change. I have also tested .357Sig as well
The 230+P HST on left, Corbon DPX in middle and Golden Saber on right

 

[AzQkr]

You are correct there is no guarantee since we can't actually shoot into people to test them! However gel provides us a consistent baseline to compare various loads. I have tested HST and Ranger T extensively in 9mm, .40mm and 45mm. I solely carry the 124gr HST standard pressure in 9mm as it's performance through every type of material in front of the gel has been stellar regardless of barrel length. For .40 the Federal HST 165gr has been excellent in a Glock 23. In .45 the SHORT barrel tests have been as inconsistent as you can possibly get. The standard 5" barrel was a different story as the HST and Ranger T were excellent. It's the short barrel .45 that causes major issues in all sorts of rounds with testing. The .45 was designed around a 5" barrel. Performance suffers greatly out of a 3.3" barrel. I also tested all of the loads with the MP .45c with barrel length of 4" and results were the same as the 3.3" Shield. Not until I used a 1911 did the results dramatically change. I have also tested .357Sig as well
The 230+P HST on left, Corbon DPX in middle and Golden Saber on right

This statement from your previous post

The Federal HST expand beautifully but don't even penetrate to 12" with the shorter Shield barrel.

I'll not consider changing/swapping what I carry for 1/2" of penetration out of my shield 45. I won't even change the load out if it were 11" of penetration. 12" of penetration is something the feds wanted as a minimum. That means little to nothing to me, where choosing a load that doesn't quite measure to the 12" of depth they recommend as minimum.

They change their minds like most people change underwear.

 

[Dave909]

It's a lovely weapon you have there. I was never fond of those kinds of triggers myself, where it looked like too hard of a pull would snap the bottom of the trigger in half.

 

[gqllc007]

This statement from your previous post

The Federal HST expand beautifully but don't even penetrate to 12" with the shorter Shield barrel.

I'll not consider changing/swapping what I carry for 1/2" of penetration out of my shield 45. I won't even change the load out if it were 11" of penetration. 12" of penetration is something the feds wanted as a minimum. That means little to nothing to me, where choosing a load that doesn't quite measure to the 12" of depth they recommend as minimum.

They change their minds like most people change underwear.

I don't find the 11 3/4 expansion adequate. Neither does the FBI. It's fine that you do. To each it's own.
I work in the medical field (this May will be 30 years) and my findings show that penetration of greater than 12" is "better" to reach vital organs. Also if you read my other tests you would see that the same 230 HST round failed miserably at expansion and then over penetrated. Carry what you want. We all know shot placement is the key regardless to expansion or penetration. However not all shots can be placed perfectly. In that case I find penetration more important than expansion. And closer to 18" the more ideal it is based on the variances of the human body. Over penetration risks collateral damage. Any shooting risks that.
Most agencies rely on the testing done by the FBI.
They didn't use a short barrel .45


I chose to to do my own testing with my own guns.

 

[gqllc007]

It's a lovely weapon you have there. I was never fond of those kinds of triggers myself, where it looked like too hard of a pull would snap the bottom of the trigger in half.

It's a hinged trigger. Feels odd at first but have had no issues with the 4 MP's that I own