for defensive use a 45 acp might be very effective, but I don,t hold it in high regard, Ill grab a 357,or 44 mag almost every time, as a side arm,
many years ago I purchased a AMT long slide and worked up a very accurate load with a hollow point bullet,
in that particular gun, 7 grains of unique under a 200 grain bullet and federal primers produced consistently,
2" 25 yard groups
in one of my less brilliant moments, I decided to try using it on a deer hunt


on my first successful hunt I shot a 4 point buck at about 30 yards in the heart/lung area ,
the bullet hit where I aimed and while it was 100% fatal, the deer ran about 60 yards after bullet impact
I was not impressed, but you can,t base your opinion on a single hunt, about a year later I used that pistol on a couple hogs that weighed about 90 lbs each,
yes it was lethal, but again, the game ran after bullet impact further than it generally did when I used a 357 mag revolver and 158 grain soft points over a stiff load of 2400 powder

now don,t think I don,t like the 45 acp, I still occasionally hunt hogs with my

EAA/CZ 45 acp, its effective but not really impressive