[Jack Houston]

What is the effective range for 45acp in a HP Carbine?

[rockcreek]

Depends on what you mean by effective. I would say 100 yds is about it. They can shoot accurately further than that, but the bullets drop a lot, and you need to start doing some pretty serious holdover to hit your target.

[Hipointer]

Like said above, that is a pretty broad question. I suppose one could volley fire one at a bad guy 500 yards away and hit them, but would the hit be decisive? I don't know. A carbine is not designed to take out targets at long range, but designed to do its work a little further out than a pistol. I would say that effective range would depend more upon the round you are firing than the gun you are firing it out of. JMHO.

[Jack Houston]

OK, let's say in an Urban setting. 100 yards if fine if there's still stopping power that far away! I fail to see even trying to hit something farther away with a gun like a Carbine. Was first trying to find a M1 Carbine but can't find one I can afford

[Fbodtrek]

At 100 yards, it isn't defense, it's an assassination (and you should bring a much bigger gun).

A pistol carbine allows for superior control, power and accuracy over a handgun. Effective combat range for MOST subguns is LESS than 100 yards, beyond that, tactics dictate a different loadout to begin with. Yes, even a $2600 HK MP5 is going to be subject to the same ceiling.

Subguns are for room clearing, and close quarters work where a rifle report is too disorienting. They were never intended for long range work, even if the bullet is still plenty lethal at that range.



You don't hammer a nail with a screwdriver

[Rabbit]

From: http://firearmspedia.com/maximum-effective-range/

Gun manufacturers and military analysts give each weapon a length in yards (or meters, if they’re so inclined). This distance is supposed to be the farthest that an averagely-trained soldier using that weapon is supposed to be able to hit a man-sized target consistently. But this number is rather controversial.

Why would that be? Mainly because the way that people find that number is different. For example, Jane’s Defence rates handguns and rifles by finding out how far an averagely trained soldier can hit the target once using the entire magazine.

That said, most .45 ACP SMGs and carbines seem to be rated at 50 yards, but I'm sure you could consistantly hit targets at 100 yards. I went with the 9mm simply because they tend to be more consistant beyond 50 yards and ammo is cheap.

[Yeoldetool]

Using a ballistics calculator, with a .452 diameter 200 gr. hollow point bullet @ 950 fps, with sights 1" over bore axis, sighted at 100 yards on a 65d day with no wind.....(heavy sigh)....... at 50 yards the bullet will impact 5" above the bore axis. At 150 yards the bullet impact will be 17.33" below the bore axis. At 200 yards the bullet impact will be 48.33" below bore axis....... and so on.

That's really lobbing it out there. You'd have to be very, very good at estimating hold-over beyond 100 yards.

http://www.handloads.org/calc/index.html

ETA: This is only an example of .45 ballistics. It does not reflect actual FPS, bullet type used, actual temperature, sight above bore height, or a more realistic sight-in range of 50 yards.

[Fbodtrek]

Nice, good info there. I never would have guessed that it was still above bore axis at 50 yards, I figured the .45's just don't have the umph, guess I need to get a .45 next instead of the .40 (but then there's that ammo price thing).

[jungatheart]

If I had the time to consider, I wouldn't pick it up for anything over 50 yards. No confidence past that even though the gun will shoot farther.

[harvester]

very effective at 50 yards less so the farther you go out. It is a combination of factors and I think 100 yards would be stretching it. A carbine is a short range weapon designed to be able to be used at pistol ranges with greater effect and with less training.