I almost am embarrassed to admit to not owning a .45 auto but I've owned several in the past (don't own a .22 either). But it's nearly an all-purpose handgun cartridge for anything a .22 isn't enough for. How I get by without either a .45 or a .22 I don't know.
I'm not a big believer in hot rodding any cartridge and if you think a plain .45 ACP isn't powerful enough, then use something else. A .41 or .44 magnum should be enough for most things you'd dare to shoot with a handgun. There's nothing within 500 miles of where I live, not behind a fence, that a .45 won't handle and most of the things that are behind fences, too.
A 200 or heavier hard cast semi-wadcutter always seemed like an ideal bullet to use for this cartridge, except I suppose for defensive purposes, provided the gun is happy with that bullet shape. It could be loaded all over the power scale to suit yourself. For that matter, I've even loaded semi-wadcutters in 9mm, only they were 158-grain bullets. In a 9mm, it's merely "all right," but nothing really worth doing, although it isn't difficult.
One disadvantage, in fact, just about the only disadvantage of a .45 is that it will be a larger gun. The only way it can be smaller is to have a smaller cartridge capacity, such as the old Colt Officer's ACP. Nearly a perfect size for carry, they are a handful to shoot. The one I had was not as bad as shooting a .357 in a K-frame but it was something you had to hold on to and you were not likely to do a lot of fast shooting either. Except in the length of the grip, most .45 autos seem to be no bigger than a lot of 9mm pistols. That is, 9mm pistols that I would buy. Apparently, really small 9mm pistols are just as difficult to use as really small .45 ACP pistols.
