.45 GAP

There are almost 18,000 agencies across the United States. The ammunition is more expensive than .45ACP and offers basically the same performance just in a smaller package. I give it 5 years---maximum.


23 Law Enforcement Agencies have bought Glock 45 GAP pistols, including North Carolina Sanford Police Department (Glock 37, Winchester 230-grain SXT; Georgia Fulton County SWAT Team (Glock 37, Winchester 230-grain RA45GT); Louisiana Office of State Parks purchased 90 G.A.P. Pistols; Piedmont Triad International Airport --- Autopistols 2006.
California, Huntington Park P.D. -- Issued Glock 37/Win. Ranger 230 and G22/Win. Ranger 165 only
Colorado, Denver Police Department -- Glock 37, 38, & 39
Georgia State Patrol
Kansas, Burden Police Department -- Glock 37
Michigan, Reed City Police Dept -- Glock 37
NC, Greenville Police Dept -- Glock 37
New York State Police (5,400 Glock 37's replacing their current Glock 17's)
Pennsylvania State Police
South Carolina Highway Patrol
Wyoming, Powell Police Department -- Glock 37

Predictions are like elbows. We all have them. .41 magnum was given it's swan song more than once by writers. That excellent cartridge is still in vogue with many. It is not as popular as others, but it still is here and doing well. The .32 H&R magnum was considered a write off as well. Same tune. Rebounded and is doing well. Cartridges become re-invented time and time again. Even some of the late 19th and early 20th century rounds are still hanging on. True, they could disappear at any time. And as far as self defense cartridges are concerned, it was flavor of the moment at times. Each type, from the 9mm. , .40 S&W, .357 SIG, .45 ACP, as well as others have their followings. Finding a cartridge that is definitely superior in all aspects is hard to do. All the defense rounds have good points as well as drawbacks. Otherwise there would not be so many out there. People making the decisions as what to use show some bias and data showing a clear winner in every category can be hard to find or quantify as well. The up side to all this is that there are more excellent picks than ever before. So, the .45 GAP round may be with us for a while. Writers and gun gurus predicted the death knell of the revolver and yet there still is a large market and group of savvy shooters who use them. It meets their needs. Quite a few members here actually have both revolvers and semi autos. Bullets, gun powder, and the delivery system of the bullets are archaic.The package to deliver the load changes, chemistry changes, but the overall system is still the same. They have been with us since ancient history. We have not found a better or cutting edge system to replace the firearm. May be working on it, but that is in the future and could be a while before anything new and radical takes the place of the firearm. We like to speculate on such things. So keep speculating folks. It may be relevant. And then again, it may not.

One more statement. I've posted this from time to time on gun boards, but everything that needs doing in conventional ballistics has been done. The 10mm was the last truly innovated development that I recall, a large caliber magnum round for the auto pistol. Any other ideas that might be innovative are few and far between. As stated, the Sig is no better than the .40 which is somewhat better than the .45 iin that it's a big bore high energy round that fits in high cap magazines. Ballistically, it doesn't do anything the .45 ACP +P won't do, just that the gun will hold more rounds. There are high cap .45s, of course, but they're rather large.

In the world of rifle cartridges, there are the new short magnums, putting magnum power in a shorter, handier rifle. However, ballistically, I ain't sellin' my 7mm Rem Mag. The is no real advancement in ballistics, just the shape of the cartridges and the type of guns they fit in. I won a .25-06 BDL at a gun show some years ago and traded it immediately for a Remington M7 stainless I wanted...why?....I have a .257 Roberts which when handloaded, practically apes the factory .25-06. The .25-06 was introduced in 1970 by Remington, brought out of the world of wild cats with all sorts of glamor and glitz and the magazines all heralded a new era. Well, the .257 Roberts can do anything the .25-06 can do and in a short action gun! What actually killed .257 Roberts sales was the introduction of the .243 by Winchester as THE small bore deer/varmint round. The .257 factory ballistics at the time were about equal and the .257 could shoot heavier bullets for heavier deer, never mind what a handloader could do for it. The .257 returned for a period when Winchester loaded (+P) loadings for it, really what the Roberts should have been all along and not even up to what handloaders had been doing with the cartridge, but it got a resurgence in popularity for a brief period, then died again. But, it ain't like the .250-3000, the .243, the 6mm Remington, nor the .25-06 are much different in what they can accomplish, yet in age old deer rifle caliber arguments, one will champion the 6mm Remington to another the .243 and they'll fight like it was important or something. I just don't get it.

Anyway, enough with the rambling. I think most cartridges like the .45 GAP that come out now days are just marketing gimmicks, nothing more, nothing less. Most everything that needed doing has been done. The .30-06 will STILL kill everything in the lower 48, that hasn't changed. But, it's fun to watch some guys tout the .300 WSM over all other rounds as the best of the best. I mean, yeah, it's as good as a .300 mag I guess, so? It's been done. I don't want a .300 mag in a 6 lb Remington M7, I can tell ya that! I've fired .300 mag in a long action 8.5 lb rifle and it was tolerable, but a 6 lb gun? And, like I say, the 06 is plenty. The .30 US caliber of 1906 is STILL the cartridge all other American game guns are compared to. Why bother recreating it 30 times over? <sigh>