Is 45acp fading away?

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The 45acp isn't going away, but with advances in bullet technology it's given alot of ground to the 9mm, and honestly, it makes a lot of sense.
 
I wonder when all the 1911 manufacturers will go out of business? Remington took a dump. Who’s next? I just don’t understand why revolvers are still being made either. Seems the public is buying 9mm and .380 almost exclusively.
 
For me, I can more .45acp guns locally than I can .40sw. Though I think I can find .10mm firearms as equally as I can .45. It is though, easier to find 1911s in 9mm and 10mm, than it is in .45acp
 
Electricmo said:
I wonder when all the 1911 manufacturers will go out of business? Remington took a dump. Who’s next? I just don’t understand why revolvers are still being made either. Seems the public is buying 9mm and .380 almost exclusively.
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Wilson combat just built a new production facility so they seem to be doing just fine...

I think Remington (who mostly used their purchase of Para Ordnance to dip their toe in the 1911 game) had plenty of other reasons for going bankrupt.
 
I can still get 7 rounds of 45ACP in a paper plate at 50 feet (most of the time), even with my old eyeballs. But I haven't yet shot a 9mm with which I can do the same. It may be because of my familiarity with my personal Colt 1911, but I'll stick with it. I have a S&W in 9mm, nice gun, shoots well, functions flawlessly, but it just ain't the same! I love my Colt 1911.
 
Advances in bullet technology have reached the 45 ACP also. It, like all the other cartridges out there are as good as they ever were, even right now. The standards have been raised for all of them though. What was once not good enough is now good enough (9mm). That does not mean that what was once good enough is now not good enough. It means it is more good enough.

Cost benefit analysis has favored the 9mm in recent times because of this. It does not make it better. It may make it more sensible for certain folks but in a world of margins, as far as pure power is concerned it is the same as it ever was compared to everything else out there just as it was years ago.
 
Anything will fade away if there’s no factory ammo for it.

If it becomes coast prohibitive to make .45acp,.40S&W and manufacturers make only 9mm the world will still go on.
 
shafter said:
The 45acp isn't going away, but with advances in bullet technology it's given alot of ground to the 9mm, and honestly, it makes a lot of sense.
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I am an old time die hard 1911 .45 ACP guy, but yea, a lot of 9MMs, even including single stack 1911s, make a lot of sense. I seriously love my P-365 and shoot it really well. I do still shoot the .45 for fun, and still carry it sometimes.
 
When was the last .38 S&W firearm made? You could still find that and 32 Long, 7.62 Nagant and 9mm Browning back in 2019. I was buying premium 50 round boxes of 45 ACP hollow points for under $20 back then also. Only a few dollars more per box than 9mm. I have a feeling 45 ACP will outlive anyone reading by this post.
 
Well just like everyone "needs" a .22, everyone "needs" a .45acp. Just yesterday a buddy and me went to the range and met a new friend who happened to be a LEO from neighboring county. Guess what he was shooting?? In his duty rig a Glock .45acp. This wasn't an OLD guy either, I can say OLD as I am 68. This young fellow probably was 28-30. It is the age old conversation which is the best caliber, for a pistol, to deer hunt with or whatever. There are almost as many choices as there are people to discuss it with.
 
I don’t think 45 acp is fading away. It’s not as popular as the 9mm but that’s not an indicator of its demise. The 45 is offered in many of the popular 9mm platforms like the S&W Shield. That tells me that the 45 still has a healthy following.
 
Encoreman said:
Well just like everyone "needs" a .22, everyone "needs" a .45acp. Just yesterday a buddy and me went to the range and met a new friend who happened to be a LEO from neighboring county. Guess what he was shooting?? In his duty rig a Glock .45acp. This wasn't an OLD guy either, I can say OLD as I am 68. This young fellow probably was 28-30. It is the age old conversation which is the best caliber, for a pistol, to deer hunt with or whatever. There are almost as many choices as there are people to discuss it with.
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.45 Glocks, especially my Glock 21 are quite sweet and easy .45s to shoot that's for sure. If the big blocky long and wide grip fits your hand anyway. I shoot mine real well even next to my beloved 1911s.

frogfurr said:
I have 9mm and 45acp 1911's. I carry a 9mm but my 45acp 1911's are more accurate. I can shoot 45acp better.
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Yeah a 9mm lightweight 1911, commander or officer is a fine shooting and easy to carry gun. Once my back decided that the 43 oz loaded VBob .45 was no longer a daily option if I didn't want nightly pain, I enjoyed the 9mm DW Valkyrie CCO for a time before I decided to go even lighter with plastic.
 
I think that just because one cartridge is the top seller that doesn't mean that the second best seller is about to fade away. The 9mm, 45acp, and 40S&W are by far the three most common semiauto cartridges on the market and that's not going to change anytime soon.
 
I think relatively speaking the .45 is waning in popularity. When people like Bill Wilson, Larry Vickers, and Ken Hackathorn carry 9mms you can bet it’s dropping some users overall. To say that it ISN’T losing some popularity is frankly silly.

It’s far from extinct though and I imagine the .40 would go away entirely before the .45 ever did. Too many historically and culturally important guns in .45 ACP.
 
1911 and 45ACP 100 years and going strong. A light weight compact all metal 45 like a S&W 457 suits me to a T. There are many that like to practice with a 9 MM just like there are a bunch that choose to practice with a .22. I reload so that I can shoot what I carry without cashing in my savings account to do it. YMMV
 
I reload for both the 45ACP and the 9X19MM. From a cost standpoint its more effective (volume-wise) for the 9X19MM than the 45ACP. Also the EDC is a S&W Shield-9X19MM. With that said I do a lot of target shooting with the 45ACP utilizing the 1911 series pistols. The first handgun I ever fired was a 1911A1 at MCRD Parris Island SC in 1964. In 57Yrs I've fired a substantial amount of 230Gr-FMJ along with target loads down range.
 
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