Is 45acp fading away?

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I’ll give you it’s not as popular as it once was but I feel extremely confident it’ll be produced in mass quantities the rest of my life, and my children’s lives, and their children’s lives...

That’s assuming we can keep the Government from destroying the second amendment, they are a MUCH bigger threat than it becoming obsolete.
 
I don't have a .45 anymore but I'd take one any day of the week. The .45 has an intangible quality about it that will never fade into obscurity. From being a stalwart backup to soldiers in countless wars, to Hollywood, the .45acp is going to fade into obscurity just about as fast as 1911's will. Never.
 
We will see .45acp fade away right after .30mauser, .32-20, .45colt and the like.
When there's still demand for 8mm nambu or .32 french longue, there will still e demand for .45acp

.45gap might become hard to find. Especially since only thousands were made in that caliber.

.45acp firearms made will number into the millions, potentially billions.
 
Old time bullseye shooters used to claim the bigger .452 bullet of the .45 gave a slight scoring edge over the .357 bullet of the .38.

1/2 .357 = .1285" (Note this number was misread and should be .1785. See subsequent discussion with thanks to Hartkopf. The principles still apply.)

1/2 .452 = .226"

So given an impact point .135" away from a scoring ring, the .45 bullet would touch the ring and be counted as a higher score than the .357 bullet.

And in Bullseye shooting, you're not trying to hit Center-Of-Mass, but Center-Of-Target, so one extra scoring ring can win a match for you,

Hey, figure it out. If you shot a bullseye target string with a sixteen inch cannon, you'd score 100 X 100x no matter how lousy a shot you were.

=D

Terry, 230RN

REF (Scoring ring magnifier. This bullet hole did not touch the scoring ring):

http://www.odcmp.org/0108/images/SGImg/Inward.jpg
 
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I love 45. I have a glock 21 and a colt 1911 government. The 45 is so accurate, so smooth. The only problem with 45 is small pistol primers sneaking in. Its been fine with large pistol for over 100 years and im not interested in small primer brass on 45.

Besides that, its a phenomenal round. I need a 45acp redhawk next.
 
With the ever popular 10 round magazine restrictions, the .45acp makes more sense.
11rdsx124gr 9mm=1,364gr total payload vs 9rdsx230gr=2,070gr total payload
 
Once a cartridge gets firmly established, it is very rare for it to ever completely go away.
Old time bullseye shooters used to claim the bigger .452 bullet of the .45 gave a slight scoring edge over the .357 bullet of the .38.
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It does. Somewhere I ran a probability calculation to see just how much of an edge it provided. It's not a very inspiring number, but you would occasionally get an extra point for a "nicker" from the larger radius bullet.
 
I still have a couple of autos and revolvers in the caliber, but thats it. 30 years ago, the bulk of the handguns in the safe were .45acp's, these days, just those 4.

Id probably still have more if the 1911's hadnt gone downhill so fast once everyone and their brother started making them. Switching to a SIG P220 brought that honeymoon to an end for me, and then the trend away from the caliber altogether.

If for some reason I were to start looking for another 45acp auto, the P220 or 245 would be my choice.

I think the three things that make it less desirable today, at least for me, are cost, capacity, and shootability.

I just get more for my money with the 9mm.
 
.455_Hunter said:
Discussion is heavily influenced by what is trendy and the new hotness. The .45 is not trendy and definitely not the new hotness. For handguns, you have to be a subcompact polystriker in 9mm or a duty-size polystriker in 9mm to make the covers of gun magazines, blogs, or high-count YouTube reviews.

The .45 will remain popular with a vast number of shooters who are not desperate to follow the lastest fad, and just want something that works.
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Perfect analysis. My .45 Springfield 1911 is my favorite pistol.
 
Robbins290 said:
I never seen 45 auto's anymore. Its either 9mm, 380 or 40. Last gun show I went to had hundreds of 9mm's and 380's, and like 3-4 45's
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That's because everyone is buying pistols in .45 ACP. I also suspect that with all the new gun-buyers out there, people were flocking to the smaller pistols and the manufacturers, realizing this, were gearing production that way to sell more guns. One just has to know where to look; .45s are still plentiful and relatively available. One might speculate that in states such as Colorado -- encouraging cities and municipalities to make new restrictive gun laws, facing new restrictions on magazine capacity -- there will be a resurgence in the single-stack market.

40 S&W is the round that is fading fast into oblivion (had I acquired a good stock of .40 ammo, I'd have been buying up all the LE trade-ins and excess stock of pistols chambered in .40 S&W, because there were some great deals out there for quite a while after LE devolved back to the 9mm).

But, in any case, demand for The Man Gun will never go away.
 
Doubtful, at least until the 1911 fades away (if it ever does). Sure 9mm is cheaper to shoot even now and generally easier to shoot, but ol big fat and slow still has a big following and as they say .45 doesn't shrink.

John_R said:
Yes, .45ACP is dead. Send me all your .45 ammo so I can give it a decent burial.
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Can I have half?

Robbins290 said:
I think the 45 AARP round is slowly dying. I never seen 45 auto's anymore. Its either 9mm, 380 or 40. Last gun show I went to had hundreds of 9mm's and 380's, and like 3-4 45's
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Not around here, before and after the shortages there have been plenty of .45 1911s, CZ 97, Sig 220s and HK .45s on the shelves.

Sure there are/were more 9mms and possibly more .380 in one shop, but definatley more .45s than .40s around here.

Hartkopf said:
Until another handgun round comes out that can kill a man just by shooting him in the thumb, the 45acp isn’t going anywhere. :D
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10mm does that, and kills his SOUL while it's at it. Near misses still kill the man.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
All my centerfires are on hiatus since I'm down to "wartime emergency" quantities of ammunition- which is still a significant amount.
Havent seen any .45 in 6-8 months locally, but if it ever comes back, Ill be shooting them again.
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Managed to find 1000 large pistol primers on Midway this week so my summer shooting .45 is looking much brighter!
 
I think the 45 will be around for many more decades, but I also think that 9mm is quickly becoming the more popular self defense pistol. My LGS says that they sell more 9mm pistols than 45 and 40 combined. The relative cost of ammo compared to the 4s. Makes 9mm adds to the attraction to 9mm. The 9mm JHP and Fluid Transfer bullets provide the lethality needed for SD and the weight of extra magazines goes down proportionAlly just like the comparative weights of the pistols make 9mm attractive. What I do think you will see is the cost of 45 and 40 will escalate over time because as demand for those guns decline the ammo manufacturers are going to cut back on production of the 4’s ammo. That will make it costlier. That will drive more people to 9mm.
 
It already has, so past tense. Undoubtedly it will be available as long as privately held firearms are legal but clearly it has faded into the second tier popularity-wise. But to be clear it won't go away completely any time soon.
 
For me it’s like new toy because I bought a S&W revolver that shoots 45 ACP which I really enjoy.
I use the same reloads for autos and revolver plus I’ve got more LPP than SPP so the 45s
are getting a lot of use.
 
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