Did you know that you're the only person to use the word "tactical" in this thread?
And did you know that you are making the mistake of taking my smart-assed remarks even pseudo-seriously?
OK, here is my sorta-serious take on it, for what it's worth...
The practical benefits of a FLGR are, at best, iffy. Their main benefits are subjective, by making a gun "feel" tighter and smoother when you cycle the gun by hand. They also
do put more weight in a useful place (under the muzzle), and
do offer the slight theoretical advantage of making the spring compress and expand in a more uniform manner. Just waving your hands and saying "don't use argument X" is no way to argue anything.
The practical
disadvantages of a FLGR tend to be overstated too. You don't NEED a tool to disassemble a 1911 with a one-piece FLGR at all, unless the
bushing is fitted so tightly that you need a wrench to turn the sucker. Of course, if the
bushing is too tight to turn without a tool, that really isn't the fault of the FLGR, now is it?
You can just use your thumb, or the magazine to depress the plug and then turn the bushing.
I'll be the first to agree that two-piece guide rods just plain suck; they shoot themselves un-screwed, for instance, which is a pretty big disadvantage. And if you glue them together like some people do, why use a two-piece setup in the first place.
And they don't prevent you from racking the gun on a convenient edge or corner, either. They may negate
one way of doing it. But so what? So do most sights that people use on their guns... yet you don't hear anybody complaining about
that... probably because it is, at best, a peripheral issue on any gun for
any use. Very few guns other than the 1911 use stubby guide rods, so by your reasoning all those Glocks, SigSauers, and so forth should be strictly for range use too...?
Are you a flighty, impractical shooter because you have guns with Novaks, when other sight designs would have a practical benefit and still give you a good sight picture? After all, it " reduces functionality"
by your own definition, and sights that don't provide a fine sight picture. By your own reasoning, they are just as much of an impractical ripoff as a full length guide rod...
On the flipside, the practical
benefit of the stubby 1911-style plug is pretty negligible. They make taking down the gun marginally quicker. And, that's about it. There are other tricks you can do with them, like sticking your finger near the muzzle of a loaded weapon to find out if it is loaded. If you plan on taking apart your gun in the middle of a gunfight, you need a better plan, not a different kind of guide rod thingy.
I use FLGRs sometimes, but that's because my 1911s are often 10mm guns, and in that particular circumstance I'm willing to do anything to get any theoretical advantage in function, no matter how itty bitty. But I do lots of stuff in 10mm guns I wouldn't do in a .45 gun... AFTEC extractors and EGW firing pin stops, for instance. My current .45 1911 I'm shooting has a short plug, and I've felt no urge to use anything else. But in my mind it has neither great benefits nor crushing disadvantages compared to most other options.
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