I was at Spotsylvania Gold and Pawn in Fredericksburg, VA a few weeks ago and saw a brand new GLOCK pistol. It looked a bit odd to me. The model wasn't a number i was familliar with. the gun was priced at $550, which seemed like a normal glock-ish price to me, but this one was odd. Why? Because it was chambered in .45 GAP. Why would you ever buy .45 GAP? To be different? To stand out from the crowd?
When it comes to calibers, I choose guns chambered in calibers that are easy to find. 9mm and 22LR are my favorites. Every gun shop, sporting goods store, and walmart has it. Everybody and their brother makes it, and its inexpensive. On the other hand, oddball calibers such as .45 GAP are never cheap. 9mm is cheap because a huge part of the world uses it. Its a NATO spec caliber and has been adopted by most armies worth their salt around the globe. Because of this, the whole world makes ammo. You've got choices: and with choices come competition for sales. Compeittion brings the price down because people are striving to sell a lot of their product. If you sell cheap 9mm, you might only make a few cents per box on the stuff, but if you sell it by the truckload because people want cheap 9mm, you're raking in the profits.
Why would you ever get a gun in 45 GAP? There are very few guns to choose from anywya. Springfield came out with the XD in 45 GAP, but it was discontinued a short time later due to poor sales. Who else makes a gun in .45 GAP? Of course! GLOCK, because they're the ones that developed it.
New calibers are conjured up for one of two reasons: the manufacturer is either trying ot make a superior product (in size, recoil, accuracy, power...) or they're trying to make money. If they can, both of those facotrs (superiority over other calibers and a chance for profit) will be met. I'm not really sure what GLOCK expected with this one, besides to make money on the deal. By getting customers to buy their highly-revered GLOCK pistol chambered in an expensive caliber means GLOCK is making money not once, but twice. Sure they made money when they sold the gun, but they're going to make more when people go out to buy ammo. There is an Achilles heel to this situation: when people wise up and don't buy the gun.
GLOCKS sell well. Its a well-known fact. Their GLOCK pistols chambered in 45 GAP do not sell well at all though. I've seen them brand new for $400 at gun shows as well as being advertised in Shotgun News about 7 or 8 months ago. The guns must not sell. I bet FFLs who ordered them are now trying to just get them off their hands. A gun on the shelf doesn't make a penny. Selling a slow-moving gun and freeing up that cash to spend on other (hopefully faster-moving inventory) would better suit any business conscious gun dealer. I bet the FFLS that were selling off 45 GAP pistols were taking a loss on each and every one of them.
Why would anyone buy one in the first place? I don't understand why a gun owner would curse themselves with getting a gun in a rare caliber. It never took off as the designers originally intended. GLOCK wouldn't have invested millions in developing a new caliber to just have it in their gun. With offerings such as .45 ACP, .357 Sig, and .40 S&W, there's no reason to buy .45 GAP. If the ammo was as cheap as 9mm, they'd sell a ton of guns in that caliber. Sadly, that is not the case. They need to recoup their research and development costs somehow. Now, for the poor guys who actually bought guns in .45 GAP, they're stuck with buying overpriced ammo from only a few sources.
Even though they may be the cheapest deal in the GLOCK lineup, don't buy one. If you want a similar ballistic profile, get a gun in .45 ACP or .357 Sig. As far as I'm concerned, the .45 GAP is already an obsolete caliber.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Agree totally. There are some 'wacky' rounds out there that are fun to shoot but I wouldn't want to shoot them reguarly or have to tote them around. The .440 corbon(-5 spelling) is a .50 AE casing necked down to a .44 mag round. FUN as Hell to shoot...FPS is as fast as a .357 but it hits with that .44 magmun "oomph!". The .50 AE is another 'fun' round but at @ $1.70 per boom...it's not a cheap gun to shoot.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the majority of people that have nothing good to say about the 45 GAP round either have do not own one or have never fired it before. Either or you should talk to some owners who have experience with it before trashing the round. Yes the the ammo is expensive ~.50cents per round but it'll do what it's suppose to do i.e. drop the bad guy...and you get to see another day for just .50cents.
ReplyDeleteI love my glock 38 45 gap. If i wanted to carry a full size 45acp it would be too large to comfortably carry. GAP owners choose gap so they can carry 45 hollowpoints without a gigantic uncomfortable obvious bulge. the frame size is a touch larger than a glock 19x9. I can see why people trash the round, but that's my .02
ReplyDeleteAnd dont even say 1911. Need a reliable gun that breaks down to less than 7 pieces.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm using a clockwork pistol, but the joystick is so unresponsive at times it's difficult to get the cursor right on the heads.
ReplyDeletesig sauer dual actions springs
I own a Glock 38, which is chambered in .45 GAP. I bought it in 2005 or so, when it was still new. I'm kicking myself in the butt about it now. Don't get me wrong, it's a great pistol, but not because it's .45 GAP. I'd rather have the slimline .45 Auto model they sell. I think it is a failed commercial venture. I have resigned myself to shooting it very rarely because ammo is SO expensive. If I could find a cheap source of plentiful ammo for it I might be assuaged. Any ideas? I keep it ready to go with three mags of hollowpoints, and sometimes I carry it. But I will never buy another one, nor will I tell anyone to buy it. The reason I bought it were some articles showing ballistic test results. It is comparable to a .45 ACP, with lower chamber pressure, less recoil, and a slightly larger than 9mm frame size. Big deal. The slimline .45 Auto is skinnier, and ammo doesn't cost up to $38 a box for it either.
ReplyDeleteI get it for 28 a box
Delete$20 a box if you know where to look $95 for 250 rnds, Google it , you'll find good deals
Delete$20 a box if you know where to look $95 for 250 rnds, Google it , you'll find good deals
DeleteWell i would say that Glock .45 GAP is itself a great Gun to carry.
ReplyDeleteWhen the stupidity dies down and they get back in stock, you can get ammo for much less than .50/round at http://georgia-arms.com/
ReplyDeleteAs for why someone would by .45GAP, and why Glock developed it, is because some of us have small hands. Even the Glock 21SF is too big to shoot comfortably and control well. When you want, or are order to, carry a Glock in .45, you get the GAP. That happens to be why the NY, PA, SC, GA and FL state police agencies all issue the Glock 37 in .45GAP. FHP is the reason it exists in Gen4 at all, and it was chosen not by the brass, but by a panel made up of troopers from the road, firearms instructors and the brass. They sought out opinions from the other agencies, all of which reported great satisfaction amongst their troopers and from the agencies in terms of shooting results on the street.
No doubt the early marketing and development weren't what they needed to be. No doubt the round may have been developed a few years too early, as it's only been in the past two years or so that law enforcement agencies have begun seeking out .45s for issue again.
The gun makers and FFLs who adopted early got burned, but not because it wasn't a good idea, but because the round wasn't marketed well. Para Ordnance had a 1911 based on it as well.
Glock could have solved this issue another way, if they'd chosen to; rather than developing a new round, they could've made an obvious change to their magazines.
The only reason the Glock .45ACP grips are so big is because the magazines are so much bigger than other manufacturers' magazines. If they went to metal only, instead of polymer wrapped metal, for the .45ACP, they could've made guns with smaller grips. I have polymer framed .45ACPs from other makers and I don't have a problem with them.
If you have little girl size hands you should shoot a little girl caliber. Try .25acp or .22lr , maybe .380.
DeleteI find that ammo is cheaper now that there are fewer guns in that caliber, I wheel and deal and buy what the store owner dosen't want to stock anymore, just picked up 400 rounds of Fed Hydro shock for $200. I shoot standard mostly in a 36, 30 or 21 even XD but save the Gap for carry. works for me :0)
ReplyDeleteJM hit the nail on the head and executed in a professional manner as to the why. Unles a person has hands like Lenny McGill of Glock Store, a guy might be hard pressed to wrangle the "oversized" grips of even a Glock 23 Gen 3 or 4.
ReplyDeleteHave a close friend that Discrete Carries the compact Glock in GAP. His hands did not grip the mongo grips of the Glock in ACP.
When our own types (gun owners) get their heads from the sand and stop judging others because of their choice of personal protection firearm and instead say "how's your gun shoot for you?" the better off we will all be.
Myself, I wrapped the grip of my Glock 23 Gen 3 with sandpaper to assist in maintaining a solid hold. Would I prefer to have the same grip as is on my wife's Glock 19 Gen 2 or my daughter's Glock 26 Gen 3, you bet. Did I make the Glock 23 work because I prefer the .40 S&W for protection, hell yes.
"Not a Cermon, just a thought" Ron Soloman ;-)
Hi, i have a Springfield XD tactical which is a 5 inch barrel. It shoots like a competition pistol. The recoil is so light that the first time i shot it i thought there was very weak powder used to make the ammo. I used a top of the line product and have tried different brands and recoil is still very minimal. Mag is metal and that keeps grip small. I bought it for this reason and i love it! I wanted to mention this for anyone out looking to buy a great gun with plenty of wallop if you have small hands. I don't know if you can find them anymore. Oh,and by the way,the .45 GAP is a more powerful round,not by much though. I wanted to mention this because another posting said they were a weaker round,not so,this is a fact!. Like one gentleman said,being everybody's buying up ammo,it seems easy to buy .45 GAP and not to pricey either. Turns out the people that said to me don't buy it would probably like one now with most ammo hard to buy in bulk these days! If you know someone with a tactical .45 in GAP and you haven't shot one,give it a try there a dream to shoot,and that's unmodified from the factory!
ReplyDeleteAnother white guy with baby size hands....pitiful. You probably don't use standard size condoms either.
DeleteI bought the Glock 38 (.45GAP) about 2 years ago because i wanted a .45 Caliber. I got a great deal on it but I didn't do my research before i bought it. I found out later that day i was gonna have problems finding ammo.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the gun goes its fits my hands better than most i've tried. I have small hands and this Glock is perfect for me. It shoots straight and true. Always have a great grouping running through a magazine.
Although i truely love this Glock i can't keep trying to track down ammo anymore. It just doesn't make sense. Why have a great firearm if you can't find ammo to shoot? I'm now looking into trading (and taking a loss) it for a SDm 45 or Sig P220. Not sure what i'm going with. Depends who gives me the most for my Glock.
I recommend getting the P320 in .45 Auto/ACP. The US Army just adopted it in 9mm, and the one I got shoots and handles like a dream (even if the grip texture sucks, but that's just opinion)
DeleteI own two 45 gap pistols, a XD and a glock 38. Great guns. The reason I bought was so my wife could use them for selfdefense. They bought fit her hands perfectly and by the way t do have small hands. So it makes a big difference. The round is not as expensive as you might think. Lucky gunner has great deals....
ReplyDeleteThanks a bunch for sharing this with all people you actually recognize what you are talking about! Bookmarked. Kindly also discuss with my website.
ReplyDeleteMilitary toy guns
Newtons Law - For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
ReplyDeleteTherefore the talk about the GAP having less recoil than the 45ACP. with the same bullet weight muzzle velocity and bullet impact force is a pipe dream. Just ask Newton. For it to have same Ballistics it has to more or less match the recoil unless you add or remove weight to the gun.
why 45 GAP? because GLOCK, they're the ones that developed it. Marketing ploy to make money and sell more ammo and the guns to many law enforcement and some civilians, 2nd Glock developed it, is because some of you have small hands, its a shorter round which can make for a shorter depth a varied size grip. END ..
Redwun
www.azadiancustomworks.com
The only time ballistics pressures resemble in these tho different cartridges is if you are looking at 45+P acp against the 45 GAP. Other wise there is no similarity. The reason that the 45 GAP produces less recoil is because it provides more force at a lower PSI.
DeleteI agree with scuubadiver7 with his comment about people who complain about it never really owned one. I have owned one and it is a very nice firearm.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mavleoa.org/
It is true that the ammo was hard to get when this gun first came out as any new caliber. Almost 10 years since its inception has brought the prices down. Why a 45 GAP? many updates from other Glock 45 to include trigger slide and recoil. The 38 Glock is faster in its action and trigger release/re lock which equates to faster shooting response, I guess that is why the entire NYPD choose it for a reason.
ReplyDeleteBring your G21 and your big mouth to a GSSF match and I will show you the advantage of the G37. Haters love to hate and run their mouths even when they don't know what they are talking about.
ReplyDeleteSo basically your reasoning is that .45 GAP sucks because it's hard to find, making is obviously expensive.
ReplyDeleteWhat about why the round sucks? On paper it sounds good, but everybody I know that talks about how it's bad never speaks of its performance.
I mean, where I am 6.5 Creedmoor is also expensive and relatively difficult to find. However, it's still been hailed by some as the "Long Range King". I wouldn't personally give it THAT much credit, but to say it's not figuratively a round of the highest caliber is to underestimate it.
This boils down to my point: Ammo scarcity doesn't necessarily mean the ammo is bad. What I want to know is why the .45 GAP is a bad round in and of itself, if at all. I only assume it is purely on the basis that more people I know say it's bad than say it's good.
But yeah, if someone could clear this up or point me to someone who can that'd be great.
It is a good round. It performs exactly like the .45acp+p which already existed . Millions of guns are chambered in .45acp. Why create yet another unnecessary caliber?
DeleteThank you so much for taking the time for you personally to share such a nice info. I definitely enjoying every little bit of it. It is a great website and nice share.
ReplyDelete____________________
9mm Once Fired Brass
ReplyDeleteDo you believe that remanufactured ammo, such as that sold by Freedom Munitions, performs on par with low-cost brands of factory ammo such as Fiocchi, PMC, S&B, Magtech, Blazer, and Armscor? I mus
http://articles.pubarticles.com/how-to-makes-good-target-ammo-1529393778,1757487.html