"Lightweight" Commanders: Love of the .45 and The .45 Deception!

LAST POST: "Lightweight" Commanders: A Little Personal History

Back when I devoured printed gun magazines and annuals religiously, the .45 ACP cartridge was king. It seemed like all the gun experts - which in my experience they were actually gun writers - thought that round was what everyone needed to use.

To their credit, handgun bullet technology gave the win to .45 ACP at the time - if you ignored revolvers and the .357 magnum cartridge. But that was the time that autoloaders had really hit their stride, and the police world was following the FBI down the .40 Short & Week road.

An Examples

Let's start of with an actual expert. Clint Smith, cofounder of Thunder Ranch, wrote an article in 2007. He covered his aversion but respect for polymer guns. He appreciated the handgun reviewed, and you would see him using one in training sessions for years to come - festooned with fighting-tiger "nose" art. I really wish I could find a picture of that Springfield XD.

Credit: Ichiro Nagata, AmericanHandgunner

Here's his take on caliber in the article:

"I don't care where or what handguns are made of, or even how they look. Any handgun takes a big step up on my ladder or judgement if the thing will simply function, and do it all of the time. So the plastic I could start to live with, sort of, but the caliber - sorry. Anything with a "4" and only an "0" after it ain't for this boy."

So nowadays, Smith would say that is just his personal preference, yadidadida. And now he carries a very nice 1911 - in .45 ACP.

Oh, The Great Betrayal!

I wish I could find the article, but it was a while ago - let's call it a decade - and the author revealed a dirty little secret of the gun industry - or at least gun writers. He said that, though the writers held .45 ACP up on a pedestal, that they all fell back on J-frames for daily carry. 

Credit: Wikipedia.org

The implication was that carrying a big .45 was a pain, it should be done, but a J-frame was easy to always carry or to at least to fall back on. 

So what's a gun buyer to do? Back to Clint Smith:

"Carrying a gun is not supposed to be comfortable; it's supposed to be comforting.”

NEXT: "Lightweight" Commanders: Choices