WB
Never looked at the .45 GAP.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018, 10:20

I know it is a commercial flop of sorts. Actually it was to fill a specific law enforcement and perhaps military role. There have been some law enforcement sales and they are supposed to be happy. An oversimplification is the gun is essentially a G17 bottom and a G21 slide, for discussion purposes. The shorter case is NOT a short .45 ACP. The extractor groove is totally different and it takes a small pistol primer rather than a large. This is needed due to the ejector on the 9mm style frame being very close to the large primer if that were used. Not a safe condition and an easy primer case design solution.

So the slide is notable fatter and heavier than a 9mm/.40 version. I do hear it feels well balanced and suits what it was designed for, small hands. Performance is basically the same with factory loadings in 185-230 gr. standard .45 ACP.

The commercial market is very cool to "another" .45 and rightfully so. The .45 GAP is a solution to filling very small novice hands with regular .45 ACP power. I never see it lasting too long but the law enforcement types that opted or bought into it big are sticking with them. Maybe there is a foreign Asain etc. contract that was filled too. That has been done in the past.

On the used market I'd think you could find some dirt cheap examples but I have not seen any other than the rare one. I would be surprised if you could easily alter a 45 Gap to a smaller caliber as readily as some other of the G-gun platforms. This is due ot the fatter/heavier slide and unique extractor. It would be interesting to know for sure.

In today's CAD-CAM design world I guess it was feasible to whip out something comparatively easy for a specific Law Enforcement application and "hope" some residual commercial sales result. If you were not much of a gun guy, had no desires to reload, and wanted a better fitting .45 for small hands it would do fine. Glock and Speer went in cahoots on it. It filled a need, which it did, never designed to set the world on fire.

I found it interesting as a footnote in collecting knowledge. FWIW