45 ACP OR 45GAP?
I JUST BOUGHT A TAURUS PT145 PRO. sry to bother all the people without patience with a newbie question, but here it goes anyway lol. whats the difference between the acp and gap ammo, my slide says acp. does it really make a difference in which one i use. all answers would be greatly appriciated
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The 45 GAP ammo is specifically made for Glock pistols. Your Taurus takes the more common 45 ACP cartridges. The 45 ACP's are longer in overall length then the 45 GAP cartridges. The GAP ammo is not as commonly available as the 45 ACP, which has been on the market for over 90 years.
45 GAP on the left, 45 ACP on the right
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thanks for the reply rufe. 0 -
Just to spell it out a little more. It only shoots 45 acp. Don't shoot 45 gap in it. They are not interchangeable. 0 -
dare2bebold,
All questions are welcomed here on the Gunbroker forums. Sometimes you'll find that a question will go unanswered simply because it has been asked far too frequently but the information is always available in the archives through the search button at the top of each page.
Many of us couldn't quite figure out the need for the creation of the .45 GAP when it was introduced. The most accepted answer is that 'law enforcement' wanted the power of the .45 ACP but in a smaller pistol with a smaller grip.
The difference may not seem significant at first glance but these two cartridges headspace on the case mouth. Using the shorter GAP cartridge in a .45 ACP chamber won't work and will lead to function problems.
A quote from one the articles:
"Another common question I've heard asked when shooters first learn of the .45 GAP is whether it can be fired in .45 ACP chambers. The answer is one of those not-so-simple ones: No, but sometimes it might. Both the .45 ACP and the .45 GAP headspace on the case mouth, so the .45 GAP won't reach the chamber headspace index in a .45 ACP chamber.
On the other hand, the taper of the two cases is essentially the same so a .45 GAP might not slide too far forward in a really tight-chambered .45 ACP for the firing pin to reach the primer. But the .45 GAP rim is rebated, remember, so a .45 ACP extractor may not hook on, unless it's got a really deep lateral reach. The real answer to the question is...maybe. If you drop a .45 GAP into a .45 ACP pistol it might go bang. Sometimes. And maybe extract and eject, too. From some guns. It is not a good idea--under any circumstances."
Here is a good bite-size article that gives a good overall explanation with illustrations about power/velocity/operation pressure:
http://www.shootingtimes.com/ammunition/new_45/
This article does a comparison between the two pistols and the cartridges:
http://www.handgunsmag.com/featured_handguns/glock37_0305/
This is a very indepth article about the cartridge:
http://home.comcast.net/~petej/45gap.defend.htm
Lastly, the .pdf from Speer about the ammunition:
http://www.speer-bullets.com/pdf/45GAP Tech Brief_150dpi.pdf
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hey guys. thanks for all the responses, very helpful. i started buying handguns about a year ago, as of now i have 5. i have tattoos also, the thing i cant figure out is that people say getting tattoos are addicting, bull crap. i just found out a yr ago that buying handguns are much more addicting lol. all i think about is getting another, anyone else have this need? once again guys, thanks for the answers 0 -
45gap is a meanie round designed for Law enforcement (Glock) but it's never
really gained acceptance from them.The good old 45 acp is still the
round to beat even after 100 years we still haven't found anything that's top it and found acceptance with the shooting public.Look at
military,police, they bounce from 9mm,to 40,to 45acp and back to somewhere in the family of three.I have all three calibers and
I don't care for the 40 but I'll take 9mm and 45 acp any day as
my favorite calibers for ccw.0 -
I think this has already been well-answered, but I'll chip in my two cents.
The .45 GAP ("Glock automatic pistol") is basically a shortened version of the old standby .45 ACP ("Automatic colt pistol") from the early 20th century, loaded to slightly higher pressures.
The point was to create a cartridge that generates ballistics like the old Army .45, but that can fit in a smaller overall package.
Its not *just* that you can fit smaller hands with the smaller gun, (though that's most of it), but in theory, the shorter cartridge should be more reliable in a smaller gun, because less slide travel is necessary to eject/load the round.
And of course, no, you can't use .45 ACP rounds in a .45 GAP gun or vice versa.
.45 ACP rounds should be too long to fit in a .45 GAP chamber, and .45 GAP rounds should be too short to reliably fire and eject from a .45 ACP gun.
Also, .45 GAP rounds are loaded to higher pressures than .45 ACP, and that can't be good on your gun either. As far as I know there is no conversion available to swap between these two calibers. Further I believe the .45 GAP cases are not dimensionally identical to the .45 ACP ones, so you can't generate .45 GAP cases just by trimming down .45 ACP ones.
The bottom line, is while this cartridge gets pretty *close* to .45ACP ballistics, it doesn't get all the way there.
While there are *some* shooters that might appreciate a .45 in a small package, there aren't that many guns chambered in this cartridge, and the rounds are both harder to find and more expensive than "ordinary" .45 ACP. Most shooters who want a .45 in an automatic pistol are going to be better served with the older .45 ACP.0
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