Daughter Gets a .45

[BruceB]

Our daughter Kim will most likely be living in Reno by this time next year. Her studies here will have reached their end, and it'll be onward and upward at University of Nevada in Reno. She will not be living in University residence.

Having recently achieved the minimum age for a Concealed Handgun Permit, she'll be taking the course for that document soon. She's had her own guns for a long time now, beginning with a Chipmunk .22 rifle at age four. She now owns a K-38, a Ruger P95 9mm, and an Ithaca 20-gauge M37 pumpgun.

None of the above are suited for discreet carry. We walked her through a number of gunplaces, trying various compact pistolas for their 'feel' and general appeal. At the end of the process, she made a VERY interesting selection, at least in my book. Of all the guns she handled, the one she preferred by FAR was a Springfield Micro 1911, .45 ACP, 3" barrel, and six-round ("Officer's"-size) magazine. Remarkably good taste, eh wot??? The little gun can use full-size 1911 mags in a pinch, which is a nice feature.

So....we bought her one for Christmas, and she seemed very happy to get it. These 3" .45s can be a bit abusive, but this one has a steel frame, which helps. However, it has the standard 1911A1 grip safety which will have to go. The narrow tang is painful after a few rounds with service-level loads, so a new grip safety is definitely coming. Actually, we'll likely take it to a good 'smith in Reno and have him do a crisp service-weight (4 lbs+) trigger job as well as the grip safety, and maybe fit an ambi thumb safety as well.

I'll sleep a bit better knowing that she's equipped, both mentally and physically, to do what needs doing if that unfortunate time should come.

[Buckshot]

................Bruce were you sweating it that she might have just picked one of 'Your' handguns? :-)

...............Buckshot

[redneckdan]

nice. I recommend the S&A .220 radius beavertail. They match the springer frames better than anything else on the market.

[9.3X62AL]

THAT apple didn't fall too far from the tree, now did it? Check your PM's, sir.

[SharpsShooter]

The young lady obviously has good taste in firearms and good sense in choice of a personal defense caliber too.

SS

[wills]

Is this is the girl that shoots a .416 Rigby?

[45nut]

Thats her,,,,and I certainly cant find a flaw with the 45 decision. I might be slightly biased however.

Tell Kim hello and all that for me sometime.

[felix]

Just too scary, Bruce! I know, I know, but that would be totally unacceptable for me. Hopefully she can go to (afford) a school/town having a good record of non-violence. ... felix

[Pepe Ray]

Felix;
Just too scary, Bruce! I know, I know, but that would be totally unacceptable for me. Hopefully she can go to (afford) a school/town having a good record of non-violence. ... felix

And just where in the he--, besides heaven, would THAT be.
My grand daughter will be ready in 3 short years and that problem is always on my mind. I'm seriously saving my money to send her to a few classes with Gabe Suareze at Suareze Int'l.
Pepe Ray

[felix]

Here is a start: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_09.html

Nick, my son still in school, says for her to keep out of fraternities, sororities and most especially during parties. There has been several cases at the University of Arkansas this last year, and each incidence involved these social clubs.

... felix

[redneckdan]

i stay away from frats at tech. I was at a bonfire last year and the guy shooting beer bottles down in the valley from the ridge ran out of bottles down in the target butts and decided to start cracking away at the ones near the fire.[smilie=b: after that incident I fully undestood the army ephumisim, "get yer d**ks in the dirt"

[mike in co]

NOT TO STEP ON KIM AND BRUCE'S TOES BUT...

I called my daughter one day to see whats up. she says she is on a date..i figure i should call back....she says no way!!....WE ARE AT A GUN SHOW!....

now that one put a smile on my face for a long time....

[9.3X62AL]

Mike--

THAT would be cool. With 2 of our 6 daughters, such a thing is quite likely.

[Char-Gar]

My daughter Sarah, just finished her P.hd and packs a Smith 2.5" Mod. 66 with full snort magnum loads.

[35remington]

As the owner of 4.25 and 5 inch barrelled 1911's and other brands of 4-4.5 inch .45's I'll have to say that the ultra short 3" .45's have always appealed to me, but one thing I've seen over the years is some complaints about the reliability of these super shorts on the 1911 frame.

Now, having never owned, or even shot extensively .45's of these dimensions I really don't know how much credence to put on some of these reports. Perhaps the problems have been resolved, or maybe there wasn't much to these reports in the first place.

Our state (Nebraska) has just passed a concealed law in the last year, and I'm revisiting the short 1911/reliability issue again for obvious reasons.

What do those of you that have extensive experience shooting these 3" .45's have to say about reliability issues? If a purchase is something I can pull off, most likely I'll shoot lead 230 RN's for practice and 230 JHP (any brand) for serious use when the permit to carry comes around.

What say ye?

[9.3X62AL]

No time with the 3" barrels, but LOTS of time with 3.5" S&W's, both a 4516 and a 4513TSW. Utterly flawless feeding with both, using soft target loads clear up through my agency's carry ammo, the Ranger 230's @ 900 FPS (in the 5" barrels).

Some speculation--and that's all it is--concerning the Glock 45 shorties is a feeding geometry issue with the short-barrelled variants. I never saw that with the short Smiths, both my own and many used by the deputies at work.

[NVcurmudgeon]

I have little experience with a 3" .45, test-driving only one for a friend who had reliability problems, he thought. Accordingly, I took his 3" Kimber and box of CCI Blazers to the range. All the trouble was with the Blazers! Terribly unreliable and inaccurate. Then I tried some W-W 230 gr. GI hardball equivalents, which were 100% reliable and accurate. For laughs I then tried some of my bullseye target loads of H&G #68 and 4.2 X 231. Again 100% reliable and very accurate. I prefer the 9mm in this size launching pad, being happy with my Springfield 3.5" Ultra Compact 9mm, but that Kimber could change my mind.

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

Some speculation--and that's all it is--concerning the Glock 45 shorties is a feeding geometry issue with the short-barrelled variants.


DO you mean the 45 GAP's??? If so I can't say much. But the 36 (45ACP) that I owned was totally dead reliable with any type/length/weight of boolit I put through it. No questions asked with that one. It just SHOT!!! And darned good.....stupidly let that one go...:(

[BruceB]

I've always been very suspicious of any 1911-type shorter than the Commander 4.25" platform.

In my alleged mind, it was, as Al mentions, a question of geometry.

I underwent a sea change one day, when I went out with a friend and half-a-dozen 1911s, from a pair of 5" guns down through shorter ones, and ending up with his Kimber Ultra-Carry, a 3" gun. The little Kimber fired everything without the hint of a malfunction, and in side-by-side chronographing with the 5-inchers, only lost about 70 fps. The loads were mostly cast bulets, from 230RN down to 200 SWC. Also, it was more accurate than it had any right to be! I hit a one-gallon jug seven-for-seven at 100 yards with it!

So, Kim has a 3" .45....if it shows ANY form of unhappiness with factory defensive loads, it'll be either at a 'smith or down the road. We intend to get out with it in the next day or two, but weather so far since Christmas has been rather unpleasant.

[9.3X62AL]

Bubba--

I was referring to the 45 ACP shorty Glocks. The examples I saw and fired at work all functioned very well, but that isn't a sample size or time element sufficient to make estimations about. I am paraphrasing a statement made by a Glock factory rep not long after the shorty 45's were first issued, in which he said that a few factory rounds had stoppage problems due to short overall cartridge length not getting along with the M-36 feed regimen.

One anomaly I've noted already with my M-21 is that the pistol DOES NOT like SWC bullets with abrupt boolit shoulders, e.g., #452460. The extracted case hangs up on the boolit shoulder once in a while. Rounded boolit profiles go smoothly (hardball, #452374, BD), so truncated cone needs a look-see as well.

[slughammer]

.....
So, Kim has a 3" .45....if it shows ANY form of unhappiness with factory defensive loads, it'll be either at a 'smith or down the road. We intend to get out with it in the next day or two, but weather so far since Christmas has been rather unpleasant.

Bar none, as the owner of 2 SA 1911's, any recent MFG Springfield would get a new extractor and hammer/sear.

No problems with my older gun, but the newer I ended up switching out the extractor and the hammer/sear. The stainless extractor would not keep it's tune and I adjusted it several times; it was replaced with an EGW extractor that was tuned once and has stayed that way. The MIM hammer turned out to be SOFT. As a competition gun I was going to do a trigger job. I layed a .020 feeler gage below the hooks and picked up a stone. On a fluke I put down the stone and picked up a dull file. Two quick swipes with the dull file and that was it. I've cut a lot of metal, and this part was way too soft for any use. The hammer/sear were replaced with an older commander style set I had.

For what a smiths fees are; replace these cheap parts up front and make sure he does his work with quality items.

[rebliss]

I've owned 2 1911s in the 3" range, and my father has one. His a para CCW in 3-something inches. He's had lots of failure-to-feeds. I polished his feed ramp and chamber, and after 500+ rounds through the gun, it's broken-in well enough, and the gun is reliable when kept clean. After it gets dirty (about 70 rounds continually), it begins to have trouble going into battery reliably.

My first was a Springfield Ultra Compact 3 1/2", all steel, and a very nice gun. There was a bit of trouble at first with f2f, so I polished the feed ramp and chamber with my dremel, and everything was wonderful. Ate anything I fed it, and was very accurate. I added a beavertail grip safety, commander hammer, and long trigger. I traded that gun on a Kimber Ultra CDP 3 1/4" due to weight and the melt-treatment (the Springfield tore a lot of my shirts up). I've never had a bit of trouble with the Kimber. Polished the feed ramp and chamber anyway.

If you or she is loading for that gun, I recommend making the rounds out towards the max COL. This should help them feed more reliably in the short-recoil pistol.

Your daughter sounds like a smart woman! Best wishes to her in Reno!

-Rob

[Crash_Corrigan]

The concept sounds good. I bought some for my Taurus .38 Liteweight. In a soaked telephne book at 5 yds it penetrated 2 1/2 inches and opend up to .83". They say that a heavy leather belt or heavy clothing will not prevent the round from achieving full opening because the polmomer ball forces the round to open. It will not plug up and act like a FMJ. I BELIEVE! I am trying to get some for my .45 ACP for carry to replace the Fed 230 GR Hydra-Shoks I am now carrying. I tried one of those shorty .45's one time. Nice shooter. Big fireball at night but not too tough to handle and very concealable. It was a Kimber and looked pretty in Stainless and cocabola stocks.
Dan