What made you choose the .45?

Part of being a “responsible gun owner” is recognizing your budget and prioritizing correctly for your life. Well done sir. You can get good 1911’s for under $1k, so keep saving your money, August will be here in no time brother.

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They also make 1911’s in 9mm and .38 Superb… Just saying. :grinning:

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…and 10mm and 40.

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I have one of those FN FNX Tactical .45 with a red dot. That is actually my IDPA gun and it is everything you just described. It absorbs recoil extremely well, swings onto target, almost intuitively, and is by and far the most accurate (for me) point and shoot handgun I own. But I would not use it in a self defense scenario due to cost. That’s what my Glocks are for. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

I’m not familiar with a .38 superb. :confused:
I was going to go with the .45 in a 1911 simply for the fact that that’s how it was designed and I’m looking for a different caliber besides the 9 :joy:. But I’ll definitely keep my options open and shoot all the different calibers I can find.

I would think you’d want to use a pistol you’d use defensively when doing IDPA but I guess it makes sense that you’d use a competition gun instead considering that IDPA is competitive. (Another thing I want to get into soon)

And .357 magnum.

I thought a .357 magnum was a revolver cartridge. I know there’s the .357 Sig and that’s made for semi autos… :confused:

Honestly, I am to old and beaten up to be competitive, it’s just fun to go out and shoot the stages.

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What stages?

The different stages in a course of fire for an IDPA match.

Coonan made a 1911 in .357 mag.

It is like 9mm magnum. Lots of fun, ammo can be a little spendy unless you reload, but it seems to be getting a bit more popular these days.

Ummm Im think that’s .38 Super.

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Ah, the age old discussion / debate over caliber and gun effectiveness. As a long time NRA Instructor, competitive shooter, and CCW’er, the best answer I have learned to give is: whatever caliber and gun you can safely and comfortably handle, carry, draw and reliably fire. The reality is there is no ‘best’ caliber or gun. What appeals to you within your budget and tastes, in the range of 'effective calibers, is the right gun for you if it ‘fits’ you.
Whether you chose revolver or auto, .45 to .380, .44 to .32 Mag, or anything in between or bigger, all are ‘effective’ calibers if using appropriate modern self defense loads whose recoil you can handle and reliably hit your target repeatedly. Non expanding ‘ball’ mil-spec rounds are for target and practice only, not modern self defense. They are designed for military use, not to ‘kill’, but to poke holes through the enemy so they bleed out slowly and require extra personnel to treat them. Hollow points were until recently banned, because they were too effective at maiming and killing. It was ‘inhumane’.
Numerous studies from law enforcement agencies have demonstrated that 9mm and .45 both have similar ‘stop the fight’ rates if you hit what you are aiming at, and even similar wound channels. 9mm is faster, .45 is bigger, they even out in damaging the vitals. So do most other calibers. Police relied on 6-shot .38 lead slugs for decades [some still do], until 9mm Tactical Tupperware became common because of its effectiveness and reliability.
As example, personally, I daily CCW pocket carry a modern sub-compact .380 w/built in laser . For holster carry, when I can, I love my .45 Colt Officers, or my tricked trigger 9mm Glock19, both with high vel light for caliber self defense ammo, with spare magazines for each.
You see a pattern, right? For me, as it should be, ammo is the critical choice, regardless of caliber. I don’t get paid to promote any companies, but modern self defense labeled loads from majors like Hornady, Sig, Federal, Winchester, Remington are all excellent choices, plus some selected ‘minors’ like Liberty, Triton and DRT.
There is no one ‘right’ choice for all.

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…and 9x23.

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That makes sense Terry. I was just curious as to why people chose the .45. and part of it was because I was looking for a change in caliber as all I have are 9mm :joy:
I’ve been reaching out to people I know in my area about who might own a 1911 that I can test shoot so I don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for the local range.

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Well, next time you are up in Birmingham, pm me we can meet up at Hoover Tactical, I can bring an assortment of .45 for you to try. I have a membership and a number of free range passes, so it wouldn’t cost you much more than ammo.

First time at Hoover Tactical you do have to fill out a form. But it is easy to get to it’s about 1/2 mile off of I-65 North.

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I’ll definitely find a way to make it up there @Zavier_D :grin: I appreciate it.
Out of curiosity, what .45s do you own?

Umm, I really don’t like to put out exactly what I may own on a public forum, but you can safely assume I have a number of variants of .45, plus Hoover has a huge array of handguns you can rent.

Just in case, this is a joke.

That number is subject to change, due to :sailboat: accidents. Apparently being in the Navy does not automatically transfer small :sailboat: proficiency.:roll_eyes::stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::laughing::rofl:

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