.45 GAP

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bamaranger

New member
I picked up a GLOCK catalog today, and was surprised to discover that Glock is still producing pistols in .45 GAP. I thought that number was dead and gone. Don't believe I've ever seen one on a firing line or match, and the ones I've seen for sale (used) are low priced and stay on the shelf.

What keeps the GAP afloat? Who carries one and why? Is there a Euro or South America aspect involved, ie, .45 ACP not legal?
 
IIRC, a couple US LE agencies adopted it. My guess is that Glock keeps them in the catalogs to support those contracts. If/when those departments transition to another caliber, I expect Glock will quietly discontinue their .45 GAP models.
 
It will be interesting to see how it plays out. As far as I know, to date, Glock has never discontinued a pistol model or a caliber. They have phased out one generation and replaced it with another, but always in the same models and calibers.

They kept 10mm alive almost single-handedly through long periods when almost no one else was making pistols in the caliber. That makes me wonder if they really will ever give up on the GAP.
 
.45 GAP is, after all, the acronym for .45 Glock Automatic Pistol. Glock invented the round, and even though it hasn't caught on the need hasn't gone away. Not that we need it ... but Glock needs it.

Glocks have inherently "chunky" grip frames. When Glock came out with a model in .45 ACP it was quickly found that most women didn't have hands large enough to hold it, let alone shoot it accurately, and even men with smaller hands had trouble with it. So Glock came up with the .45 Glock cartridge, which replicates the ballistic performance of the .45 ACP in a cartridge the length of a 9mm -- allowing Glock to build a pistol chambered in a .45 caliber cartridge that most people can hold onto and shoot.

There are still police departments that favor the .45 caliber. The town adjacent to mine is one; their duty pistols aren't Glocks, but they are .45 caliber. They're SIGs in .45 ACP. I'm sure there are departments somewhere that want both .45 and Glock. Ergo ==> .45 GAP.

Besides, if Glock drops their own cartridge, they'll be admitting they made a mistake in creating it. That may happen some day, but I don't expect to see it happen soon.
 
I know that Pennsylvania State Troopers carried Glock 37s from 2007-2013 and supposedly only replaced them with Glock 21s due to ammo supply shortages. Nowadays they carry SIG P227s, but only due to a recall of their G21 Gen 4s which couldn't be resolved quickly, so I imagine that if .45 GAP ammo were more widely available, then they most likely would still be carry G37s today.

According to Wikipedia, New York State Police, South Carolina Highway Patrol, Florida Highway Patrol, Burden Kansas PD, Greenville NCPD, and Berkley Missouri PD all currently issue Glock 37s.

So yeah, Police Department contracts for firearms and ammo are apparently substantial enough for Glock to continue production.

A lot of talk goes on on gun forums these days about how apparently everything but 9mm Luger is dying or dead these days because "most police"[citation needed] these days aren't carrying them anymore, but a manufacturer doesn't require "most police" to issue a specific cartridge, much less a specific firearm in order to turn a profit, hence why certain cartridges, including those which (AFAIK) aren't issued by any police departments such as .380 ACP, .38 Special, .357 Magnum and so on remain in production.
 
Glock talked the Georgia State Patrol into trading their G22's on Glock pistols in 45 GAP. I'm betting they got a hell of a deal to do that. As in I bet it didn't cost the GSP a dime since their USA headquarters is here in Smyrna. I think Glock was trying to get them into LE hands.

That little experiment didn't last more than a couple of years and GSP is now carrying G17's. I can't recall seeing a new one in a while, but LE trade is show up from time to time around here.
 
What keeps GAP around are the same reasons it was created even after all these years. The AWB is still alive and well in some states and if you want a .45, are limited to 10 rds, and want a smaller pistol, the GAP is a viable option. It's not a "military caliber" so it is legal in countries that have laws regarding that type of thing. Police in the US, I'm not sure if there are enough departments still issuing a GAP in 2020 to have any significant impact on the market to keep it alive.

As to why Glock doesn't drop it, all the reasons I listed above, the fact it's a cartridge Glock created and put its name on, but also because Glock is probably waiting for another AWB or outright ban on mags that hold over 10 rounds. Even if a nightmare happened and it was nationwide, I don't see the appeal to a .45 GAP vs say, a Sig P365.
 
Personally, I never really understood the appeal of .45 GAP. It's like Glock was trying to copy the formula of Smith & Wesson without any of the demand to back it up nor any legitimate benefit aside from having a shorter OAL. (Yeah, yeah, I know .40 S&W isn't actually a shortened 10mm Auto, but that's how folks view it and that's how S&W presented it to the FBI.)
I mean, sure, if you absolutely must have .45 ACP performance in a smaller package, perhaps because your hands are too small to get a good grip on a standard .45 ACP pistol, then obviously it's your Goldilocks cartridge, but outside of that, what does it offer?

Furthermore, I've never understood why .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and .357 SIG aren't more popular in jurisdictions in which Military cartridges are illegal for civilians to own.

Instead they're into oddball cartridges like 9x21 IMI and .38 Super. Perhaps most puzzling is the fact that said cartridges aren't typically loaded any hotter than 9mm Luger, despite the fact that they obviously can be, so you'd think that if you can't carry 9mm Luger and are essentially forced to use larger, more expensive ammunition, then it might as well be more powerful to compensate you for the cost a bit.
 
I've never owned a Glock, maybe never will, but close-out pricing on a pistol, and ammo for it, might do the trick.
 
I had one not long after they came out, a G38. It was a good gun and the concept behind the 45 gap is sound, but when actualized, to me it's too much of a step backwards compared to a .40 or even 9mm. For instance the G38 is the same size as the G19 and G23 (except it has a fatter slide) but holds 8+1. Why would I want that when I can have 13+1 or 15+1? I like the .45 in general, but I don't like it enough to take that big of a hit in capacity.
 
... perhaps because your hands are too small to get a good grip on a standard .45 ACP pistol, ...
Click to expand...

As I heard it, the issue wasn't that men and women with smaller hands couldn't get a good grip on a .45, it was that they couldn't get a good grip on the GLOCK .45.

And, Glock, being incapable of error (or admitting it, at any rate) either wouldn't or couldn't redesign the frame of their gun to fit smaller hands. But what they could do, was invent a smaller (shorter) .45 cal cartridge that fit into their smaller frame size gun. Of course, to match .45ACP ballistics, they had to load their .45 GAP round to higher pressure than the ACP. There's no free lunch...

No round that fires a bullet is entirely useless, but the .45GAP has always been a solution in search of a problem to me.
 
If they admitted to error then that would also mean that their slogan might perhaps be a teensy bit of an exaggeration.

By creating the .45 GAP they not only upheld their "Perfection" but improved upon perfection while they were at it, which was a risky proposition considering that much perfection occurring simultaneously could have very well thrown the entire universe into chaos by bending the fabric of reality too far.
That's why Glock hasn't offered their own take on the 1911, it's just too dangerous. If they were to make the Glock G1911, featuring a polymer frame, the signature Glock Perfection™ Grip Angle, polymer goalpost sights, and chambered it in .45 GAP, then the entire universe would implode. You know the Big Bang Theory? Well, it's very likely that said bang was the result of a cosmic Glock 17 being fired, so if a G17 created the universe, then surely a G1911 would result in it's destruction. That or it would just be a hideous abomination and commercial failure which would appeal to no one, which is more or less the same thing, only on a smaller scale.
 
there you go, not getting a .45GAP protects the space time continuum, and prevents a cosmic Glock Ka-boom!! :D

good to finally have it explained! :rolleyes:
 
Those of us left handers with stubby fingers appreciated a Glock 45 caliber tool that we could hold properly.

Wasn't there pending at that time possible legislation to reduce magazine capacity to only 10 rounds?

Anyway my G37 fits my hand very well and ammo is available via the internet.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
At this point, why would they discontinue it? Any incremental sales are helpful and the costs associated with keeping it around are probably minimal.
 
I agree with Reddog. Granted floor space and tooling costs money regardless, but so long as Glock 37 and 38 models makes money above their material and labor input there’s some benefits to keeping a legacy product that in chambered in a caliber with their name on it.

I’m not an accountant, but my recent accounting coursework for professional development has made me realize that sometimes products that often don’t make money on paper still makes the company money in the end.

And I think the idea behind the GAP was sound at the time. I would argue 9mm Luger has always been a popular caliber, but .45acp was probably more popular 20 years ago than it is now. Glock tried to come out with an innovative .45 caliber. Trouble is, patriotism and nostalgia support .45acp a whole lot more than ballistics and practicality. For that reason, .45 GAP might have been innovative, but not enough so sell many pistols.

Choice is great. It’s a good thing to have other calibers right? Maybe someone will wildcat the case for something else later. It’s thick enough brass to take it.
 
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