The Army's short-term fix was to pull old .45 Colt Single Action Army revolvers out of storage — some dating back to the Indian Wars campaigns — and reissue them. The heavier bullet performed noticeably better.

Think about that for a second — the Army's answer to a modern counterinsurgency problem was to dig out guns that were already antiques. That the heavier .45 Colt actually worked where the .38 Long Colt didn't is a data point that caliber partisans have been arguing about ever since, and honestly, it's not the worst argument to make.

A handgun cartridge intended for military use should have a caliber no smaller than .45, with soldiers drilled unremittingly in the accuracy of fire.

People quote the first half of that constantly and ignore the second half — the part about unremitting accuracy training. The Thompson-LaGarde board wasn't handing out a pass to guys who miss. That caveat matters whether you're on a match stage or carrying concealed.

The .45 ACP runs at roughly 40–60% of the chamber pressure that comparable modern cartridges generate. That low bolt thrust extends the service life of firearms chambered for it.

Anyone who's shot an old-school 1911 that's been through serious round counts knows this is real. Low-pressure cartridges are gentler on everything — frame, barrel, extractor. It's one reason suppressor hosts chambered in .45 ACP tend to hold up well over time, and why the platform has a reputation for longevity when it's properly maintained.

Since .45 ACP rounds are subsonic from the muzzle, there's no supersonic crack to deal with — only the muzzle report, which the suppressor addresses.

This is the thing 9mm guys don't always think about when they're bragging about suppressor performance — they're fighting a ballistic physics problem on top of the gas problem. With .45 ACP you're not. Every round is already subsonic without subsonics. The tradeoff on bore diameter and wet-firing requirements is real, but the baseline is hard to argue with.

What's your experience been with .45 ACP suppressors specifically — wet versus dry, and did the caliber choice actually matter for your hearing protection numbers compared to a 9mm setup?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By The Boise Gun Club Team