sub-compact .45

I Actually Carried a Sub-Compact .45

ByLandon

In a previous post, I touched on the topic of weapon mounted lights, how I came around on them, and why I was wrong to avoid them. Keeping in the spirit of areas where I’ve changed, or was dead wrong, I want to talk about my first carry gun. When I first decided I wanted to start carrying a firearm, I started researching options. Though I had been shooting since I was a kid, I hadn’t really considered concealed carry before, and so I decided to do some research on good carry guns, as well as talking to some friends, which lead me down the unfortunately path of purchasing a sub-compact .45 as my first handgun.

Failure to Fire
This happened…a lot

What I ended up with was probably the worst choice I could have made for the time: a sub-compact .45 from a manufacturer of questionable reliability. While it’s never fun to relive dumb decisions you’ve made in the past, I want to offer my wayward reasoning for why I chose the gun most ill-suited to carrying at the time, and where I ended up once I actually shot it, started carrying regularly, and had first hand experience with what I was looking for in a concealed carry handgun.

I Lacked First Hand Experience

The foundational issue is that like anyone in a state that requires a a class alongside a permit to carry, I had to make a decision about what to carry without any first hand experience carrying. This is an area that I think many new shooters struggle with, since it is hard to make informed decisions when all your knowledge is hypothetical at best. It doesn’t matter how many articles you read, guides you follow, or people you talk to, first hand experience is the only way you will actually know what works for you and what doesn’t.

I read a bunch, spoke to people, and still ended up with a terrible gun. While this could’ve been mitigated by getting better advice (“Just buy a G19”) or even taking a class before my CCL class, ultimately I wouldn’t know how and why this gun wouldn’t work for me until I actually started carrying. On the other side, now that I’ve been carrying for as long as I have, I understand the the principles around what I’m looking for in a gun to easily know what will work for me or not without having to actually buy a gun and carry it every day. Trying to carry a sub-compact .45 was a mistake, but it was also a part of my learning what I liked or didn’t like in a gun.

I Thought I Needed to Balance Stopping Power and Concealability

On paper, it sounded great. I wanted a firearm that would effectively stop threats, and would be easy to conceal on my person, so a sub-compact .45 was an obvious choice, right? Well the problem with this line of thinking is that it missed two very important points: 9mm had developed to the point that “stopping power” was no longer a concern, and sub-compact guns aren’t actually that great to conceal.

.45 vs 9mm
This mattered to me

I had in my head that I needed the gun that would “do the most damage” or “stop a bad guy more effectively,” which was likely a product of a video game mentality towards guns just as much as it was from my research. 9mm is a completely capable cartridge and the ballistics on it are such that there isn’t a need for a larger or more powerful round to stop the threats I’m concerned with. I specifically say the “threats I’m concerned with” because I don’t live in an areas where bears or other dangerous game are an issue, requiring larger calibers like a 10mm or .44 Mag. With the proper ammunition choice, 9mm is an incredibly effective tool for stopping a threat, and has some serious upsides over larger cartridges.

The other side of this is that sub-compacts aren’t actually that great to conceal. I thought I was choosing a gun that would make concealment easier, but what I found was that the absurdly short barrel didn’t really matter, and the grip was what really impacted concealability. I’m not sure if it was the holsters I used, my belt, the gun itself, or some other factor, but I found the sub-compact .45 much harder to conceal than a traditional compact or duty sized pistol. I wasn’t carrying appendix at the time, so this issue may have been mitigated by carry location as much as gun choice, but I found when I swapped to a different gun, concealment became a non issue.

I Came Around on Capacity & Follow Up Shots

This is an area I started to move towards even before I realized I’d made a mistake in carry guns. I found that capacity became more important to me than “stopping power” or cartridge size. I recognized that having more shots was superior to having fewer, and that despite the relatively low round counts in citizen involved shootings, I’d rather have the added capacity and not need it than the other way around. Initially, I started carrying with an extended magazine to bump up the number of rounds I could carry, but ultimately, I decided having a 9mm with a significant bump in capacity was more important than carrying a .45.

Likewise, as I started to actually shoot and judge my own performance and gauge what I would need in a self defense situation, I found that having the ability to quickly and easily put follow up shots on target was much more important than “stopping power.” If I could accurately deliver three shots of 9mm into center of mass where I would struggle to get followup shots on a .45 where I wanted them, it became clear that carrying a 9mm was going to be a much better choice for me than trying to carry a sub-compact .45.

I Didn’t Appreciate how Miserable it is to Shoot a Sub-Compact .45

a sub-compact .45 Failure to Feed
Did I mention this happened a lot?

For the first few years of shooting my carry gun, I struggled greatly with accuracy. I found I was inconsistent with my shot placement, was only confident in hitting the target at close range, and really didn’t enjoy shooting my carry gun. I would go to the range and after a few hundred rounds, my hands would be red and sore from trying to control a sub-compact .45. While training and technique would have helped here, the fundamental issue was that I simply had chosen the wrong gun and was trying to force it to work for me.

I always enjoyed shooting my friends G19s and VP9s and started to have serious doubts about whether I had chosen the right gun, as well as some regret about getting something that I couldn’t shoot well. I told myself that despite how miserable it was to shoot, I just needed to put my head down and keep going to the range and practicing to get better. Unfortunately, this ended up cause further problems.

I Developed Bad Habits with a Sub-Compact .45

My decision to continue to try to make a sub-compact .45 work for me ended up ingraining bad shooting habits, some of which I’m still working on. Since I was shooting a gun with no pinky purchase, oversized recoil, and a less than ideal grip surface, I started to develop poor shooting habits. I developed a very bad flinch / anticipation of recoil that will still come up to bite me from time to time. I wasn’t able to focus on building good fundamentals because I was trying to overcome the shortcomings of the gun I was shooting. It also destroyed my confidence, since I saw my constant misses and wondered if I would even be able to hit what I needed to if the time came to use it.

It was ultimately that lack of confidence that caused me to move to a different gun, a duty sized, hammer fired, 9mm. Despite going from a striker fired gun to a DA/SA, my shooting improved almost immediately because I had a good grip, the recoil was manageable, and I had a place to put my pinky. Despite some people finding DA/SA harder to learn, I took to it immediately because compared to what I had been shooting, it was a breeze. I found that I really liked hammer fired guns, that 9mm was much more manageable, the longer barrel was a non issue to conceal, and I almost doubled my capacity. Thankfully, my poor choice didn’t turn me off to .45 as a whole, and I still really enjoy shooting .45, just out of a fill sized firearm instead of a sub-compact.

Ultimately, I had made some bad decisions that set me back in my abilities to shoot, but through the experience of actually carrying everyday and shooting regularly, I found a gun that fit me better and as a result, I’m confident in my ability to conceal a firearm effectively, put shots on target, and perform under pressure. I was definitely wrong to choose a sub-compact .45 as my first carry gun, but I learned what I wanted in a gun, made the switch, and ultimately found myself in a place where I can use a firearm effectively.

Any gear mentioned in this post was purchased for my personal use. I have not been compensated or incentivized by any company for any product reviews, highlights, or opinions.

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