Glock 21: The Ultimate Handgun for the Military, Self Defense and Hunters?

By Kyle Mizokami,The National Interest

In 1990, the world of the .45 ACP cartridge was turned upside down. For more than seventy years the domain of the Colt 1911, a new Austrian handgun, dared to use the venerable old bullet in a modern design that included, of all things, a polymer frame. Glock’s adoption of the .45 ACP in the new Glock 21 likely saved the cartridge—and all of its users—from obscurity, and made the big bore cartridge a mandatory offering for a new generation of handguns.

Invented in 1911 by prolific firearms inventor John Moses Browning, the Colt 1911 pistol used the .45 ACP cartridge—also invented by Browning. Together the pistol and cartridge were meant to address a lack of handgun stopping power in the U.S. Army first noticed during the Philippine Insurrection, when existing Army .38 Long Colt handguns proved unable to stop Moro insurgents in their tracks. The U.S. Army adopted as the M1911, and later the M1911A1, Browning’s pistol served until the early 1980s.

The .45 ACP cartridge proved considerably more effective than the .38 Long Colt used by the Army during the Insurrection, with more than twice the energy in foot pounds [3] at the muzzle. The .45 ACP/1911 combination gathered considerable cachet over the years, and despite being dropped by the Army in the 1980s the 1911 platform still has a loyal following thirty years later.

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The rise of the nine millimeter handguns, precipitated in large part by the Glock 17, hung a question mark over the .45 ACP. With police agencies, gendarmes and armies all switching to the nine millimeter, the cartridge seemed to lack an anchor in government service. American gun users, whose previously had to choose between the .45 ACP, .357 Magnum and .38 Special, all flocked to the novel new pistol with the high-magazine capacity. The .45 ACP could have floated toward nichedom. Then in 1990 Glock introduced the Glock 21 [7]: the .45 ACP Glock.