The .45 ACP is perfect just the way it is. It was designed to be as low pressure as they could manage, because it�s a military cartridge and lower pressure is always preferred over higher pressure for military applications for a lot of reasons.
In the case of the .45 ACP and most other handgun cartridges pressure is incidental and important only as a factor in bolt thrust. Parts will start breaking down due to bolt thrust long before a barrel suffers pressure damage.
The top handguns during the development of the .45 ACP ran at around 3,500 lbs. of thrust. My guess is that Browning used that as his design limit. Since the .451" diameter was already mandated the pressure was limited by default.
its just a linear momentum problem, if your going to use bolt thrust lets throw in bullet thrust. pressure is more important , if the other were correct the various makers of barrels would have never made supported ramps, beefed up the 1911 to the LAR grizzly, made 38 super + brass, invented the 9x23, wild catted the 10 to the 35 Dillon, on and on.
so the higher pressure 308 was accepted over the lower pressure 30-06.
the 45 and 10 are what they are today because of the gamers, not the other way around, they are responsible for the market demand which gave better parts to replace most of the pos stuff in the earlier colts. which brings up another question why do IPSC and action shooters use the 40 instead of the 10?
congrats to the poster who can shoot a hot 10 faster than a major 45 in the same configuration -- you have just done what 10000 IPSC shooters have tried to do for 20 years and failed. The whip down you describe is called the "pogo stick effect" and is the last thing you want.
Multiple shots may not be somes forte, but a controlled pair or a double tap will beat a single any day.
and why are muzzle brakes on pistols called compensators and when on a rifle they are called muzzle brakes?.
