Auto or semi- auto that is the question?

Question

I doing some research on some guns. I narrowed it down to a glock .45. There is a .45GAP "Glock Automatic Pistol" and a regular .45. Now my question is what is the difference in "automatic" and not "automatic". Same question for .32 ACP " Automatic Colt Pistol" and .380 auto. What does the "auto" mean?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

All the auto means is that it is for an auto loading pistol.

Answer 3

The .45 GAP appears (from the 1st linked article) to be a special type of .45 ammo, not a different kind of gun per se. What it boils down to, according to the article, is that the .45 GAP is shorter than the .45 ACP but has similar performance. The benefit of the smaller round is a smaller pistol retaining the performance of the more common (but larger) .45 ACP round and associated pistols.

The ammo and the weapons that fire it are linked, so whether the .45 GAP is a fundamentally different weapon than the .45 ACP is a subject for debate. (The pistol that takes .45 GAP will not take .45 ACP, and maybe vice versa, so you could argue that they ARE different weapons. In my opinion they are both .45 caliber semi-autos and I would lump them together.)

Even within .45 ACP pistols there is a large range in size, though, so such claims of pistol size should be taken with a grain of salt. The issue is further clouded by the fact that the weapons using identical ammo can be made smaller by having it hold fewer rounds.  The proof of the benefit of .45 GAP would be a comparison of the smallest .45 ACP pistol against a .45 GAP pistol, both of identical capacities. The linked article goes into some detail about this.

ACP is an ammo designation like GAP (2nd link). It designated versions of the respective calibers that were designed for semi-auto pistols vs revolvers (e.g. .32 revolver vs .32 ACP semi-auto). In some cases semi-auto became so popular that you don't even hear about the revolver version any more. Who do you know that has a .45 revolver, unless they are an Old West fan?

Similarly, .357 Sig is a semi-auto version of the classic .357 revolver round. I mention the .357 because you brought up the .380 auto. Believe it or not, the .357, .38 special, 9mm and .380 auto are all the same family (though the vagaries of the system mean that the numbers are different). If you don't believe me, consider that any .357 revolver will fire .38 SPL ammo. (A .38 pistol cannot safely fire .357 because it is a much more powerful round, and .357 ammo was specifically designed so that it couldn't accidentally be put into a .38.)

The first two are revolver rounds and the second two are semi-auto. The whole list is in descending order of power. The .380 auto was, I believe, originally called the 9mm kurtz ("short" in German) where it was invented.

Because of the differences in loading and ejecting mechanisms, semi-autos and revolvers have different requirements of their ammo even though they may be similar in other respects such as caliber and stopping power. The significance to you as a potential pistol buyer is that the different types of ammo may vary in price, availability and performance. .45 GAP, being a newer specialty type of ammo produced by only one company may be much harder to find, and more expensive when you do, than the century old standard .45 ACP (first designed in 1904) which is made in multiple specs from every major ammo manufacturer.

The weapons that take these ammos may also vary significantly in price. You can get a relatively cheap .45 ACP (though not Glock, for sure) but if Glock is the only company making a .45 GAP you can bet its price will be high.

If your primary concern is weapon size (the reason the GAP was invented), then this trade-off may be worth it to you. If price and availability are more important than having a gun that fits in your pocket then the ACP is probably the way to go.

Answer 4

A fully automatic handgun will fire repeatedly until ammo runs out or release the trigger. A semi-automatic Handgun will "automatically" load the next bullet into the chamber after firing one shot per trigger squeezed.. As for the difference between GAP vs ACP.... I have no idea.

The auto just means that it automatically loads the next round into the chamber.

Answer 5

Here's how it works: guns that "self load" by virtue of stripping a round from a magazine every time the trigger is pulled are referred to as auto loaders or automatic in the broadest sense.  But technically speaking if you only get one shot with each trigger pull the term is semi-auto.  If the gun keeps firing as long as you keep the trigger back that is called full-auto aka machine gun.  Full-auto guns are classified in a totally different manner that semi-autos, and they are generally banned from the public sector.