bought this month's combat handgun magazine off the shelf, in part cause I enjoy reading gun rags on the airplane when I fly(gets less conversation than my guitar rags do)
and in part, cause the front cover promised discussion of +P loads for my compact carry pistol.
I had only recently ventured into +P ammo as I, and my pistol seemed to like the Speer Gold Dot regular which has gotten a reputation for burning well and acheiving good velocity and reliability from a 3.5incher. But last couple times I was at my gun shop, the only thing in premium Speer or other was all plus P loads. I uderstand the concept, and was assured that an occasional diet would be fine in my springfield 45 ultra compact V10. I can certainly feel the difference when I shoot those loads, but recoil is still manageable and the gun looks to have shot very clean at the end of a brief range session and 2 boxs (40rds)ouch on the $ spent for that brief bit of pleasure, but these are carry loads, not range rounds (winchester Wally white box usually gets ate for that).
I'm not really looking at the expansion factor which was the focus of the article, but rather, as much kick and reliable cycling and full burn as possible out of a short pistol.
Your views appreciated.
Ed

Slide velocity is the thing that'll make or break a load for the shorty's IMHO.
The delicate balancing act of slide velocity, speed, bullet weight etc. can be undone, or improved, by the ammo selected for them.
They're far less forgiving than the G length slide guns. Unknown as to whether a +P will/won't run one better? My guess is no, but it's only a guess, and based on only one example (CDP Ultra Kimber-3").
I've always been dubious of the need for a +P in the .45ACP. If running near standard weight bullets, she'll do the job if the shooter does. An awful lot of it anymore is selling sizzle without the steak. They sell, what DOES sell...

'Slide velocity is the thing that'll make or break a load for the shorty's IMHO."

I couldn't agree more. I had nothing but trouble from any of the micro barreled 1911's I've owned. They tend to be the pickiest of all short barreled .45 ACP's. I got tired of having to fine tune these ammo specific guns and switched to S&W's short barreled D/A semi autos.

My 3.5" barreled S&W M-457S has been 100% reliable with ANYTHING I've loaded in it's magazine.

Everytime I take it to the range someone tries to buy it or trade for it. Though it was originally considered a "value brand" gun, I find it priceless!

MOONDAWG

yep., my springer had issues..2 trips to the shop finally got the extractor issue found/fixed and some correction to the feed ramp where a prior owner had screwed up..almost badly.
now the gun eats Wolf, wally world winchester, speer, etc all well. I finally have a reliable carry 1911 and love it.
But honestly for it to be a retail $1000 gun...my NOS smith CS40 which I paid $340 for, is a better value..it has been flawless out of the box and has never FTF in any way.

My Star PD 3" barrel has gone through several thousand +Ps, of different brands since they first came out. All have worked perfectly and from a reliability point of view are the same as the non +P rounds, at least in this gun.
They do snap and recoil somewhat more than the non +P rounds. I prefer the Golden Saber 185 +P. It is a bit more controllable than the original Rem. +P.

I do believe that +P makes sense for short barrel guns. The higher velocity enhances the probability of expansion and increases penetration as well.

I have used short barrel .45's from Colt, Star and Detonics at different times. The Colts and Detonics got on well with +P ammo but only in the lighter bullet weights (185 - 200 grains).

The Star PD has a tendency to prefer full weight bullets and +p ammo batters the alloy frame. It also produces a lot of recoil in a small gripped, sharply checkered pistol.

I agree with the article's author, Taylor, and think the expensive Cor Bon DPX might be about the only +P load that offers much more than the irrelevant "sizzle" Dog mentions; if Cor Bon could still do the DPX bullet in a non-+P, so much the better.

I agree that reliable cycling has got to be priority number one.