Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #204...

If you want a slim single-stack, all-metal, lightweight (so, alloy-framed), traditional double action hammer-fired pistol chambered for .45ACP, there aren't a lot of choices.

The Taurus PT-945 is kinda big, plus it's kinda Taurus. There's the short-lived Sig Sauer P245 and the even shorter-lived P220 Compact.

And then there's a pair of choices from Smith & Wesson, the 4513TSW, and this one from the Performance Center: The Shorty 45.

Hand-fitted titanium barrel bushing, match barrel, beveled mag well, 20lpi checkering on the frontstrap, hand-tuned action (mine has a smooth 9.5# double action pull free of stacking or hesitation and a crisp 5.25# single action pull with minimum overtravel) and a distinctive slide that's got brushed highlights setting off the matte finish.

The slide and frame are less than an inch wide, although it's an inch across the grips and the slide stop and hammer-dropping safety stretch maximum width to an inch and a quarter at the wide spots. It's a really compact way to carry 7+1 rounds of .45AARP.

The one in the pictures is the 472nd pistol of a 662-gun run for Lew Horton back in 1996.

I have quibbles, beyond the fact that I'd rather carry the 3913LS, but they're minor ones. I'd prefer a rebounding decocker lever instead of a hammer-dropping safety; a manual safety on a TDA is redundant as far as I'm concerned. Also, I realize that they were still far from universal in 1996, but this pistol should have had tritium night sight vials in those Novaks. MSRP was over eleven hundred bucks, so what's another C-note for glowing sights at that point?

Still, I kinda want to get a holster for it...

EDITED TO ADD: A reader pointed out that Smith's Model 457 from the Value Series and the CS45 also had alloy frames. I'd honestly spaced the CS45, but I'm deliberately trying to not remember the 457. And I have one.

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