.45 Auto and short barrels?

Here's how you get around lack of expansion from too slow moving 230 gr. bullets out of a 3'' M1911: You use 185 gr. bullets.

Or you use Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel ammo, as it's designed to expand at lower velocities.

The .45 acp in standard loading is a subsonic round in any case. Hollow points will offer some expansion, but the primary purpose is to prevent over penetration and transfer all the energy to the primary target. You may lose as much as 100 fps from a 3 inch barrel as compared with a full 5 inch, but you're still throwing a large slow heavy slug. If terminal ballistic expansion is important to you go with a .38 Super or 10mm in semi auto or any of the magnums in a revolver.

in general, the shorter the barrel, the less performance the shot will have. in your case, the reduced velocity due to lack of barrel travel may be a reason for the reduced expansion of the bullet, just not enough energy to expand the bullet's tip.

use hornady critical defense most hollow points rely on hydraulic expansion which they need the velocity, hornadys have a red rubber insert in the tip which make the bullet expansion a mechanical process so if it hits it will expand, these are great if u shoot sheetrock or glass even heavy clothing with a regular hollow the tip fills and it will never expand meaning that 45 could pass through several wall's but hornadys will pass through one then expand, tumble and lose velocity.

i'm shocked the Centurion has "inadequate commerce-in fee". Any approved broker with a million/2 a strategies could swap it for the ever-stable Mossberg 500, throw in some bins of buckshot, then turn around and re-sell the Weatherby for an arm & a leg. a house-defence shotgun would not would desire to be a black kevlar swiss-military-knife of a gun with laser sight, coffee maker, and customer room over the storage. the terrific defence gun is one that handles properly and could no longer fail.

* Very little, if anything is lost when using the shorter barrel in .45.* Considering that most self-defense gun fights happen within 3 to 10 yards Maximum.*