I had much the same experience in about 1980. Two of us were on the Combat Handgun Pistol Team. We were good and maintained groups in the 10X ring. We would have moved on to Nationals but our team captain “shot a snake”.
Because of our expertise we had the pleasure of taking our officers to the range to qualify on the 45. We heard the old trite comments about how useless the 45 was. We taught them how to strip and inspect the weapon. We taught them the Weaver grip, sight picture and alignment. They only had to hit 50% of the popup targets to qualify. They all managed to qualify but with low scores. We each took two 45s and used two lanes each. We mowed down all the targets but being popups and not bull’s eyes it was no great feet. After our demonstration their opinion of the 45 changed. It seemed their prior opinion was formed by all the old rumors they heard about the 45. It affected their performance.
With a new pistol (in .40 cal no less), they have something to shoot those millions of “spare” rounds they have stock piled.