Cylinder rebore, change caliber?

[Ronniet]

Can a SA Vaquero or Blackhawk cylinder be re-chambered from a 44 mag to a 45ACP?
Tools involved if so?
Chamber reamer and ?
Ron

 

[Aggie01]

Nope, the .457 chamber of the .44 Mag is too big for the .451 throat of the 45 ACP. Gotta step down to the .41 or smaller to rechamber one to .45 ACP.

 

[Ronniet]

Isn't the bullet dia. of the mag @.429? versus .452 for the 45? throat
44 Case is @ 457 straight and the 45acp is about 476 to 480 tapered?
Ron

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

Aggie01 is right. It wont work.

 

[WOB]

9mm cylinders used to be very cheap on ebay. Worth a look.

WOB

 

[Ronniet]

so a 9mm or 357 will work for a re-chamber to 45 acp?
R.

 

[WOB]

Yes. I have done it.

WOB

 

[Ronniet]

WOB, did you do it yourself or form it out?
44 caliber , did you do any in stainless?
R.

 

[WOB]

I rechambered a 9mm cylinder to 45ACP. I don't think stainless would be any more difficult. It was part of a line-boring job, rebarrel, and general overhaul of a 357 New Model Blackhawk. You need a vertical mill and a lathe with tools and fixtures to do what I did. Otherwise you should find a pistol smith.

WOB

 

[Ronniet]

Thanks WOG, I have the mill and the lathe but not chamber reamer nor indicator rods for that caliber.
Have done many barrel blanks and re-chambers but never did a Revolver Cylinder.
I think I would be money ahead to find a ACP cylinder that I can adjust to my frame.
Thanks
Ron

 

[frontstuffers]

Hate to disagree with others, but a .44 will work for a .45 acp. I have done it twice. Had it professionally rechambered and they both shot great. Was done on the Ruger blackhawks. The secret to it is to find a .44 cylinder the same length, or longer, so that it can be fit correctly. You want a good tight cylinder gap. Both times I used the .44 super Blackhawk cylinders (unfluted).

 

[Rockrat]

So who would be a good pistolsmith to send a 9mm cylinder off to and get it rechambered to 40 S&W for my Buckeye 10mm/38-40gun?

 

[Hondo44]

Hate to disagree with others, but a .44 will work for a .45 acp. I have done it twice. Had it professionally rechambered and they both shot great. Was done on the Ruger blackhawks. The secret to it is to find a .44 cylinder the same length, or longer, so that it can be fit correctly. You want a good tight cylinder gap. Both times I used the .44 super Blackhawk cylinders (unfluted).

Thanks for sharing your experience, that's good to know.

It seems like it would work better if the 44 mag case wasn't longer than the ACP case. But the 44 case diameter between the mouth of the ACP case and the chamber throat will still be .457" So the .451-2" ACP bullet must 'jump' or rattle down the chamber for ~5/8" until it gets to the .451 throat. It would shoot safely but it would seem the chances of the bullet lining up straight with the throat when it got there might affect accuracy.

Maybe it does but not enough to matter per your experience. Did your chamber dimensions come out as I described above?

.38s work fine when shot in 357 chambers but of course the bullet jump to the throats is a lot shorter.

Thanks,