Ever shot a 44 mag shell in a 45 Colt?

Help Support Ruger Forum:

Jayhawkhuntclub

Buckeye
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
1,248
Location
Kansas
Or know someone who did? I don't plan to. but I did notice recently how a 44 mag will fit in a 45 Colt and I'm sure it's been done. I'd be curious to the outcome.
 
Outcome would not be good.... I am pretty sure the case would rupture and there is no telling where that warm gas would end up along with a bit o brass thrown in for good measure. I don't think it would harm a Blackhawk, but it might damage a lesser gun.

I have a 270 hull that was fired in a 7 mag by one of the guys at camp last year. It held together and is now identical to a 7 mag hull from the web forward. You can see where it was laying in the chamber because the bulge is on one side, and the primer indention is on the same side as the bulge. Ill have to post a picture one day. Through the years, I am sure that mixup had blown more guns than any other combo.
 
I have had that happen I couldn't figure out why I was shooting so poorly the the cases were a little harder to get out than normal and I heard the famliar sound a case makes when it is spit. A couple of split cases was the worse that happened in my incident. but these were also loaded light i believe they were 8 gr. of unique and a 240 gr semi wadcutter
 
YEP, sure have. A pal did it at the holiday while we were shooting at 6" targets at 100 yards. His bullets were going all over the place. Mine were not but he didn't hit any less than me !! This was standing on our hind legs and shooting two handed by the way
So , after a while he looks at the ammo and leaves out a very loud swear word. We all got a good laugh and told him it was of no matter anyways as he probably couldn't hit 'em with the correct ammo either !!!
If I remember right, I shot up two cases of 44 ammo that morning without a single hit. We came back after dinner and that afternoon I could not miss. The pistol I was using both times was a S&W M629 7 1/2" 44MAG MAGNA CLASSIC [ prototype ] that shoots like a dream.
 
Jayhawkhuntclub":2dfvy78b said:
Or know someone who did? I don't plan to. but I did notice recently how a 44 mag will fit in a 45 Colt and I'm sure it's been done. I'd be curious to the outcome.

Friend of my Dad's did it 25 to 30 years ago, in the .45 ACP cylinder.

IIRC, the case expanded to fit the cylinder giving it a bottle-necked appearance; can't remember if Dad said the cases split.
 
I did it 6 times. FIred a whole cylinder full of hot loaded 300 gr 44 mag handloads in a 45 blackhawk. With the muffs on they sounded right. The recoil felt right compared to the load I had planned on shooting. I just couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with em. When I went to remove the spent casings was when I noticed that they all came out harder, and were very bulged. One or two were split. No adverse affects otherwise.

TDF
 
I doubt this would be particularly dangerous. .429 bullet rattling down a .452 bore, there's not gonna be much chance for pressure to build. Oh there might be some scary flames shooting out various of the gun's orifices, and I can't even guess what it would sound like, but I'd really be shocked if you could blow up or even damage the gun in any way like this.

Now, lighting off a .44 Mag in a .44 Special chamber, if you could manage to squeeze one in due to tolerance stack or whatever...now THAT could get hairy in a great big honkin' hurry! :shock:
 
Back in the late70's and early 80's I used to buy 55 gallon drums of fired brass from S&W to reload. It was not uncommon to find nickle blue pill (proof) 44 mag brass that had been fired in a 45 colt chamber.
 
I did it last spring out shooting with my son. He was shooting his Super and we had his .44 mag and my .45LC ammo boxes (both blue) sitting next to each other on the gate of his pickup.

I fired off a round that made a very hollow sound. Ejected the spent case and it was ruptured. Fired off another round with the same results and another ruptured case. It took the whole cylinder before we finally looked at the head stamp and figured out what was happening.

The only damage was to 6 pieces of .44 brass, didn't phase the NM Blackhawk .45 at all. Plus I felt really stupid. Have some pics areound somwhere of what the brass looked like, but it split them a full 3/4 length.
 
My brother once accidently put a 10mm through a 1911. It worked the action fine, didn't seem to do anything to the brass IIRC.
 
I'll own up to a .32acp in a .380. Certainly not my proudest moment, but no damage done and a neat little cartridge case as a reminder not to be stupid anymore. :lol:
 
Quarterbore":172c5wnd said:
I had seen a 308 case that was fired in a 30/06 once. The case looked like a straight wall case...

Sure would not be something I would ever want to do but it is also the reason guns are build so strong! It provides a safety margive for the terminally stupid!

See this link:

http://www.levergun.com/articles/wrong.htm
I have a 308 case just like that I didnt fire it
 
I have a case that has a 300 Win Mag headstamp and a 300 Weatherby profile. It was given to me by a friend. I have no idea who did it. But I have a pretty good idea what happened:)
 
Howdy

Not a 44 Mag but I have shot a cylinderfull of 44-40s out of a 45 Colt. I load both 45 Colt and 44-40 for Cowboy Action Shooting. I load the 45s for my pistols, the 44s for my rifles. For years I have been hearing about how inaccurate it would be to send a .427 44-40 bullet down the barrel of a .452 45 Colt. So at the end of a match last year I decided to try it. I loaded up 5 44-40s into one of my Colts and aimed at one of the steel targets. Got a satisfying clang every time, so they can't be too inaccurate. Here is a photo of one of the spent rounds surrounded by a 45 Colt on the left and a 44-40 on the right. The pressure fireformed the thin neck of the 44-40 round to the diameter of the 45 Colt chamber, but the thicker brass down at the bottom was unaffected. Kind of a reverse bottle neck.

44-40shotas45.jpg
 
I have a friend that kept trying to convince me it was ok to shoot .41 mag in a .410 shotgun. I don't have any 41 mag otherwise I'd have been tempted to let him try it out.
gramps
 
Top