Re: Short .45 rounds

[Bob Wright]

Aome yeara ago now, I had a batch of brass with splits ready to take to the salvage yard. Many of these were old .45 Colt roounds with split necks. Soooo, on a lark, I cut them to .45 Auto length, using .45 Auto data. These were loaded for a Blackhawk with the .45 Auto cyinder in place.



As to accuracy form the short case in a king cylinder:



I even went so far as to try to duplicate the M1906 round:


Totally frivilous efort, but fun and did find use for brass that otherwise woul dahve been discarded.

Bob Wright

 

[contender]

Waste not,, want not!

I like the way you think.
Those rounds look perfectly good!

 

[peachhead]

That is awesome.

 

[TheTexasRAT]

It's a 45 that goes BOOM. Life is good. And as a plus it says COLT on the Headstamp!

 

[Larryburford]

Pretty dang cool!

 

[jimbo1096]

Hadn’t thought about doing anything like that, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. I don’t have any bad 45 brass right now but if I do, I may give this a try.

 

[blume357]

I love it when a crazy idea works out.

 

[Timbo23]

The same thinking went into the making of the '45 Cowboy' round, a standard rimmed 45 ACP length cartridge that will fit into 45 Colt cylinders. My only concern would be in the neck thickness of the cut down brass in seating the bullet. But if it works, it works!

 

[John in WYO]

Soooo, you made .45 Auto Rimmed (equivalent) cases from .45 Colt cases?

Brilliant!

 

[pyth0n]

Excellent! Market for .45 short Colt? Some .45 ACP cylinder conversion mfgs would pay you a bunch to not market this.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

The same thinking went into the making of the '45 Cowboy' round, a standard rimmed 45 ACP length cartridge that will fit into 45 Colt cylinders. My only concern would be in the neck thickness of the cut down brass in seating the bullet. But if it works, it works!

Well, I gave it a try a few years back and had the same concern. Loaded 0.452" lead bullets with no problem. YMMV

 

[friendly]

You recreated the M1887, 45 Gov round. It was made to the same dimensions as the 45 Colt, except that the case length was the same as a 45 S&W. That way the Gov only needed one caliber of ammo which could be used in either the SAA, or the S&W. This round is the reason that the 45 Colt became the 45 long Colt, and some called the 45 Gov, the 45 short Colt.

 

[the_leper_colony]

Some folks make .455 Webley brass by shortening .45 Colt cases. Years ago, I bought an antique .476 Webley RIC revolver that came with some .455 cartridges loaded that way (no longer have the RIC revolver, but still have the ammo).

And FWIW, some folks have used .45 GAP cartridges, loaded in moon clips in .45 acp revolvers, because they believe it speeds up the ejection/reloading process....

 

[John in WYO]

Here is a link to more information about the U.S. Army and the Short(er) .45 Colt.

https://www.firearmsnews.com/editorial/45-caliber-double-action-us-military-revolvers/455353#replay