44 special in 45 lc revolver
Anyone ever shot a 44 special in a 45 lc?
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I accidentaly shot 10 loads of 44 special in my 45 colt revolver, did not notice till I picked up the brass. No damage to my 45 as far as I can tell. 0 -
well no damage is a good thing however wrong ammo in any gun Can be an accident waiting to happen IN your case lucky 0 -
yes I was lucky, took 44 special and a 45lc to range together and got loads mixed up. I will not have both together again. 0 -
I haven't seen that combination, but a .44-40 in a .45 revolver is very lame. And a .45 in a .44-40 lever action is a monumental jam. 0 -
In a related matter I once shot a 41 mag. load out of a .44 mag. revolver. It came out of a new box of Remington 44 mag. ammo. All it did was blow out the casing of the .41 mag. to a weird shape. 0 -
A friend of mine put a low-powered .44 mag into his .45 old-style Vaquero..split the case and was stiff to extract, but the gun took the pressure OK.
I've also seen 9mm fired in a .40 (I guess the extractor held it in place allowing it to fire) on a range. That was a blown case big time.0 -
>>Anyone ever shot a 44 special in a 45 lc?
No, I haven't. I don't intend to try, and I advise others NOT to do this.
If you read/talk about this topic enough, you'll hear all sorts of crazy stories about people getting away (and sometimes NOT getting away) with firing 'wrong' ammo through their guns. EG, 380 ACP in 9mm luger guns, 9mm in 40SW, 40SW in 10mm guns. Happens with rifles too. . .and its easier because the gun nomenclature can be confusing, plus different rounds often share cases. Usually smaller cartridges fired through larger bores turn out OK; the reverse if often NOT OK, but sometimes people can "squeeze" bigger bullets through smaller bores, and NOT get killed in the process!
In practice, 44 special runs at a SAAMI max spec pressure of 15,500PSI (its a black powder era cartridge). 45LC runs at 14,000 PSI. Ruger guns are (reportedly) rated for 45LC rounds up to 20 or 25k PSI, depending on model and who you ask. 45LC+P rounds are hotter than conventional .45LC, and these are supposedly OK in "any" modern revolver. There is no SAAMI spec for these, but by convention +P rounds run 10% hotter, putting reasonable pressure of these at 15400 PSI. . .about the same as 44 special.
As comparison, all of the modern smokeless auto (9mm luger, 10mm, 40SW, etc) and smokeless revolver (357 mag, 41 mag, 44 mag, etc), all run at max pressures of 35000 PSI, or higher.
The point is, 44 special is only a "little" hotter than .45LC probably not much different than .45LC+P, and should be WELL within GUN acceptable pressure standards for any modern .45LC revolver. I strongly doubt that firing 44spl through a 45LC gun will either "blow up" or even damage the GUN.
Note that just because doing this probably won't grenade the gun doesn't make it "safe" or good practice. Undersized cartridges can still rupture, and that's not good for the individual shooter, nor those around them. Sometimes individual cartridges may not be to spec (for whatever reason) and other problems (eg bore obstruction) can sometimes add to functional pressures. Wrong cartridge only takes away that much more from whatever margin of safety you have.
As always, only use ammo appropriate for any given gun.
While sometimes you can "get away" with using wrong ammo, in my opinion, short of a life threatening emergency where you have little other real choice, I don't see any good reason to play around with this sort of substitution. Knowing you "might" be able to get away with it, if you had to, is probably "good enough", without actually trying it!0 -
quote:Originally posted by Riomouse911
A friend of mine put a low-powered .44 mag into his .45 old-style Vaquero..split the case and was stiff to extract, but the gun took the pressure OK.
I've also seen 9mm fired in a .40 (I guess the extractor held it in place allowing it to fire) on a range. That was a blown case big time.
I should have added the caveat that this was done unintentionally, the guy had set .44 mag and .45 colt rounds on the tailgate of his truck side-by-side and (due to inexperience and not paying attention) loaded a cylinder of .44 into the .45 Colt. The first shot being harder in recoil was the reason he stopped and pulled the others out.
This is the reason I always set my stuff well apart if shooting different calibers, or I'll only shoot one caliber at a time and put stuff away when I'm done and get out another.
I must say don't do this stuff at home, shoot only the caliber(s) the manufacturer has chambered the firearm in. "Hold my beer and let's see if this works" experimentation can get you hurt.0
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