.45 AutoRim out of .45LC

[Blimp Captain]

Can you shoot .45 Auto Rim out of a .45 Long Colt revolver? Thanks for any help.

 

[ClemY]

No. .45 Auto Rim has a .089" thick rim, the thickness of the .45 ACP rim + the thickness of the original Half Moon Clip. .45 Colt has a ~.060" rim.

What you can do is shoot ".45 Special" in the .45 Colt. .45 Special is a .45 Auto Rim length case with a .45 Colt thickness rim. It is made for cowboy shooters.

http://www.cowboy45special.com/

If your gun is a .45 Colt NMBH, then there are a couple of other options. Ruger makes .45 ACP cylinders for the .45 Colt guns. You can have a gunsmith trim the cylinder to allow the use of .45 ACP and .45 AR in the second cylinder.

 

[cdrt]

I had a Ruger Blackhawk in .45 Colt with an extra cylinder for .45 ACP, which worked just fine. However, if you mean shooting .45 ARs out of a .45 Colt cylinder, you might have a problem with clearance. The rim on a .45 Colt is .0600, but the rim on the AR round is .0890; quite a bit thicker. I tried an AR case in my Colt SAA in .45 Colt and it was too thick to let the cylinder turn.

 

[Blimp Captain]

Thanks alot to both of you. It was very helpful. The .45 Special sounds very interesting. I read through everything on that website and it didn't say specifically if it could be reloaded with .45ACP/AR dies.

 

[Old Fuff]

In any Colt-style .45 Colt single action with an optional .45 ACP cylinder you don't need to use the .45 Auto Rim cartridge. The purpose of the rim is to allow double-action revolvers to extract/eject the cartridges. With its side-rod ejection system this is a moot point in a single-action revolver.

As for reloading a .45 Cowboy cartridge. The .45 Colt's case diameter is .480" the .45 ACP is .478". If you were using a .45 ACP full length sizing die you might have a problem when you got to the .45 Cowboy's solid head. But obviously some combination of dies work because others are doing it.

 

[ClemY]

I haven't loaded for the .45 "Special," but I load .45 ACP and .45 AR on the same die setup on a Dillon, switching only the shell plate. I have a seperate die setup for .45 Colt due more to length than diameter.

While .45 ACP will headspace on the mouth in a revolver, whether a double action S&W, like a 625 or a single action, like a Ruger NMBH, one problem can be ignition. The .45 ACP cases can get shorter during multiple reloadings. I put a slightly longer firing pin in my 625, but it is much harder to change out a firing pin in a NMBH. I prefer to use .45AR in both the 625 and NMBH and avoid the problem.