Decided to do something silly-just because I could 1911 in 380 acp

Yeah, I know it may be totally impossible to make work but I'm going to try. Why? No reason what so ever. I'm having a 5" Gov't barrel with a Clark/Para ramp chambered for 380 acp.

I think I have the extraction figured out. I have an AFTEC extractor that I have used in my 22 TCM and that will grab the smaller rim cartridge, no problem. I've measured and the 22 TCM and the 380 acp are about identical.

Feeding is going to be trial and error. I have a single stack magazine where I can essentially put a spacer strip at the back to move the cartridge closer to the ramp in varying increments.

There's going to have to be a dance between the magazine spring, slide spring and mainspring to strip off a round. I have springs that go to ridiculously light weights; which will likely will not be enough. I'm sure I'll have to really ramp the firing pin stop so it has almost no resistance.

Now quit asking why. I don't know why. I just thought it would be interesting to see if I could make it work.

The funny part about this project is that everyone I tell about it wants to try it if it works.
I've got a really good extractor an enormous ejector and weak springs. I'll begin by seeing if I can get a single round to fire, extract, eject and then lock back the slide. Then I'll work on seeing if I can get it to strip a round out of the magazine. You really can't use heavier than 95 grain bullets because the brass will bulge. I'll work a step at a time. Heck, I got a 38/45 Clerk to work and that was a giant pain in the a$$. I also managed to get a 7.62x25 Tokarev to function really well out of a 1911 using a 38 super magazine. Now I admit that a 380 acp is a whole new bucket of chicken and may not be possible but we'll see...

So I ran some crude numbers through a recoil calculator which give me a rough idea of the difference between the 22 TCM and the 380. I have a Rock Island Target in 22 TCM and it functions perfectly. I expect the 380 to have a bit more velocity as it will be coming out of a 5" barrel. It won't be much but small amounts may make a difference here.

I thought about cheating and using a Commander slide but I'm going to stick with a full size Government. If went compact that would be defeating the silliness of this entire exercise.

I just checked manually running a full magazine through the Rock Island 22 TCM using a 9mm barrel; I haven't gotten the 380 barrel from the folks I ordered it from yet. Shockingly, every last round went through without a hitch. That was with the hideously expensive AFTEC extractor and a Wilson ejector. Of course, that is no guarantee that will have any basis in reality when it goes to fire a live round. But at least I know it will grab the rim and apparently extract and eject. This frame uses a Clark/Para ramp and a double stack magazine with Wolff magazine, recoil, firing pin and mainspring springs. I was using factory ammo and each round fed perfectly no matter how I dropped the slide. Now that may be because the 9mm hole is larger than the 380 hole.

So far, I am at least hopeful this can work. I really don't want to get into a situation where I have to keep increasing the powder charge to try and gain functionality. That would be chasing disaster.

22 TCM
Bullet Weight: (gr) 40
Bullet Velocity: (fps) 2070 fps
Powder Charge Weight: (gr) 10.5
Firearm Weight: (lbs) 40 OZ
Recoil Impulse (lbs.sec) .6
Recoil Velocity (fps) 7.3
Recoil Energy (ft.lbf) 2.32

380 acp
Bullet Weight: (gr) 95
Bullet Velocity: (fps) 1000
Powder Charge Weight: (gr) 4.5
Firearm Weight: (lbs) 40 OZ
Recoil Impulse (lbs.sec) .52
Recoil Velocity (fps) 6.71
Recoil Energy (ft.lbf) 1.75

The problem with a 32 acp in a full sized locked breech 1911, besides the obvious power needed to run the slide, is the lack of a magazine. The 380 acp will run in most magazines I have tried so far. Interestingly enough it seems to run amazingly well (by hand) in the Rock Island double stack that they use for their 22 TCM/9MM. However, it also seems to work equally well in my Kimber single stack 38 Super Target. The feed lips hold the 380 acp just fine and the shorter length of the cartridges don't seem to matter, especially if it uses a ramped barrel. I will use the longest, heaviest bullet available and seat it out as far out as practical. But only if some 100gr, 1020 fps factory ammo I have here won't work. It would be awesome if I can get factory ammo to work right out of the gate. It won't be much of a victory if I can't get at least some brands of factory ammo to work.
Modifying a 1911 magazine to run 32 acp cartridges would be the real trick. You don't even begin to mess with another thing till you have that. Altering a magazine is an art, especially to that degree. We all know how finicky magazines can be and they would be even worse in a finicky gun.

I just ordered some extra light Wolff return springs. They have a set that includes a 5,6,7,8 and 9 pound springs. I'm not sure a 5 pound spring will return a slide.

I just got my springs from Wolff. I'm still waiting for the barrel so in the mean time I'm super polishing everything and angling up the firing pin stop.

I ordered the barrel with a Clark/Para ramp. It's very unlikely that I'll have to polish the ramp coming from this barrel maker. I'll let everyone in on who the barrel maker is if this works. If it doesn't work, why would anyone care?

The barrel link and slide stop are another area I'm looking at. I'm not sure where I got it but I have a slide stop with a roller in the pin.

I'm also polishing the slide rails and anything else that makes contact. I want this to be as low friction as possible. We'll see how low I can drop the hammer spring.

I put the Wolff #5 recoil spring in it just to see how it felt. It will pick up a round out of a full magazine and push it into a 9mm magazine, which proves almost nothing but it did it.

I'm going to use a Briley Spherical Barrel Bushing. I think they work really well and are also extremely slick.

So far, I'm very hopeful. I'm still not kidding myself. This still may flat not work. Again, I want to be able to shoot the majority of factory 380 acp ammo. I don't want to get into the situation where I have to handload an over pressure 380 to 9mm ballistics to make it work.