.45 cal, actually .410????

[MrTuffPaws]

Okay, I just learned something over on the shot gun board

We used to explain the "gauges" to new folks - being the # of lead balls of bore diamenter it took to equal 1 lb. The .410 explained as caliber , even so .410 equates to 36 ga.

I always wondered about what gauge numbers meant, but my question here is: what is the bullet diameter of the 45ACP? I ask this, because a .410 will shoot 45LC if I am correct. So, is the .45 really a measure of the case diameter like the 38 vs the 357?

 

[Dr.Rob]

Nope.

.45 Colt has a bullet diameter of .452, .410 ga shotshell measures about the same.

 

[RyanM]

.410 shotgun is actually a 67.6 gauge. .45 is a 50 gauge, and 9mm is a 100 gauge.

1 cubic inch of lead weighs 2868.3 grains. Volume of a sphere is equal to 1 1/3 * pi * (1/2 caliber)^3 (one and one third times pi times the cube of half the caliber). Pi is about equal to 3.1415926535897932384626433832795.

So a .410 sphere's volume is 4/3 * pi * .205^3 = 0.036087 cubic inches, for 103.51 grains per ball. It takes 67.6 of those little balls to make 7000 grains, or one pound.

You can do that in reverse, too. A 12 gauge has 12 balls to the pound, or 583 1/3 grains per ball. That works out to 0.2034 cubic inches per ball. 4/3 * pi * X^3 = 0.2034, where X is 1/2 of the caliber. So by doing some basic algebra, we find that X = 0.3648, so the caliber is around .7296.

 

[shoot870p]

I have a 2-shot deringer that is a .45 Colt (Not ACP) and .410 shotgun combo. neat package for snakes at close (Very) range.
Lee

 

[happy old sailor]

what RyanM said, i wish. and here i thought there was 7000 grains in a pound, or, is that gunpowder only? break _ _ _ am confusing self, so, out.

 

[BluesBear]

The outside diameter of a .410 shell is roughly the same diameter as a .45 Colt.
The inside diameter, being that it is a shotgun shell originally made of pressed paper, is quite a bit less.
A slug or round ball that will fit inside a .410 shell was originally .410".

 

[Jim K]

Hi, Happy Sailor,

There are 7000 grains in an Avoirdupois pound, whether it is lead or powder (or Navy beans).

Ryan said, "103.51 grains per ball...it takes 67.6 of those little balls to make 7000 grains, or one pound." That is correct, though a bit rounded off. The multiplication comes out to 6997.276, but that is close enough to say that .410 is 67.6 gauge.

AFAIK, no one ever made a shotgun that small and gave it a gauge number, and I have never seen a gauge table that went higher than 58 gauge. Smaller shotguns (.410, 9mm, .22) were designated by caliber rather than gauge.

Jim

 

[PowderBurn]

Well, no wonder they called it a .410 then. What self-respectin’ outdoorsman could say, with a straight-face, “Honey, I’m takin’ the 68-gauge out to get us some dinner.â€

 

[Mal H]

Pi is about equal to 3.1415926535897932384626433832795

Now that's funny!