whelen36

I' M NOT SURE HOW TRUE THIS IS BUT ,

i heard in one of the shooting mags that if you fire .45 colt loads through a .454 revolver chamber , that if enough rounds are fired through it beings that the colt case is shorter than the casull , the colt round can actually cause a throat to start in the chamber , and when the casull rounds are fired the brass casing will expand into the throat and cause difficult unloading of the fired brass.

ONCE AGAIN , I DON' T KNOW HOW TRUTHFUL THAT IS

propmahn

whelen36, there is much controversy over this. some people say that the firing of shorter rounds creates problems, some say it doesnt. some straddle the fence and say that it depends. they think it dependson the shorter rounds pressure and type of powder used. eg a 38spl in a 357mag wont cause a problem but a 357mag in a 357maximum will case a problem. i personally dont know

eldeguello

whelen36, if you clean the chambers well after shooting .45 Colt ammo, you won' t need to worry about this problem!!! You should do that anyway......

whelen36

eldeguello ,
i meant that the shorter cartridge basically eats a ring out of the chamber walls from the heat and explosive blast when the shorter shell goes off, where the longer brass expands into when it is fired ( if i' m saying this right ) how does cleaning fix the problem ?? , i' m not sure i understand what you meant buddy , please let me know as if it would work i' de like to get some .44 specials to use in my .44 mag so i can shoot her a little more often and a little cheaper ( if .44 specials are cheaper that is )

propmahn ,
i heard the same thing that you did , you have just reinforced what i had read buddy , and i think it was in shooting times , and by either " jim carmichael " , or " rick jamison " , i' m not sure which is true as i' ve said i' de like to use some .44 special shells in my .44 mag

BTW-would a .44-40 cartridge work in a .44 mag as well , if you can do so without damaging the chambers , i' m just curious about that one , i don' t plan on useing them unless they would be less harmful than the specials and cheaper , i don' t reload pistol cartridges yet

frizzellr

Nope, won' t work. The 44-40 is a bottlenecked case.

eldeguello

whelen, I have shot hot loads in a Ruger .45 Colt for about 20 years, and there is no " ring eaten out of the chamber wall around the case mouth" in any of the chambers! Likewise, I have been shooting my Raging Bull with both .45 Colt and .454 ammo for about five years, and there are no rings in its chambers either. The danger in using shorter ammo in the .454 is supposedly the buildup of fouling at the mouth location of the shorter brass, which is then supposed to make it difficult for a .454 round' s case mouth to open up properly and release the bullet (in effect, the same as using an overlong case in a rifle chamber), which then causes dangerous pressures in an already heavily loaded cartridge. A ring which chewes metal out of the chamber wall would not do this, because it is a depression in the chamber, not a projection into the cartridge space!! Think about this: If a factory .45 Colt round could " basically eat a ring out of the chamber walls from the heat and explosive blast" , so would a .454 which is a lot hotter!! They don' t, at least not in my .454!! Neither the .45 Colt nor the .454 have " eaten a ring" in any of my revolver' s chambers!!

Years ago, I used .44 Special ammo in my M 29 S&W .44 Maggie as well, and never had any damage of the sort you describe. A friend of mine still uses .44 Special in his .44 mag., and I use .38 SP in a .357 for all target shooting! I think this idea of a short case damaging a chamber may have originated when people shot .22 short ammo in soft-steel .22 LR chambers, but I have never seen this in any handgun ion which it is possible to shoot standard-length and magnum-length cartridges. It might happen, but I have never seen this phenomenon in any revolver I have inspected or used. It is not a common problem, even if it has happened. In fact, it may be one of those things which are common knowledge, but just ain' t so!

The .44/40 is, not only a bottlenecked case, it is the .45 Colt necked to hold a .427" bullet. It is therefore larger at the base than a .44 Magnum/.44 Special. It won' t enter a .44 Magnum chamber.

propmahn

i should have added though that after a few grand of 38spls in my 357mag that i have no problems though after shooting a few hundred 38s the 357 do take a more pressure to seat because it you want to seat them you have to push out of the way the fouling from the 38s.
though now that i think about it ive not seen a gun with worn chambers at all so i have to say that i think the problem is more theorectical than realistic. i suppose with a lot of hot rounds it might be possible but that would depend on the steel. i say get it and dont worry about it

whelen36

thanks guys ,
i understand what you were talking about now , i wasn' t sure of what i had heard/read but , when i saw the title of this thread and read down it , i thought it would be a wise decision to ask , so i can safely use specials in my mag. as for the .44-40 , i have no experience with this cartridge , and didn' t really know that much about it except that it was .44 caliber , and it was long enough to fit in a .44 mag chamber, and of course the historical stuff about the winchester rifles and the colt single actions , but now i do , and i' m glad you told me as i really didn' t want to get some ammo that i couldn' t use , thanks again
whelen36

whelen36

BTW-just wanted to let you know my .44 mag is a ruger super blackhawk in stainless , i' ve put a red dot scope on it but , with low magnification , but it is still great for the woods of northeast PA

Nomercy

When I owned a .454, I only shot .454' s through it once in a blue moon, heck, even when I took it after deer I' d take .45colt half the time! As far as hotloading .45colt to hunt with in the .454, I' d say that' s kind of a waste, a guy might as well reload the .454' s to standard pressures instead of pushing the .45colts that hard. I mostly shot factory loads in mine (was before I started reloading) so buying .45colt was much cheaper to plink with than .454, and when I found rounds that shot well, I figured why switch, might as well hunt with them. I only took .454 ammo when I had sighted with it and when I was on a " first deer of the year" hunt.