.45acp Overall Cartridge Length

floorguy24

This may be a dumb question, but is the "typical" .45acp jacketed round point cartridge length 1.275 inches (32.4 mm)? [?]

This seems to be working just fine in both of my pistols, but I'm just checking.

McDAccountant

Yes, 1.275" is the max COL.

Hawk Carse

I'll phrase it the other way.
No, 1.275" is not typical, it is the SAAMI maximum OAL.

Much ammo, even roundnose, runs a bit shorter; hollowpoints and semiwadcutters are a lot shorter.

But if it runs in your guns, leave well enough alone.

floorguy24

Thank You, gentlemen. [;)]

I do run them shorter occasionally, so now I know it won't hurt.

I've never run them longer either. [:D]

dcs shooters

I run mine 1.250" and never have feeding problems in any of my 1911,s.

62fuelie

The only concern with running a given bullet shorter is that some may reduce the case capacity to the degree that pressures rise more than you may desire. We ran into this with the PMC semi-wadcutter load. In Colt and Sig chambers it was no problem but with Glocks and H&Ks the round wouldn't chamber as issued. We talked this over with Lane Ponich, when he was PMC's ballistician. It turned out that the bullet could not be seated deeply enough to function with the two polygonal barrels and keep the pressures acceptable to PMC.

perry shooter

Two things one must consider when loading to OAL is will they fit in every Magazine and can you extract a loaded round without dropping the magazine. For the most part if you are shooting in only one pistol, take the barrel out and with muzzle pointed down drop a loaded round in the chamber the case head should be inside flush with the back of the hood at least .004 of an inch.