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.45 Long Colt in a .410 shotgun?

sharkman69sharkman69 Member Posts: 856 ✭✭✭✭
edited April 2017 in Ask the Experts
Can you fire a .45 Long Colt shell out of a .410 shotgun? I asked a few people, and nobody seems to know, or wants to try it and see.

Comments

  • 11b6r11b6r Member Posts: 16,588 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Possible? Yes. How many times can you do it SAFELY? None.

    Will you find people that will tell you tat you CAN shoot .45 Colt, .44 Magnum, etc etc. I'm sure you will. But you are still forcing an oversized overpowered projectile out of a gun made to handle different pressure levels.

    As Dirty Harry said- "You've got to ask yourself- do I feel lucky? Well........ Do ya?"
  • JunkballerJunkballer Member Posts: 9,147 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    In my youth I did...only a few times, in a Stevens model 94 break-open single shot .410 with a very thick 3" chamber, I would NOT recommend it at all nor would I consider doing it now unless it was a serious emergency. PLEASE....do NOT take the risk !

    "Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee

  • rufe-snowrufe-snow Member Posts: 18,649 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    45 Long Colt cartridge, has a bullet diameter between .452/.454 diameter.

    A 410 Shotgun depending on the amount of choke in the muzzle. Could be between .390 and .410, Internal diameter, at the muzzle. This can vary, by amount of choke and manufacturer.

    Even with a cylinder bore, .410 shotgun. It Would be at least .030 undersized, as compared to the diameter of the 45 LC cartridge.
  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,579 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    On youtube "proofinthebox" or some channel like it they successfully fired several 454 Casull rounds in an old single shot Stevens 410. They did it with a lanyard and something to hide behind.

    Chamber pressures are generally higher than what is required to swedge bullets but it's not a good plan to shoot the wrong ammo in the wrong gun.
  • mrmike08075mrmike08075 Member Posts: 10,998 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The answer is don't do it - it's not worth the risk...

    Don't attempt to chamber or fire a .45 long colt cartridge in a .410 shotgun...

    Having said that there are guns specifically designed to utilize both cartridges - like the bond arms derringer and a variant of the nef handicapped rifle or the Taurus judge and it's clones...

    But I would not attempt what you are suggesting.

    Mike
  • Winston BodeWinston Bode Member Posts: 1,628 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I had a single shot .410 once and it was also marked for .45 Colt. It had a funny looking screw in choke? tube that looked like it had about an inch of rifling. I never fired it.
  • perry shooterperry shooter Member Posts: 17,390
    edited November -1
    you can also take a section of threaded steel 3/4 pipe, a pipe cap with a hole in the center and one of the FORM nails the kind that have two heads about 1/2 inch apart in pouring cement now cut the nail so one head is on the outside of pipe cap and other head inside the barrel sharpened to a point load the shot gun round into the pipe put in fireing pin you made the one end toward the shot shell other end out through the hole in the pipe cap then hit the exposed end of firing pin with small hammer [:0] BOOM but be careful the pipe will recoil and the barrel is not full choke. from the PLAY BOOK of 10 year old country bow that liked to play with things that went bang so your 45 long colt in a 410 is no contest on dumb things to try
  • tsr1965tsr1965 Member Posts: 8,682 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Do not do it. There is a greater possibility than not, that you will end up with scrap metal flying everywhere.

    Thompson Center started this long ago with their 357, and 44 Magnum Hotshots, in their respective Contender barrels that had a special screw in EXTERNAL choke tube, and special loaded extended shot capsules. They then graduated this Idea, by taking a 45 caliber rifled barrel blank, and chambering it for 410, and adding a special screw in choke with straight internal flutes to stop the shot charge from spinning on exit. Hence the 45 Colt/410 Barrel. It actually has a 0.452" bore, not 0.410 like a 410.

    Move later down the road, by a decade or so, and others start using this idea...a rifled 45 colt barrel with a 410 chamber, seems like a good versatile idea, and it is for some situations. Taurus started the revolver craze with the Judge, and S&W followed later on. It solves several problems, and creates some other's, confusion, being the biggest one, by giving folks this very idea, that if the cartridge fits in a chamber, that it MUST be OK to fire it.

    So for your best results, I would shy away from it.
  • Horse Plains DrifterHorse Plains Drifter Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 39,306 ***** Forums Admin
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by sharkman69
    I asked a few people, and nobody seems to know, or wants to try it and see.
    Why don't you try it and see?
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