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1873 Rifle in 45 ACP


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I have one that Cody did and love it. Once I found ammo that would cycle correctly it has been great.  One other thing that is critical is making sure to push the last round loaded well past the loading gate.  

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2 minutes ago, Tony Crowe said:

I have one that Cody did and love it. Once I found ammo that would cycle correctly it has been great.  One other thing that is critical is making sure to push the last round loaded well past the loading gate.  

Did you have him convert your rifle , or did you buy the rifle from him? What did it cost?

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I purchased a new rifle directly from him that he converted. The cost was just shy of $2000 including shipping to my FFL. 

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I confess to wanting one of these two.  Not for any really practical reason.  Yeah, brass is cheaper, but you can buy quite a bit of brass for the added expense of the conversion.  Anyway, I think it's cool idea several folks put into action.

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17 hours ago, Fireball #7709 Life said:

I confess to wanting one of these two.  Not for any really practical reason.  Yeah, brass is cheaper, but you can buy quite a bit of brass for the added expense of the conversion.  Anyway, I think it's cool idea several folks put into action.

Well, if you want to shoot Wild Bunch, and you don't load 45Colt.............

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19 hours ago, Patagonia Pete said:

I have one in my 66 that I use for blanks when I do cowboy reenacting.  It works just as intended.

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I think Cody cuts the barrel (chamber) to shorten it for .45ACP. The Smith Shop kit doesn't require any modifications to the barrel.

 

I don't know much about firearms design/ballistics, but if the chamber is too long, could the bullet strike the shoulder at the end of the chamber and cause some sort of wobble effect?

 

If this isn't a concern, the The Smith Shop kit seems like a heck of a bargain.

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1 hour ago, Lobo Too Slow said:

I think Cody cuts the barrel (chamber) to shorten it for .45ACP. The Smith Shop kit doesn't require any modifications to the barrel.

 

I don't know much about firearms design/ballistics, but if the chamber is too long, could the bullet strike the shoulder at the end of the chamber and cause some sort of wobble effect?

 

If this isn't a concern, the The Smith Shop kit seems like a heck of a bargain.

I think the “Kit” is just the carrier. It says on the website that the bolt must me modified. Anyone have experience using this?

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21 minutes ago, Ninety Caliber Al, 50218 said:

I think the “Kit” is just the carrier. It says on the website that the bolt must me modified. Anyone have experience using this?

 

The carrier is all you need for 45 cowboy special, a shortened 45 Colt that is the length of 45 acp.  45 cowboy special still has a rim and therefore is headspaced on the back of the chamber.  It would have a large amount of freebore before the bullet gets to the rifling.  A 45 acp has no rim so the cartridge would slide forward in the chamber until it hit the chamber shoulder.  I may or may not have my terminology right but that might clear it up.

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36 minutes ago, Brimstone Bill Willson said:

 

The carrier is all you need for 45 cowboy special, a shortened 45 Colt that is the length of 45 acp.  45 cowboy special still has a rim and therefore is headspaced on the back of the chamber.  It would have a large amount of freebore before the bullet gets to the rifling.  A 45 acp has no rim so the cartridge would slide forward in the chamber until it hit the chamber shoulder.  I may or may not have my terminology right but that might clear it up.

That makes sense to me, Bill -- thanks for clearing it up. I'm curious though how they say it works for .45ACP without any additional modification. Maybe the carrier has some kind of catch that will seat the case where a rimmed case would normally sit. Otherwise, how would you be able to extract the .45ACP case if it's buried in the chamber?

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58 minutes ago, Lobo Too Slow said:

That makes sense to me, Bill -- thanks for clearing it up. I'm curious though how they say it works for .45ACP without any additional modification. Maybe the carrier has some kind of catch that will seat the case where a rimmed case would normally sit. Otherwise, how would you be able to extract the .45ACP case if it's buried in the chamber?

This^^^^

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The Cowboy Carrier for '66 and '73 rifles (and '60 Henry) Allows '60, '66 and '73 clones chambered for .45
Colt to use Cowboy .45 Special cartridges
(.44 Russian or .45 ACP, as well as proper length .45 Blank ammo in appropriately chambered rifles.)

 

That is a quote from the instructions.

 

I do not think that you can take a rifle chambered in 45colt and make acp cycle correctly without modifying the chamber and bolt along with the carrier.

 

Just for grins and giggles I took one live 45acp loaded it in my 45colt rifle(73 Uberti), closed the bolt and everything looked ok, then held the muzzle down towards the ground and the round fell down into the chamber.

 

In order to run 45acp other modifications will be required.

 

The instructions say "appropriately chambered rifles" 

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45 acp would probably run fine as long as you pointed the rifle up in the sky!:P

 

I guess the smith shop means that their carrier will work with 45acp, the rest of the rifle is out of their hands.  It is not really a 'kit', it is more like one part to a conversion process.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Apart from having the ease of loading the same ammo, I do not see the point of modifying the rifle, it's way too expensive in my opinion, and really, does it make you any quicker for wild bunch at the end of the day?

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Looks like the carrier from the Smith shop has a cartridge stop that keeps the 45 acp  round from going to far down the chamber, however seems to me that the bullet would have to travel a little distance before it enters the bore. Wonder what that does to the accuracy? 

Rafe

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1 hour ago, Jackaroo, # 29989 said:

Apart from having the ease of loading the same ammo, I do not see the point of modifying the rifle, it's way too expensive in my opinion, and really, does it make you any quicker for wild bunch at the end of the day?

The short-stroked rifles run great with the short cartridge.  The smaller capacity makes for better loading density with a lower than standard velocity.  The 45ACP & C45S don't have density issues of their much bigger cousin, (45Colt).   I have a Marlin 1894 that I modified to run the Cowboy45Special... I didn't have to modify the chamber as the C45S is a rimmed cartridge.

 

The Smith's Sho[ carrier needs a modification to the bolt to run either the 45ACP or the C45S.  It consists of milling off a few thousands from one side of the front portion of the bolt for clearance by the sprung "wing" that acts as a cartridge stop in the carrier.

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Yea, I think just to run the 45 cowboy with the Smith shop carrier is a lot cheaper if you want to run the smaller cartridge rather than go to the bigger expense of the acp mod. But each to his own. I run a 44 Russian in my 66 for black powder as it's a great BP cartridge works well after a bit of fiddling.

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43 minutes ago, Rafe Conager SASS #56958 said:

Looks like the carrier from the Smith shop has a cartridge stop that keeps the 45 acp  round from going to far down the chamber, however seems to me that the bullet would have to travel a little distance before it enters the bore. Wonder what that does to the accuracy? 

Rafe

 

Probably not much more than 38 in 357............

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