The different kinds of .45 ammo

The Different Styles of .45 Caliber Ammo

The 45 caliber is my favorite round, but knowing which cartridge you should choose is difficult. So here are the some differences between them, and how they came to be. There are 4 main types of .45 caliber ammo. It all started with the original .45 colt. Then the 45-70 was developed as a .45cal rifle. Next came the .45 ACP. There are also off shoots/competitors of the colt and the .45 ACP, which I will go into more latter. Let’s start on what does .45 mean. The .45 stands for the diameter of the bullet itself. As you can see from the image it is actually a little bit bigger so that it gets a tight fit in the barrel. The main differences are in the overall cartridge length and case design.

                                                      

       

          Let’s start, where the 45 began, with the .45 Colt. It is caricaturized by its smooth cartridge and pronounced rim.  It is sometimes referred to as the long colt, because a few years into its run as the main Army side arm Schofield had their version of the 45 out as well. The 45 colt was designed in 1872. It was developed off of the colt 44, with a few differences, for the US Army. The 45 Schorfield, or as it is more known 45 S&W, was develop in 1875. The 45 S&W was also used by the Army at the same time. Until the Amy standardized to the colt 45. Then in 1957 the 454 casual was designed, by Dick Casull and Jack Fullmer, off of the colt as a magnum version. The main difference is length, and amount of powder it holds. They say you can fit a 45 colt into a 454 casual firearm, but not the other way around.

          The 45-70, or known as 45 government, was developed in 1873 as a rifle round for the US Army. It was originally made with a 405 grain bullet that was accurate out to 300 yard. Later they developed the 500 grain bullet for it that could reach out to 3,350 yards. Its effective range was 1000 yard, but in 1879 at the beach of Sandy Hook it shot out to 2 mile. In that test it penetrated 3” of oak, and then 8” in to the sand, which even by today’s standards is still an amazing shot. The two rounds are designated by their bullet grain after the cartridge size, like 45-70-405 or 45-70-500.

          In 1904 John Browning, One of the most well-known gun designers in history, introduced the 45 ACP, Automatic Colt Pistol. He developed it for the Colt semi-auto .45 pistol, which was later known as the m1911. The 45 ACP is also known as the 45 auto, which is still one of the most popular hand gun cartridges around today. I will be going into this camber model more in the future, so check back for more blog posts.   

 

A few variants have sprouted of the 45 ACP, which include the 45GAP and the 45 super. The 45 GAP was made by Ernest Durham, an engineer for CCI, for Glock in 2002. It is a specialty, off shoot of the 45 ACP, with what is supposed to be the same power as the 45 ACP. But it is shorter with a strengthened case head, as you can see from the photo (figure 2). It was specifically made for sub compact weapons, and even a few other companies picked it up for a few years, but both companies have since fazed it out. The only company still producing weapons in the chamber is Glock. The 45 super is another off shoot of the 45 ACP. It was developed off the same case dimensions as the 45ACP, but made out of a thicker and stronger case. They also had to go through a chamber redo due to the fact 45ACP case head are not fully supported, and with the extra power they needed to fix the gap at the feed ramp on most pistols. It is said to have around 300ft/s over the standard 45ACP. But it also allows for a smaller framed hand gun.

         
        It is interesting to see the history of one of the most popular calibers of over 120 years. In fact the colt 45 was almost the colt 44, if not for the military saying it would only use 45 caliber handguns from then on. And it will be nice to see what new innovations are yet to come for the .45.