Colt New Service in .45 Colt

[Red River Rick]

Anyone have one of these chambered in .45 Colt?

If so, how much material is there (thickness wise) left between the chambers and the cylinder walls?

RRR

[bob208]

at the thinest part .058 between chambers

from chamber to out side of cylander .050

[David LaPell]

That cylinder is a pretty heft chunk of steel one way or another, but these guns have their limits like any other. I tend to keep the loads fairly mild, so mine are 255 grain Lyman 452424's with 7.5 grains of Unique. It shoots pretty well.

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss57/Smith29-2/newservicestump.jpg
http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss57/Smith29-2/Picture1116.jpg

[Grandpas50AE]

David, that is a really nice load, even in the Ruger BH. Low recoil and accurate, just a pleasure to shoot.

[Red River Rick]

Gents.

Thanks for the info, It was exactly what I was looking for.

I have a New Service that someone decided to open the throats up. It was originally chambered for .38-40.

I was hoping to re-chamber it to .45 Colt, but I wanted to make sure there was enough meat on the cylinder before I proceeded. Seems like it will work.

Again, thanks for the help.

RRR

[Grapeshot]

I've got two. One is an M1909 in .45 Colt and the other is a .455 Eley. The 1909 is a hoot to shoot but I keep my loads down to a 255 grain Lead Boolit over a 6.0 grain charge of Trail Boss. The .455 needs to shot with the .45 Cowboy Special Brass, & a Jacketed 230 to 250 grain Bullet over 5.5 grains of Unique.

Both guns are over 100 years old and I don't want to take any chances.

There was a reason the Elmer Keith chose the S&W Tripple lock and it's successors in .44 to juice up.

[smkummer]

I also have a converted 455 eley to 45 Colt and a 1909 Army. I have fired the 454190 bullet sized to 454 with 9 grains Unique in both. Very powerful and I'll probably drop back to 8.5. If your gun was made after WW1, it may have better heat treating to it. The cylinder is thicker than the SAA. Enough so that the military made a 45 Colt round called the 1909 round that had a wider rim for positive extraction from a DA revolver but could only be loaded in every other chamber in a SAA.

[Good Cheer]

Does your 1909 have a recessed groove and square looking shoulder at the entrance into the chamber throats?

[EDK]

Once upon a time, NUMRICH aka GUN PARTS had 357 cylinders for the New Service. Don't know if they were original or new manufacture. I'd be cautious about the steel in one of these old guns. 45 ACP/auto rim might be a better choice of calibers.

My brother had a S&W converted to 45 Long Colt and there were see through bolt notches after they got done re-chambering. OUCH!

I'd dig out the measuring toys and double check dimensions....especially the depth of bolt notches. A MINIMUM size chambering reamer would also be a good idea. There's a wide range of dimensions on various 45 Colt chambers...you've heard the horror stories on various web sites. There have been a bunch of articles about dimensions over at HANDLOADER magazine of late that might be of interest also.

:redneck::cbpour:

[Mohillbilly]

My 1909 Colt has fired about a dozen 10 gr. unique rnds with a lee semi wad . I have since droped down to about 6.8 to find the " sweet " spot .