anybody ever shoot a 44.40 in a 45 long colt revolver by mistake?

[Chemoman]

i admit i did by mistake. i though now whats wrong with my gun now? cant hit anything with it. then i saw what i had done. feel dumb about it.

[Cast_outlaw]

Haven’t done it but would like to here what happened ad see some pictures as today’s mantra goes “pictures or it didn’t happen” [smilie=l:

[smkummer]

Not yet. But I did take both a colt saa in 45 colt and 44 special to the range one day. Then I notice funny sounding ammo and stopped shooting only to eject swelled 44 special cases from my 45 colt. No damage and I even resized the 44 special cases back down. Now I’ll mix 38/357 with either 44 or 45. But I don’t take 44 and 45 together. Often my shooting range time includes a few friends and fellow range members and much shooting.

[DougGuy]

One of our members here shoots a 44 caliber SBH with a 45 Colt cylinder, says it shoots exceptionally well..

[smkummer]

I have often thought this may have happened in the frontier days. I suppose at very close range, that 44 bullet would still be lethal.

[Walks]

None of my .45Colt guns will accept a .44-40 cartridge.
Wider case head stops before rim contacts the edge of the chamber recess.

[Eddie Southgate]

I did the .44 special in the .45 Colt once to see how it worked . Cases swelled up and the bullets hit the ground about 20 feet in front of the target set at 25 yards .

[Texas by God]

An old friend of mine was active in CAS and he showed me a handful of brass picked up after a match. Yep, 44-40's blown out to .45 LC. He said that he had seen it a couple of times. I've fired CCI .44 Special/magnum shot loads in my break open 44-40 - and then throw the guppied aluminum Berdan primed hulls away.....

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[Lloyd Smale]

had some idiot i actually met on here that was from Sweden. He came all the way here to pick up a 500 max he had John Linebaugh built for him. Had him at the range a couple days before it came and i had many guns with me. Couple 500s and a 475 that he shot one shot each out of and put down and walked away. Shook my head right there and knew he bought that max just to impress everyone back home. I was shooting my 500 and he was on a bench a few yards away blazing away with my 4 5/8s super. I noticed he wasnt even hitting the 25 yard target and notched it up to the fact he was flinching so bad. I just chuckled and kept shooting. He came over a few minutes later and said theres something wrong with your gun. He showed me a hand full of brass that were all split the whole lenght. i looked and he had grabbed a box of 41 mag ammo and was shooting it in my 44. He had shot probably 30 rounds by then and waited that long to tell me about it. Thats when i lost patients with him and packed up and drove him back to his motel. I didnt answer the phone till the day his gun showed up and called him and told him it would be on the porch. pick it up and be gone. He was kind of a sickly pale weak guy. Sure not the type that would even buy a 44 mag let alone a 500max. He told me sweden had free medical and he got some medical monthly payment from the goverment but would never say what was wrong. My buddy hit it on the head when he met him. He said the sob probably had aids. Id about bet my life he was right. Never heard from him again and he disappeared from this fourm when he went home. Dont know if he was so embarrassed or he died.

[nicholst55]

That's why I only put one box of ammo, in one caliber (the correct one), on the bench at once. We had one of our Gunners force a round of 7.62X54R into a Winchester M70 in .308 once, at Yuma Proving Ground. He couldn't get the bolt closed, of course, but he certainly tried.

[Froogal]

After one CAS event, I ended up with a couple of 44-40 shells in the bag, mixed in with all of my .45 Colts. Didn't even know it until I tried to resize and deprime, and those 44-40 shells would not fit in the shell holder. Kind of had me doing a little head scratching for awhile.

[15meter]

Watched a buddy shoot a couple of 6.5x54's out of a 275 Rigby--a real Rigby rifle, not a lowly 7x57 like the rest of us shoot.

He's a bit of a Rigby nut.....

Well, they sounded a bit on the puny side but the boolits hit the dinger, figured out the puny sound when we picked up blown out and split brass.

We've paid more attention since then to what ammo is on the bench with which gun.

[Wayne Dobbs]

I've seen 9mm shot from .40 S&W pistols during police training/qual sessions. As soon as you hear it, you know what happened. It's a really flat report. I noted that it usually happened in low light quals and that the shooter's mags had been loaded by a fellow officer.

Also read that some reconstruction work on the Custer battlefields (there were several that day) indicated that the Indians were putting any cartridge they could get to close and fire in their guns. Apparently there were lots of misformed cases found on the sites that showed they did that.

[nelsonted1]

I found 243 brass fired out of .308 scattered around a shooting bench one day. I wondered if he tried to adjust his scope

[John Boy]

No but one dumb time I found out that 25-20’s don’t group when shot in a 32-20 rifle

[JoeJames]

My uncle said that in WW2 in Europe some claimed you could shoot 30-06 rounds in an 8mm Mauser. He did not say whether he had tried it or not. I reckon there might be a headspace problem there, and accuracy might be wanting.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I’ve accidentally fired .44 Special in a .45 Colt.

One time I showed up at a cowboy match after a 3 hour drive only to find I had my .44-40 cylinder in my SAA instead of the .44 Special cylinder.

[Green Frog]

Just as a FYI, ammo manufacturers used to make “Five-in-One” blanks that could be fired in rifles or revolvers chambered in 38-40 and 44-40 rifles as well as those calibers of revolvers and the 45 Colt too. Very handy in the heyday of cheaply made Westerns! :guntootsmiley:

Froggie

[one-eyed fat man]

Just as a FYI, ammo manufacturers used to make “Five-in-One” blanks that could be fired in rifles or revolvers chambered in 38-40 and 44-40 rifles as well as those calibers of revolvers and the 45 Colt too. Very handy in the heyday of cheaply made Westerns! :guntootsmiley:

Froggie

270408

[smkummer]

Yep, the 5-1 blanks show that the rim and base of those 3 cartridges are very close. While those cases were not intended to be reloaded, I do. If fired in a 44-40 or 45 colt, the case neck will expand enough so it won’t fit back into a 38-40 without some sizing. Starline sells empty 5 in 1 cases.
I reload with 700X powder, packing foam and sometimes card wads. Magnum primers sometime help with a good bang.

[15meter]

My uncle said that in WW2 in Europe some claimed you could shoot 30-06 rounds in an 8mm Mauser. He did not say whether he had tried it or not. I reckon there might be a headspace problem there, and accuracy might be wanting.

Sounds like the urban legend about the German waiting to hear the "ping" from a Garand before poking his head up. Never been in battle, but if someone was banging away at me with an M1, I doubt if I could concentrate enough to hear the "ping".

Never tried putting a 7.62x63(metrification of the 30-06) into a 8x57 chamber. 6 millimeters shorter is a bunch.

Not sure I have a big enough hammer to close the bolt on that one.

Anybody tried it?

I like "this is what happened when" more than my geezer speculation.:bigsmyl2:

[Bazoo]

I bought a rough rider once and the guy let me test fire it. So he handed it to me and said it's loaded. I cocked it and shot it. When I ejected the empties I noticed they were split. He had the magnum cylinder in it but was shooting long rifles. I said something bout it and he said oh the magnum cylinder works for both.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

I once shot a 44 magnum out of a 454 sounded like a popgun and hit the 10" gong at 100 yards

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I thought a guy at the range today was shooting the wrong ammo. He was using a silencer on his 9mm.

[Green Frog]

Yep, the 5-1 blanks show that the rim and base of those 3 cartridges are very close. While those cases were not intended to be reloaded, I do. If fired in a 44-40 or 45 colt, the case neck will expand enough so it won’t fit back into a 38-40 without some sizing. Starline sells empty 5 in 1 cases.
I reload with 700X powder, packing foam and sometimes card wads. Magnum primers sometime help with a good bang.

What, no BP for more flash and smoke? :Fire:

[Walks]

Cowboy Shooters who started reloading on a dillon press are very dangerous people to shoot around.
Got A call about 20yrs ago or so from one of the new members of one of the clubs I belonged to back then. He called to tell me something was wrong with his brass and his reloader. He lived fairly close, so the next day I went over to help him. He was reloading for .45Colt, the brass didn't fit right in his press.
He had cleaned his brass, but made no attempt to sort it.
Had .45Colt, .44Mag & Spl, .44-40, .38-40, .41Mag and even .38/.357 mixed together in a big blasted akro bin.
Found out his scale was not balanced or zero'd.
He had 500rds that I had watched him load, very carefully.
Four hours later I left with about 200rds of .45Colt that He had loaded before I got there. Took every case that wasn't a .45Colt with me too.
After breaking all that ammo down over the next week, I found what could have been a disaster waiting to happen. At least 10rds without powder, but about 40odd with light charges and some even with double charges.

Something I still remember in great detail.
Still have a .41Mag with a .452 bullets crushed down into it.

[Drm50]

I once shot a 270 out of a 3006. About 60yd shot at deer. The noise startled me and the deer. The deer recovered before I did and bolted. I didn’t hit deer but swear I herd bullet hit ground, weakly.
No damage to gun. Because of having many rifles I never form brass if it can be bought. If I have to form I turn brass with shallow groove through head stamp and color with felt tip marker to draw attention.

[Loudenboomer]

No not 44-40 in a 45 LC but my neighbor fired a .308 win in a 270 win. Disasterous results.

[john.k]

I been reloading 60 odd years,and got caught up in a powder clumping episode with some squibs,some double loads........Very fortunately ,the first round I fired was a squib,bullet actually stuck half out of muzzle .

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Once after loading I found a .30-06 with a .270 headstamp. At first I thought somebody at the factory screwed up. It became obvious that I had mixed a spent .270 brass in with the .30-06 brass for reloading.

[Savvy Jack]

Yeap, case mouth opened up real good and didnt even split

[El Bibliotecario]

In Sixguns, Elmer Keith recounts two lads being held captive by a badman and forced to work for nothing. While being relieved of his ammuntion, one was allowed to keep his .45 Colt revolver. (That doesn't make much sense, but I 'm just repeating what Keith wrote.) One day they found a 38/40 round, wrapped it in paper to make a tight fit in the chamber, and confronted their captor. Keith reports "it did the job."

[Outpost75]

.44-40 shot patterns fine in my Uberti New Sheriff.45 Colt revolver.

270457

[gwpercle]

No .... and if I did, I wouldn't tell anybody ...

[ddixie884]

I haven't shot any but had a couple 624s in boxes on a dresser and loaded them out of some baggies of handloads later happened to look closer at them and found I had a mixture of .44 and .41special ammo loaded in the cylinders. It made the hair stand up on my neck............

[Silver Jack Hammer]

We’ve sure seen .45 Colt cartridges loaded in ‘73 rifles at cowboy matches, jams them right up. Have to remove the side plate to clear the rifle.

It’s said famed Indian fighter Jeff Milton loaded a .45 Colt in a Winchester ‘73 during a fight. As the story goes he used his knife to remove the screws that held the sideplate and cleared the jam during the fight.

I have no doubt Jeff Milton could take his ‘73 apart blindfolded, but this is quite a claim.

[15meter]

Cowboy Shooters who started reloading on a dillon press are very dangerous people to shoot around.


Watched a cowboy shooter blow the top half of the cylinder and the top strap off an Uberti cowboy revolver ~10 years ago. He started the stage and had a squib on the first shot. Stopped the stage and went back and cleared the problem, reloaded and started the stage over. With the same box of ammo.

I was standing directly behind him, he was shooting out of a window with a tin awning extending out 18" from the building. He shot, there was a tremendous BANG and he stopped shooting. The tin awning was flexing up and down and he just stood there stunned. He had blown the gun with out getting hurt. Ripped a hole through the awning as the top of the cylinder and top strap departed for parts unknown.

He just stood there for a while pretty well stunned, stung his hand HARD but no other damage. Another shooter loaned him a revolver to finish the match, the lunatic started to load this loaner revolver out of the same box of ammo.

The guy who loaned the gun put a stop to that instantly--use his ammo or he was taking his gun back. Smart guy.

The other guy was a little insulted. He didn't think there was anything wrong with his ammo. He prided himself on being a reloading expert. And he had no problem lecturing other people on how to reload.

I tried to avoid shooting on the same posse as him after that.

Shot at that club this past summer for the first time in a number of years, for grins, I checked if they had replaced that awning. Not yet, just wish I had taken a photo.

I did the day he blew the gun up, can't find it. Took one of the gun and the awning pretty cool.

And I don't take loading advice from him.

[Larry Gibson]

I haven't but I'd bet a lot of Indians did, probably a few cowboys too........

[jason280]

Closest for me was shooting a couple .17 HMR rounds through a .22 Mag....split both cases.

[yeahbub]

I once fired a 16ga in a 12ga by mistake. It sounded underpowered, but I got the clay bird. When looking through a bucket full of reclaimed cases, I have found .38-40's blown out straight, apparently in a ,45 Colt chamber.

I had read somewhere that some sourdough in Alaska found he could shoot 8x57 in his .30-06 M-95 lever when he couldn't get proper ammo during the war. He told the author of the article that it kicked pretty hard but worked okay. I suppose the case expanding into the unoccupied chamber volume would reduce pressure somewhat, but swaging that .323 bullet down to .308 would be asking a lot. Seems to me that sourdough was tempting a terrible lingering end out in the wilderness.

A tool and die maker I met years ago bought a bunch of M-17's and Mausers to experiment on when you could get them through the mail. His son told me of his having made a reamer to cut a taper into the throat of the M-17 barrel to accept 8mm-06 in a .30 cal barrel. He fired them from a distance, but they would survive. At least they had a lead of sorts.

Another unfortunate mix-up is firing .300 Blackout in a .223 chamber, which apparently will chamber without resistance and is a guaranteed disaster for the rifle, if not the shooter.

[Art in Colorado]

i admit i did by mistake. i though now whats wrong with my gun now? cant hit anything with it. then i saw what i had done. feel dumb about it.
Shot 41 Mag in a 44 Mag Revolver. Kind of hard on the brass. No ill effects on revolver.

[Prairie Cowboy]

I bought a late 1950s Winchester 1894 carbine in .32 Win. Special from a friend. It came with a bag of 50 rounds or so of fairly old ammo.
One round sounded off when I shot it. Sure enough, the head stamp was .30-30.
Oh well, no harm done.
I would hope that the reverse would not be possible though!

It's also quite possible to fire .44 magnum in a .45 Colt revolver or rifle, and they do look alike.

[jrayborn]

Two pages and no pic's.

:(

[Outpost75]

Two pages and no pic's.

:(

271125271126271127

Kids, don't do this at home!

[Savvy Jack]

271125271126271127

Kids, don't do this at home!

hehehehehe

[afish4570]

Shot 41 Mag in a 44 Mag Revolver. Kind of hard on the brass. No ill effects on revolver.

Two shots... 1st shot had a failure to eject... completely...shook gun and bulged case fell to ground (bullet hit target just out just out of scoring ring down 1 point) I racked slide & fired 2nd round. A boom sounded and bullet came out & hit target (down 3 pts this shot) case split the entire length. No damage to gun but the 40 and 45 reloads had the same TC bullet design and looked so similar. Upon examination I had 8 more 40 rds I had emptied from a 40 mag and dumped into my 45 bag for the match a few days earlier.....Never can be careful enough. afish4570