Gun Digest Big Fat Book of the .45 ACP

402 Pages·2009·17.22 MB·English

by  Patrick Sweeney

EVERYTHING
You’ve Ever Wanted to Know
Gun
About America’s Favorite Handgun Cartridge!
Digest®
Designed nearly a century ago, the .45 ACP cartridge has earned a well-deserved B
reputation as a superbly accurate, slap-‘em-down handgun cartridge. An honored
veteran of two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and lesser confl icts across the globe, I
G
the .45 ACP is now more popular than ever for competition shooting, law enforcement and
self-defense.

Handgun expert Pat Sweeney gives you the inside scoop on America’s favorite big-
F
bore cartridge. If you own a handgun or carbine chambered for the big .45 – or if you’re
considering buying one – you’ll fi nd everything you need in Gun Digest® Big Fat Book of A
the .45 ACP.
T
It’s All Here:
• The origins of the .45 ACP and the guns that use it
• B
Reloading tips, tricks and techniques
•
The inside story of .45 ACP cases, bullets, primers and powder
• O
And so much more!
It’s the best one-volume guide to the most popular
O
big-bore handgun cartridge of all time!
K
PATRICK SWEENEY is the author of
t
many of Gun Digest books’ best-selling titles, ho
ef
including Gun Digest® Book of the AR-15, Gun
.
Digest® Book of the AK and SKS, Gun Digest®
4
Book of the Glock and Gunsmithing: Pistols
and Revolvers. A master gunsmith, Pat is also
Handguns Editor for Guns & Ammo magazine 5
and a featured guest on Guns & Ammo TV.

A
C
P
US $24.99
Z4204 (CAN $29.99)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4402-0219-3
ISBN-10: 1-4402-0219-2 Sweeney
52499
PC Gun Digest® Books N
U A
E
An imprint of F+W Media, Inc.
www.gundigestbooks.com
0 FnL1 04 0120 01 JUYrVyBQdWJsaWNhdGlvbnMsIEluYyAo 02 SW9sYSBkaXZpc2lvbikPR3JlZ29yeSBL 03 cnVlZ2VyAEmr568EMTAuNAI4MAExBVVQ 04 Qy1BDDA3NDk2MjAxMDAwMQA= 74962 01000 1 9 FnL1 04 0124 01 JUYrVyBQdWJsaWNhdGlvbnMsIEluYyAo 02 SW9sYSBkaXZpc2lvbikPR3JlZ29yeSBL 03 cnVlZ2VyAEmsDAEEMTAuNAI4MAExBkVB 04 Ti0xMw05NzgxNDQwMjAyMTkzAA== 781440 202193
ZZ44220044FFuullllCCVVRR..iinndddd 11 99//1100//0099 22::1188::4433 PPMM
FFrrttMMaatttteerr..iinndddd 11 99//1100//0099 11::2288::0033 PPMM
©2009 Krause Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of F+W Media, Inc.
Gun Digest® Books
An imprint of F+W Media, Inc.
www.gundigestbooks.com
Our toll-free number to place an order or obtain
a free catalog is [phone].
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to
be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on
radio, television, or the Internet.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009923228
ISBN-13: 978-1-4402-0219-3
ISBN-10: 1-4402-0219-2
Designed by Dustin Reid
Edited by Dan Shideler
Printed in the United States of America
FFrrttMMaatttteerr..iinndddd 22 99//1100//0099 11::2288::0055 PPMM
D E D I C A T I O N
A
s always, to Felicia. You can thank her for my meager
skills at writing and the fact that my spell-checker and
grammar software does not explode before my editor
gets this.
To Dan Shideler, who goes through the text and makes sure I
don’t repeat my jokes too often and that the package arrives on
time.
And to two fellows with unending interest: Charley and Oberon.
From the amount of talking I’ve done while walking them, on this
and other books, you’d think they would understand it by now. But
they don’t, they just wag their tails and look longingly at the squir-
rels I won’t let them chase.
FFrrttMMaatttteerr..iinndddd 33 99//1100//0099 11::2288::0055 PPMM
C O N T E N T S
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 1: In the Beginning… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 2: What To Shoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 3: The Case of Brass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Chapter 4: Bullets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Chapter 5: Powders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Chapter 6: Primers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Chapter 7: Fun With the .45 ACP . . . . . . . . . 195
Chapter 8: Reloading the .45 ACP . . . . . . . . . 201
Chapter 9: Factory Ammo and Testing . . . . . 263
Chapter 10: Offshoots of the .45 . . . . . . . . . . 309
Chapter 11: Competition with the .45 ACP . . 353
Chapter 12: Defense with a .45 . . . . . . . . . . . 371
FFrrttMMaatttteerr..iinndddd 44 99//1100//0099 11::2288::0055 PPMM
FFrrttMMaatttteerr..iinndddd 55 99//1100//0099 11::2288::0088 PPMM
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
T
he fi rearms industry, except where the people in charge aren’t really fi rearms
people, is surprisingly free and easy with information. You can ask a question of
someone in the biz, and unless what you asked concerns a proprietary process
that the maker spent a lot of money to fi gure out, you’ll usually get an answer. If it’s some-
thing that a real goof could get himself in trouble knowing or attempting, the engineer, bal-
listician or a PR guy might remain a bit closed-mouth about it.
But a whole lot is out there to be known, if you just ask.
In the course of writing this book I worked with many in the ammunition and fi rearms
manufacturing industries. Among them, Jason Nash at ATK, Steve Johnson at Hornady, Ken
Alexander, Fernando Coelho now of Eotac gear, Peter Pi and Mike Shovel of Cor-bon and
Hunter Pilant of Starline as well as his dad, Carroll Pilant, from Sierra.
I’d also like to thank the folks at both Lapua and Sako for giving me a tour of their ammo-
making plants while on vacation in Finland. The very idea of allowing a technically-educated
person loose in a manufacturing plant with camera and notebook strikes fear in the hearts
of many an American MBA or business consultant. But the Finns are made of sterner stuff.
(Just ask the Soviets.)
I’m sure there are technical details that I’ve left out, at least “left out” where the desires
of some readers are concerned. For instance, the subject of cast lead bullets and what they
should be for various applications is quite useful—and more than this book was meant to be
or could be. If you want the lowdown on that particular subject, you can either read Veral
Smith’s Jacketed Performance with Cast Bullets or wait until I do the planned handgun re-
loading book.
If you want to know just what the pressure limits are for the .45 ACP, so you can “take
advantage” of all the “unused pressure capacity” of the .45, you really ought to lie down with
a cold compress on your forehead. You won’t fi nd out how to magnum-ize the .45 here. Nor
will you fi nd it in the handgun reloading title to come. Some things are perfect as they are,
and attempts to make them more are fraught with peril should be avoided.
An example comes to mind: I once met a fellow shooter who was inordinately proud of
his truck. He had taken his beaten-up, high-mileage Ranger, and managed to wrestle a V-8
engine into it—a 351 Cleveland as I recall. He had shoehorned it into the engine compart-
ment. “Yes, I had to trim the radiator and ducting, reroute the wiring, it needed bigger shocks
and springs and the transmission had to be rebuilt. But boy does it run,” he told me. And
every time he goosed the throttle, the whole truck tipped and twisted on its suspension as the
torque increased.
No, if you want that kind of performance, you should go to a different vehicle, be that
vehicle a .44 Magnum or an F-150.
I did not begin my shooting and reloading with a .45 ACP. I started with a .38 Special and
then branched over to the .357 Magnum before I owned my fi rst 1911A1. But once I went to
the big bore, I didn’t look back for a long time. So thank you, gentlemen at Frankford Arsenal
and John Moses Browning. If not for you, we’d all be the poorer.
6
FFrrttMMaatttteerr..iinndddd 66 99//1100//0099 11::2288::0099 PPMM
I N T R O D U C T I O N
The Beginnings
T
here is a building in Rome called the Pantheon. I risk over-using the word
“unique” (which doesn’t seem to bother a whole lot of people these days) but
it is unique in a whole host of aspects. First, it is perhaps the oldest building
that has been in continuous use since it was constructed. Erected (actually re-built, but let’s
not quibble) in 125 A.D. by the Emperor Hadrian, it was built to house all the gods. Latin
is a grand language, and much of English is based upon it. Many words we use today are
recognizable Latin. Not that Julius Caesar would recognize what we speak, but many of
the words remain the same.
Pantheon is a word derived from Greek, and in Latin means “of all the gods.” The idea
was to assemble shrines for all the gods into one building, instead of having each in their
own temple scattered across Rome. There, the one-stop shopper could visit as many gods
as needed to solve their particular problem. Not that the old temples were abandoned or
torn down, no sirree. The others continued in use, but the Pantheon was meant to be a
place for all of them.
The building itself is a construction and architectural marvel. It is a dome 142 feet
across, made of cast concrete. Imagine a sphere with a diameter of 142 feet. Now, take
the equator of that sphere and turn it into a cylinder, extending to the ground. That is
the shape of the Pantheon. It is what architects call a “pure” building. You don’t see
many buildings shaped as cubes, nor rectangles of the golden proportion, but the Pan-
theon is a sphere perched on a cylinder. When it was made, it was the largest domed
building made. Since then, there have not been a whole lot of domes built bigger. Five
hundred years later, the church of Hagia Sophia was constructed in Constantinople.
While taller, at 182 feet above fl oor level, its dome is smaller in circumference at 102
feet. It is bigger?
Some will argue yes, others no. In Florence in 1296, the city fathers began work on
their magnifi cent new cathedral. By 1419 they had fi nished all but the dome, 42 meters in
diameter (same as the Pantheon) over the otherwise fi nished building. Fillipo Brunelleschi
won the competition to build a dome on the cathedral. Why did it take so long? Because at
that time, no one had fi gured out how to make a dome that large. Brunelleschi solved the
problem, but his dome isn’t a dome like the Pantheon. It is actually eight arches leaning in
on each other. Still, it is big, as wide as and taller than the Pantheon.
In 1547, Michelangelo took over work on the barely begun St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
When he was done, the dome design was fi nalized. It measures 136 feet in diameter, a few
feet less than the Pantheon. It is much higher, however, as it rests on four immense pillars,
such that the crest of the dome is 448 feet above the fl oor. It took almost 1,400 years to
beat the Pantheon. I can’t help but point out that the St. Peter’s dome is not just a series of
arches tipped in on each other like Brunelleschi’s, but is actually a dome within a dome.
Yes, Michelangelo cheated, making two domes in one to save weight. Yet, the Pantheon
7
FFrrttMMaatttteerr..iinndddd 77 99//1100//0099 11::2288::0099 PPMM
remains the largest spherical, cast concrete dome in the world. And it is not likely to be
surpassed as other construction methods are less expensive and less massive.
The Pantheon exists, essentially unchanged since its creation, for a simple set of rea-
sons. First, when Rome fell, the massive building was turned into a church. As such, it was
exempt from the “salvaging” that took place in Rome (and across the Roman Empire) for
a thousand years afterwards. The salvagers took blocks, marble and statues from existing,
abandoned, pagan buildings, to build new structures. Palaces and churches all over Rome
and elsewhere exist because they were put together from old Roman buildings. Also, the
unitized construction of the Pantheon defi ed salvaging. The dome was and remains one
large piece. You can’t steal building materials from it. Since you can’t disassemble the dome,
you can’t take anything out from underneath it. The statues, sure. They are gone. The fl oor
suffered from the ravages of time and the great oculus., wich is a circular hole in the dome
measuring 30 feet across. It lets in air and light, and also rain. The drains the Romans in-
stalled in the building obviously didn’t get the maintenance they needed, and the fl oor had
to be replaced over time
What has all this to do with the .45 ACP? Or anything fi rearms-related for that matter?
Words mean things, and they have history. Have you ever heard someone (besides me) use
the phrase “the whole pantheon?” That’s where it comes from. Or maybe you’ve heard
the usage “panoply?” Again, it is derived from Greek and Latin. In the shooting world,
we have a whole panoply of cartridges. You can get a “bullet board” or “cartridge board”
of all the calibers a maker offers. That is a panoply. It is the whole pantheon. Also, some
things, once made, are diffi cult to improve upon, even over large expanses of time. Can you
really improve on the .45 ACP?
Before you answer that, consider what it is and what function it serves. And then, cal-
culate carefully the cost of any “improvement.” Changes, if any, have come slowly, because
the original design is so perfect, so exacting, so suited to the use for which it was intended,
that it is hard to make improvements that are actual upgrades. Refi nements? Sure. Details
that proved troublesome over time and had to be corrected, you bet. But has there been an
overhaul of the basic design? Nope.
What obscures all that is the sheer ubiquity of the .45 ACP. It can be found everywhere:
pistols and revolvers, derringers, rifl es of all types, self-loaders, bolt guns and I’m sure there
was a pump-action rifl e somewhere along the way. Submachine guns are famous for be-
ing chambered in .45 ACP. Like central heating, the .45 ACP is such a common feature of
modern life (at least among the fi rearms-aware) that we take it for granted.
In the following tome we’ll cover all the essentials, and let you in on the aspects of the
.45 ACP that you might not have known. Having read this book I can’t guarantee that
you’ll be a walking, talking encyclopedia of things .45 ACP, but if you aren’t, it won’t be
my fault.
You will be able to go toe-to-toe with the .44 Special cognoscenti and the .44 Magnum
diehards. The 9mm fans won’t stand a chance, and reloaders all over town will be calling
you up for advice. So, pour a cold, frosty root beer, settle in and get to work.
8
FFrrttMMaatttteerr..iinndddd 88 99//1100//0099 11::2288::0099 PPMM
1
C H A P T E R
In The
Beginning...
T
o understand the context of the .45 ACP, you have
to have a grasp of what was going on the time some
refer to as “the good old days.” Let us hark back
to the nostalgic days of the year 1900: no penicil-
lin, no central heating, and no paved roads to speak
of except in the biggest cities (and then most likely they were brick
or cut stone), no radio, television, and no aircraft. By 1900 medical
advances had progressed to the point where hospitals were actually
places where one could expect to recover rather than simply a place
to go die. But that doesn’t mean you’d enjoy a stay there any more
than you’d enjoy a stay at a hospital today. Dentistry? Trust me, you
don’t want to know. In the 1880s, George Eastman had begun sell-
ing cameras with roll fi lm so glass plate technology was on the outs
but still going strong. In 1900 the fi rst Brownie camera appeared and
sold for the affordable sum of one dollar. Adjusted for infl ation, that
comes to just over $24.50 in today’s dollars. Film (roll size 117) was
manufactured for that Brownie until 1949.
9
xxxxCCHHAAPPTTEERR11..iinndddd 99 99//1100//0099 11::2288::4411 PPMM