45 acp bolt rifle

L

littlephil

New member
Howdy all, just wondering if any of y'all have built a bolt rifle in 45 acp. I've been thinking about building one for a while, and I've got a Turk mauser action laying around. It appears that Rhineland arms is still in business and their kits seem pretty reasonable price wise. I don't really have a specific use for such a rifle, just something I want to build and play with. Just looking for input from anybody whose built and or owned one. Thanks ahead of time for any input.
 
The DeLisle carbine was based on the Enfield action and chambered for .45 ACP and used Colt mags. Not sure about the others. It was used to assassinate dogs in WW2.
 
I built a .45 ACP No.4 rifle using another company's kit. Went together pretty well, except for removing the original barrel. Great shooter and lots of fun. I load .45 Super for it.
 
I have built several 93 Mausers in 45ACP over the years using the kits you used to be able to get from Numrich. Not totally trouble-free, but they are fun to shoot.
 
Model12win, I love the look of those carbines and I've heard they were really quiet. I've thought about suppressing mine if I do build one.

JonnyC, I've heard that the Rhineland kits can be finicky to get to feed from the mag, but that's about the worst I've heard about them. Do you use actual super cases or just use super loads in acp cases? I've also put some thought into running the super cases or even 450 smc (if I can ever find any brass for the latter) through it with some heavier bullets since it'll handle the pressure with no problems.

Scorch, I'm pretty excited to put this one together. Even if I have to shoot it as a single shot for a while till I get it to feed right I'll still be happy. I'm thinking that I want to stick it in a boyds thumbhole stock (just cause I guess) and probably put a 2.5 or 4x scope on it.

Thanks for the quick replies fellas.
 
I've thought about that too Bob, but for now I'm just gonna try and put one together without much "extra" cost. Although, the beauty of this rifle is, if I'm not satisfied with the acp for some reason, I can ream a new chamber for just about any round that takes .452 bullets and fits the same bolt face. Probably aren't many, but at least I'd have a few options. For now though, it'll mostly be just a plinker that just about anyone can shoot (except my lefty buddy if I go with a thumbhole stock).
 
I'd love to have a factory 9x19mm Luger Parabellum NATO bolt rifle or even one in .45 Automatic Colt's Pistol. Something like the see zed 452 but in those calibers, make the bbl 16.5" threaded or not but probably threaded since it'll sell better. Give it a good pair of tangents like comes on the see zeds.

But it will never happen. You pretty much have to make your own or have a custom outfit make it for tons of dollars if you want a bolt autopistol rifle.
 
I'm right there with you model12, I'd love to have one of each. The 9mm would be a cheap plinker and excellent on small game if the accuracy was there. I imagine the .45 will make a decent deer gun run with some .45 super loads and a good bullet. But like I said, it'll mostly be a fun, low recoil plinker for us. I think it'll be a great "go between" rifle when the kids are ready to step up from .22s, though they're still a little young yet to shoot anything (4, 2, and another due in June :rolleyes: ). I for one enjoy having different firearms, even if they're in the "just cuz" category.
 
Nobody has one of these rifles they care to share anything about? Accuracy, noise, game taking ability, making 1000+ yard shots? Ok, that last one wasn't serious, but still. :D I just wanna hear some feedback from people who own, have owned, or even have just shot one. But I suppose I'll just have to break down and build one anyway. :rolleyes:
 
I know of no factory models in 45ACP or 45 Colt, if I had the skills-or the money to buy them-an interchangeable barrel bolt action for 45ACP/45 Colt would be an interesting project.
 
I just wanna hear some feedback from people who own, have owned, or even have just shot one.
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What do you want to know? 45ACP out of a 20" barrel is very quiet, goes "poonk" instead of "BAM". No recoil to speak of, kind of like shooting a 22, Of course, the rifles weigh about 7 lbs or so, but you hardly notice it. Reloading it is just like a 22, grab another mag and shove it in, then start shooting again. They are fun, but of limited usefulness, just look at how popular the Marlin Camp 45 was (only lasted a couple of years in production).

If you really want a centerfire pistol cartridge carbine, look at the RIA 22 TCM/9mm convertible carbines, they cost about $500-ish and are pretty cute. Not a 45, but they look fun!
 
I would have a LOT of fun with a bolt action .45 ACP rifle. Admittedly, I am not the average rifle buyer... Outside of a p-dog red mist trip that I do annually, my primary use for any rifle is to ding steel plates at distance. I really want a Ruger 77/357 for precisely this reason.

Ummm, okay, let me be honest-- I actually want Ruger to make an American in .357 Mag for this reason, because I'm not willing to spend what a 77/357 costs for this use. But suffice to say that if they came out with a .45 ACP American or .45 ACP 77/45, I'd totally want one of those also.

Cheap, clean, easy fun, without the ahem "nuances" of handloading rifle rounds. And yes, I do handload rifle rounds, but pistol at the load bench is my preference in soooooo many ways.

I would have a blast with a .45 ACP bolt action rifle but I have to agree that it sure doesn't seem like a potential marketing bonanza for any gunmaker.
 
The drawback of most pistol rounds in a rifle is that it's still a pistol round. You are never going to be able to use it at rifle ranges so, it seems a waste.

For nostalgia purposes I can see a 44-40 or 38-40 but not anything less powerful. I am building a straight pull bolt action for 357 Maximum but I can get close to 2000 fps with a 180 grain bullet. It would make a decent woodlands carbine but it still wouldn't be much better than the revolver with a ten inch barrel.

For me a rifle has to shoot farther and with a high degree of accuracy. Still it does have some glamor when you only carry one round for a rifle and side arm.
 
Based on some of that thinking, the ideal would be a .50 BMG heavy barrel in .22 Short.

I confess that I have never understood the appeal of what amounts to a full size rifle chambered for a pistol cartridge; the DeLisle was conceived as a way to use junk rifles that otherwise would have been scrapped. Also note that the DeLisle had a silencer which made it very quiet indeed. While a modern user might be willing to pay the bill for a legal silencer, the utility would be limited at best. There were only some 150 originals ever made and some reports indicate that none were ever used in combat - the Brits may have been desperate but apparently not that desperate.

Jim
 
Sig, the only problem with an interchangeable bolt gun for those two would be the issue with having different rim diameters, needing different bolt faces. Also there would be the problem of needing two different types of magazine. However, since you mentioned it, I thought about it for a few minutes, and if a guy had a rifle with a removable bolt head (along with the machine tools to do the work himself), he could have two different bolt heads for the two cartridges. Kind of like on a savage 10/110, only in this case a magnum size bolt head would most likely have to be bushed down to fit the colt rim. It's a decent idea, though it would cost more than building two separate rifles if you had to pay for the work I imagine.

Scorch, that's pretty much exactly the type of info I was after, though I've heard or suspected the biggest part of it already, I still like hearing from the folks on here. I couldn't find anything on the carbine you referenced though, just the 22 tcm rifle. If you have or can find a link, I'd greatly appreciate it being posted. It definitely sounds interesting.

Sevens, just like you, I'm not a typical rifle buyer. I like odd stuff, or just something different. I don't know what it is about bolt guns in pistol calibers that I'm attracted to...actually I do. :D I like the fact that I won't just burn through ammo super quick like with a semi-auto or even a lever gun can. I don't have to chase brass near as bad as the others, and they're not "normal". I'd love to have one in everything from a .32 something up to maybe one of the .50 caliber handgun rounds, mostly just cuz. ;)

Shootist, where I shoot and hunt, there aren't a whole lot of places to shoot at anything beyond 100 yards or so. There are some exceptions, farm open fields and such, but (for deer at least) there's usually enough hunting pressure on public ground that the game is moving at a decent pace there anyway. The rifle that you're building sounds like it'll be a sweet little thing for the woods.

Jim, as far as the size and weight of the rifle, I'm used to carrying heavy guns anyway, and there aren't any appropriate sized actions around that I'm aware of. I'd love it if someone could produce an inexpensive action that was scaled down for pistol cartridges, but I don't see it ever happening. As for the DeLisle carbines, I've never heard any official numbers that were made, but I've heard several things they were used for. One being executing enemy dogs, and another that I hear often is to take out enemy sentries (spelling?). Not sure if any of it is true or not, but I think they're neat carbines anyway, and I like the fact that they found a use for the otherwise unusable rifles.

Thanks for the replies y'all, if I end up getting one of these put together, I'll post some pics if anyone is interested.
 
You know....we aren't talking about a butt load of pressure in the .45 ACP. Perhaps an action could be built?
 
I'd love to have the tools and skill to machine my own, but alas, I don't. I've seen some different builds online and in videos about "hardware store" gun builds, even people building bolt actions among others. I may check into it more in the future, see what kind of materials would have the correct pressure ratings and such. But a bolt action repeater seems a little too complex for my very basic metal working tools and my experience (or lack of) with making mechanical devices from scratch. But I have noticed that barrels can be found fairly cheap online, so cost probably wouldn't be too crazy for that kind of build. Having someone machine a reciever would be very costly I suspect. But I agree, as far as 45 acp or any other low pressure round is concerned, it shouldn't take much in the way of materials to make something from scratch.
 
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