.45 Colt in a .410?

T

thedaddycat

New member
I was looking things over the other day and came across the H&R single shot .410 I got for Christmas so many years ago. It is chambered for 3" shells. Then I started thinking about the handguns that will chamber both .410 shells and .45 Colt centerfire rounds. Now I have slugs for the .410 already and don't really use it much any more except for fun and teaching the kids, so my questions are purely accademic...

Will a .410 shotgun with a 3" chamber be able to chamber and fire .45 Colt ammo? Would it be any more effective than slugs?

My guess is that the answers are yes and no respectively. I have no intention of doing this as I have enough other chamberings that I need to stock up on already without adding another to the list.
 
Fire 45 Colt? Sure - one time as the gun splits open and causes injury

Those guns you speak of are rated for the 45 Colt and just "happen" to have a chamber long enough for a mild 410

Not safe the other way around
 
I wouldnt try it, NOW I DONT KNOW the chamber pressures of each catridge respectivly but obviously its an older gun. I dont know but i wouldnt try it.

Odd question though, makes ya think
 
The .45 Colt will probably chamber, but I certainly wouldn't fire it. The bullet is .452" (or a tad bigger) while the bore of a 410 is, you guessed it, .410". If you have a full choke the constriction at the end of the barrel is 0.395" in diameter. Trying to sqeeze a .452 bullet through all that is going to make the internal pressure skyrocket. At the very least you'll wind up with a bulged barrel.

Now, if they'd ever made a .41 Special that might work through a cylinder choke.. (No, I wouldn't try that either.)
 
nuh-uh

.45 Colt in a .410?
Click to expand...

This question pops up frequently across the many shooting related fora found online.
The answer has already been provided.
The confusion (if that is what it is) is caused by the fact that there are firearms chambered for .45 Colt that, with specially lengthened chambers, will also fire .410s.
The "main" chambering is, however, .45 Colt.
.410 down a .452 bore.....no problem. Not the other way round, though.
In fact....I have three .410 shotguns, none of them will chamber a .45 Colt cartridge.
I have read that - under emergency conditions - some folk have used .38/40 cartridges in .410s (cylinder bore) as the bullets are .400" diameter. Accuracy is poor.
Pete
 
While shopping in Wal-mart today in my favorite section I came across a rifle version of "The Judge" that shoots both the 410 and .45 colt.
 
My T/C Contender has a...

.45COlt / .410 barrel for it.

Have shot .410 (@ skeet station 1, 7, & 8 - which is a hoot)

Haven't shot the .45 but seem that other have no problem.

Maybe the age of the .410 wil be the limiting factor.

Check with a gunsmith, is best I can recommend.
 
DON"T DO IT!!!!!!

Its not the age, or even really the strength of the .410 that is the issue, its the BORE SIZE!!!!

.45 caliber solid lead bullet down a .41 caliber bore? NO NO NO!!!!!!

Those guns (Judge, T/C Contender) chambered for the .45 Colt/.410 are .45 caliber bores! They are (as others have said) .45 caliber guns that happen to be able to fire the .410 shell. It does NOT work the other way around!
 
I have 2 .410 shotguns, one is a Rossi Circuit Judge. You have to have a special gun that fires .45s you can't just shoot .45s out of a .410 shotgun. I got my circuit judge last December right after they came out, only one gun store around here within probably an hour or 2 drive had them. He had 1 and said he ordered more but they are on back order. Now that it's a year later, walmart carries it. For those that do have one, walmart generally carries 000 in 2 1/2 inch Federals (4 pellets) and I've found the 3 inch ones at a gun store (5 pellets). That and cheap cowboy .45s make a pretty fun gun at the range. And Hornady sells ballistic tip bullets made for lever guns that are very nicely priced.
 
Confused

While I absolutely agree that the OP should not fire a rifle cartridge in a shotgun, I'm a little confused about some of the responses explaining why not. I don't understand why the age of the weapon has anything to do with it.
I have always understood that rifles are built to handle very, very high pressure in the chamber and barrel. I also thought that shotguns were built with much thinner walls, b/c they operated at (comparatively) very low pressure.
Therefore, it seems to me that it would always be exceedingly dangerous to fire a rifle cartridge from a shotgun. And vice-versa, a weapon built to handle rifle pressures would always be able to handle any pressure a shotgun shell generates.
Similarly, I suppose I can see that if the bore is big enough, perhaps the bullet will be so loose that the gas charge just bleeds around the bullet and therefore, the barrel never generates the rifle type pressure that could damage the shotgun - but in that case, you'd think the bullet would sort of never get any velocity/power, and would sort of fall out of the muzzle. And I'm not sure how the chamber/bolt are affected by pressure, but it can't be good.
So, I don't see why it would matter if I'm using my grandfather's antique or a built last week shotgun - it would be "crazy dangerous" (the technical term) in both. (OK, it would clearly be "more crazy dangerous" in the older weapon, but I doubt manufacturers so overbuild shotguns today that it would be "safe" (= "sane dangerous?")).
 
Lzwo. I think you are correct that it is dangerous in all ALL shotguns, they will often have fixed chokes making the bore just that much tighter.
 
Been there, done that, split barrel looked like a musket. Had to explain to my uncle what I did to his gun. Back in about 1961. DUMB KID!!
 
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