Taken off of Triton's Website.
"A notice to Triton customers and .45 Super fans…
On April 4, 2000 the decision was made at Triton to discontinue production of .45 Super ammunition. Recently it came to our attention that Ace Custom 45’s and Texas Ammunition have made statements regarding Triton and our decision to discontinue production of .45 Super. In an effort to set the record straight on the .45 Super and Triton, here is some background I would like to share…
I first read about the .45 Super cartridge in the August 1988 issue of GunWorld magazine. Tom Ferguson wrote a great article on the cartridge and I was intrigued by its ballistics. Tom described the way Ace Hindman, of Ace Custom 45’s, modified a 1911 to handle the cartridge and how the ammunition had to be made. At that time the .45 Super was based on .451 Detonics Magnum brass. Prepping the brass for .45 Super involved trimming the brass to proper length and inside neck reaming it to accept the seated bullet. At that time .451 Detonics Magnum brass was still available on the market. Another alternative was to trim .45 Winchester Magnum brass to proper length and inside neck ream it. Since .451 D-Mag brass was based on shortened .45 Win Mag brass, the end result was the same.
I first contacted Ace Hindman in February of 1989. Ace was very patient with me as I asked him every conceivable question on the .45 Super. I later corresponded with Ace via letters.
From that point till late 1993 I experimented on my own with a mixture of .45 Winchester Magnum and .451 Detonics brass. My handloads were pretty darn close to the loads I read about. The downside was the brass. The .451 Detonics brass was next to impossible to find and trimming .45 Winchester Magnum brass left a lot to be desired.
By the Fall of 1994 Triton Cartridge Corporation came into existence. At that time I called Ace Custom 45’s and looked forward to speaking with Ace. It was then when I learned about his passing away. I spoke with his son Garey who told me that he took over where his dad left off. I explained my previous contact with his dad and my interest in reviving the cartridge. By 1994 the .45 Super cartridge was no longer available. The Detonics brass was nowhere to be found and once again, no one took interest in trimming .45 Winchester Magnum brass. Factory loadings of .45 ACP +P were the only thing out there close to the .45 Super.
Garey Hindman agreed that a factory loading of .45 Super ammunition was the key to the success of the .45 Super. With his permission I put the wheels in motion and contacted Starline Brass. Robert Hayden, at Starline, agreed to make .45 Super brass. I sent him virgin .451 Detonics Magnum brass and asked him to take the .45 Super one step further in the strength department. Shortly after our conversation I had the first .45 Super test samples, curiously headstamped .45 Win Mag. I guess the .45 Super always did go back to the .45 Win Mag in its lineage! I tested the brass and was very impressed with its strength. With that, Triton ordered the first batch of true .45 Super brass.
From there Triton started off with two factory loadings of the .45 Super, a 185 grain and a 200 grain version. Jan Libourel, at that time the editor of Handguns magazine, wrote the first article on the .45 Super (July 1995 issue) with actual factory loaded ammunition. Triton expanded its loadings to include a 230 grain JHP and a 230 grain FMJ called the Hunter. To bridge the gap between .45 ACP +P and full house .45 Super, Triton also released the .45 Super "Tactical" line. By the release of our 1995 catalog Triton offered eight different versions of .45 Super ammunition.
By 1996 more articles had come out on the .45 Super. Robar released their version of a 1911 conversion. That same year Triton picked up two major distributors to carry Triton’s full product lines, including the .45 Super. I asked the buyer from one of the distributors to consider ordering a 1911 factory chambered for the .45 Super. Shortly thereafter Springfield Armory received orders from two of our distributors for 1911s in .45 Super.
What seemed like a steady rise upward for the .45 Super was turning into a difficult battle. The .45 Super concept met with strong opposition from other major ammunition manufacturers. The same held true from the larger firearms manufacturers. The universal complaint was that the cartridge case shared the same exterior dimensions as the .45 ACP, thus the potential for .45 Super being fired from a gun not converted to handle it. Triton was the first to say that the pressures .45 Super ammunition (28,000 PSI) was loaded to was not much greater than .45 ACP+P (24,000 PSI). That fell on deaf industry ears. That also guaranteed no chance for formal acceptance from SAAMI on the .45 Super cartridge.
Much time and money was spent keeping the .45 Super in the limelight when it came to our printed materials. We continued to produce various loadings of .45 Super ammunition with tremendous support from the editors and writers of various magazines. However, even with all the notoriety the .45 Super received in the publications, the same response came from the major firearms and ammunition manufacturers.
The writing was on the wall for Triton and the .45 Super cartridge when Ace Custom 45's made the demand that Triton sign a new trademark licensing agreement over the usage of the .45 Super name. The new agreement now included a royalty to be paid for every round sold of .45 Super ammunition. With all the money Triton already invested in the .45 Super project, we reluctantly signed the agreement. Needless to say, that is against the industry standard. Cartridges like the 357 SIG, .40 S&W, 460 Rowland, etc. do not come linked to a royalty fee. It is in the best interests of a cartridge to have everyone embrace it and adopt it into their product line. To make matters worse, we watched the .45 Super ammunition sit at the bottom of our sales figures.
Another major blow to the future of the .45 Super came when a major firearms manufacturer decided to break from the ranks and take a serious look at the .45 Super cartridge. They decided to offer one of their new semi-autos in .45 Super and bring it out at the '98 SHOT Show. What the firearms manufacturer hadn’t planned on was that there would be a royalty linked to the .45 Super name and they wouldn’t be able to sell their guns without a fee. In short, that concept didn’t go over well. Before SHOT Show was even over the firearms manufacturer told Ace Custom 45’s corporate attorney that there would be no .45 Super from that company in this lifetime.
Also in 1998 a new ammunition manufacturer came on the scene with a line of .45 Super ammunition. It wasn’t Federal or any of the other large ammunition manufacturers that Triton had previously approached. The new company, Texas Ammunition, was founded by Karl Vancil (corporate attorney to Ace Custom 45’s) and Garey Hindman.
From the very beginning Triton’s goal was for a major ammunition manufacturer to pick up the .45 Super. What hadn’t been expected was to be in the same market with the company Triton paid a royalty to.
From 1998 through 1999 the .45 Super sat at the bottom of Triton sales. No other firearms manufacturers were willing to embrace the cartridge and no large ammunition maker would touch it.
Stepping back a bit to 1996, Triton began development of a new cartridge. Like the .45 Super, it was also based on the .45 Winchester Magnum. We called it the .40 Super. In 1999 the .40 Super made its official debut in the November issue of Handguns magazine with the first factory chambered .40 Super from STI. The response was overwhelming. Triton sold more .40 Super ammunition in the first six months of its release than the entire .45 Super Triton sold from 1995 to 1999.
With .40 Super sales skyrocketing and the .45 Super on the opposite end of the scale, Triton began contemplating what to do with the .45 Super. By the end of March the decision was made to drop the .45 Super. On April 4th word went out to our vendors that we would no longer produce .45 Super ammunition.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our customers. Thank you for your continued support of our products.
Sincerely,
Fernando Coelho
President/CEO
Triton Cartridge Corporation"
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Schmit
GySgt, USMC(Ret)
NRA Life, Lodge 1201-UOSSS
"Si vis Pacem Para Bellum"
