am I the only person that's heard of 45/80?

T

tahunua001

New member
hello all.
I'm starting to get a bit miffed. just about any time get into a heavy cartridge conversation and I start talking about the 45/80 cartridge people just look at me weird. it used to be that people just thought I made a verbal typo and meant to say 45/70 but lately people have been getting rude, and strangely emotional and insisting that the 45/80 doesn't and has never existed... am I all alone here?
 
45-80

The 45-80 Sharpshooter was an experimental military cartridge developed in 1874. As far as I know, it never saw general service nor commercial use. It's no wonder no one but a few have ever heard of it. "It was adopted for use in the Model 1881 Springfield Sharpshooter Lengthened Chamber rifle" (Hoyem, P.68)
It is NOT listed in Barnes' Cartridges of the World, nor in George Nonte, nor in Ken Howell's "Custom Cartridges, nor in any of Datig's three volumes.
John Donnelly has a drawing and dimensions on p.603 of his "Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions"
George Hoyem provides a picture and some history on p.68 of The History and Development of Small Arms Ammunition, vol.2. Hoyem lists the date of development as 1880.
Pete
 
well to tell the truth, I had heard about it from my brother-in-law and brother while they were experimenting with reloading formulas in my earlier years and although I knew it wasn't really mainstream I didn't realize that it had such a short service life. don't get why they made the rifles before they had even fully tested the round though.
 
I do not know anything about the 45-80.What I will throw out there is this.Some cartridge designations were given as caliber annd case length,such as 45x2.1,or 45x2.4.Sharps did this.And,as different bullets and loads have different seating depths,a 300 gr load or a 405 gr load,whatever else they used,might have a different powder charge.
 
You're not he only one anymore. I'd never heard of it before today, so thanks for the education. As soon as I saw this thread I went to Cartridges Of The World, of course that was no help.

Stu
 
Barne's book is virtually complete, yet you still need to read all of the notes here and there to pick up all variations of some cartridges.
 
It was on the 2 4/10" case, was it not?
I recall that the Army liked it but did not want the expense of changing cartridges and chambers so they just loaded its 500 grain bullet in .45-70 for the rest of that round's "career."
Winchester and Sharps used the case length in commercial rifles.
 
from what I've read it was more of an issue with accuracy. they found that the difference in accuracy between 70 and 80 was actually more due to bullet weight than powder charge so they dropped the 500gr bullet into 45-70 casings and kept the old 405 gr for the lighter guns.
 
Seems like anybody who knows anything about various cartridges would know enough to know that there's no way to claim that something "doesn't and never did exist".
I guarantee there are and always have been cartridges that the worlds foremost experts have never heard of... and they're smart enough to tell you so.
For any local shmuck to claim such knowledge is just idiotic.
 
usually if I haven't heard of a round I just assume it's some new wildcat that someones making in their own basement. some are just confusing because they have so many names, for instance I was confused about difference between the 300 fireball, 300 whisper, and 300 blackout but was later told that they are all the same round with different charges
 
If it is based on the 45-70 round, there once was a cartidge available called the 45 basic that was based on that same case head, but it was about a foot long, so that a shooter could trim and size it to anything that they wanted to either replicate or wildcat.

I think that bell made it.


Actual dimensions may vary from description.
 
This is the first I've heard of the cartridge, that I remember.

There's been so many different rounds made, it's hard to keep track.

If the OP had mentioned the round in a different context, I would have taken his word for it and then googled the thing up.

Trust but verify;)
 
I've never heard of it, but if we were talking about it, I wouldn't get rude with you, like you say some have. Gun talk is supposed to be FUN!
 
.45-80 was also a commercial loading for some years.

It used the Winchester .45-90 case, but a heavy bullet and a lighter charge of black powder because of the heavier bullet.

Because of the nature of black powder, loads could be quite flexible.
 
Because of the nature of black powder, loads could be quite flexible.
Click to expand...
Yep. 45-70, 45-80,45-90, 45-100. 45-110, 45-120, etc, etc. If the powder is compressed too much, just lengthen the case a bit and keep going.
 
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