Chamber size?

[44 AMP]

Someone in the firearms industry wanted the barrel and bullet diameters to be matching for 45 ACP and 45 Colt.

Yes, and many if not most of them were called "customers"....

The original .45 Colt bullet size was .454". ALL the bullets were lead. Jacketed .45 bullets don't show up until nearly 40 years later with the .45acp with their size of .451/.452".

After WWII, as the popularity of the Single Action revolver started going back up, (due mostly to Hollywood & tv Westerns) and other makers making and selling SA revolves, Colt got back into the market.

During this era, .45 Colt barrel size was reduced to .452" (generally, not everyone did, or did it at the same time), I think, primarily, because more people shooting .45 pistols were using (and able to get) .45acp size slugs.
The "acp" size barrels gave better accuracy with the smaller diameter bullets (and particularly jacketed ones) and the .454" bullets simply didn't care. They squeeze down just fine, and do not create dangerously high pressure doing so.

Eventually, the smaller bore diameter became the defacto industry standard, and still is today.

 

[Jim Watson]

.45 LC chamber is still pretty sloppy. Throat .452" -0 + .0075" so anything up to .4595" is technically in spec. Most SAAMI diameters are -0 +.004".

Undersize is worse and not unknown, there are shops doing a good business reaming to .4525".

 

[rclark]

shops... reaming to .4525".

Or just buy the tool and do yourself.

I shoot pistols for one reason only, self defense.

Each to their own . Rat-a-tat-tat is no fun in my books ... accurate shooting with a revolver out to 100 yards (and beyond) is a lot more fun. Guns aren't 'just' for sub 10 yards. That would get boring real fast. Can be used for bottle busting, gopher/rabbit/varmint shooting and much more 'recreational' uses ... Need to go on the 'offensive' once in awhile on a tin can at 75 yards, or a steel pig out there even further... Or learn the art of waiting for a gopher to pop it's head out.... .

 

[44 AMP]

Now I can empty any pistol I own as fast as I can pull the trigger and keep all my shots in a 5” circle at ten yards.

And does that skill actually serve a useful function in your life? OR is it just practice for a function you've never needed and hope never to need??

Also, its quite clear you don't own some of the guns I own, and I'd be willing to bet you couldn't empty some of them as fast as you could pull the trigger and put all shots into a 5" circle at ten yards. (I will stipulate a basic requirement that the 5" circle be ON the target, and roughly centered )

You do you, focus on what interests you and what you feel important. In my life there is much more to handgunning than defensive shooting practice, and it forms a very tiny percentage of my shooting.

Also, as to this.

there are shops doing a good business reaming to .4525".

They aren't doing any business with my guns. Nor am I doing any reaming of them myself. I am very much a "if it ain't broke don't fix it", kind of guy, and none of mine are "broke".

 

[Jim Watson]

I am very much a "if it ain't broke don't fix it", kind of guy, and none of mine are "broke".

A lot of people have trouble figuring that out, but if you had .450" throats, that might qualify as broke.

 

[44 AMP]

, but if you had .450" throats, that might qualify as broke.

it might, but only if the gun shot too poorly to meet my standards, and I knew the reason was the throat size....

 

[RoyceP]

Yes, and many if not most of them were called "customers"....

The original .45 Colt bullet size was .454". ALL the bullets were lead. Jacketed .45 bullets don't show up until nearly 40 years later with the .45acp with their size of .451/.452".

After WWII, as the popularity of the Single Action revolver started going back up, (due mostly to Hollywood & tv Westerns) and other makers making and selling SA revolves, Colt got back into the market.

During this era, .45 Colt barrel size was reduced to .452" (generally, not everyone did, or did it at the same time), I think, primarily, because more people shooting .45 pistols were using (and able to get) .45acp size slugs.
The "acp" size barrels gave better accuracy with the smaller diameter bullets (and particularly jacketed ones) and the .454" bullets simply didn't care. They squeeze down just fine, and do not create dangerously high pressure doing so.

Eventually, the smaller bore diameter became the defacto industry standard, and still is today.

This is not true. I was buying jacketed bullets from Sierra and Hornady in 45 Colt that were .454" in the early 1980's.

 

[44 AMP]

I was buying jacketed bullets from Sierra and Hornady in 45 Colt that were .454" in the early 1980's.

Sure, and I was buying .452" jacketed bullets at the same time. Never personally bothered to seek out .454" slugs as my .45 Colts didn't need them, and I also loaded .45acp.

I did not say that .452" for .45 Colt became the established industry standard, I said it became the de facto standard, meaning the most made and most popular in fact.