Multiple calibres straight out of the box?

P

Pond James Pond

New member
It is common knowledge that a revolver, if of a common magnum calibre, will be able to chamber multiple cartridge types of the same calibre.

For example, my .44Mag can also shoot .44Spl. I am told that, if I could find the ammo, I could also shoot .44Russian and Schofield if memory serves.

So my question is, apart from revolvers, are there are commonly available weapons that can shoot multiple cartridges right out of the box?

I don't mean "I can buy a Lone Wolf .357Sig pipe for my G17" etc, as this is not out of the box.
 
Had a .22 semi-auto tube fed rifle when I was a kid that would shoot .22 short, .22 long, and .22 long rifle cartridges. It was a hardware store rifle...don't remember the brand name but they were pretty common and not very expensive.

Most of the time shot the .22 shorts because they were cheaper and the tube magazine held more of them.
 
My Ruger Super Redhawk revolver in 454 Casull, can also safely chamber the 45 Colt --- But care must be taken, to make sure the cylinder chambers are clean after shooting a lot of 45 Colt, before going back to shooting the 454 Casull round.
 
Some pistols for the .38 super round can also accommodate 9mm, 9x21, 9x23 and maybe a few other similar types of ammo.
Depending on chamber and extractor variables.
Although it might not be a good idea.
But it's kind of hard for auto loading pistols to shoot alternate calibers.
In revolvers, those for .32 can handle quite a variety of ammo.
Some lever action rifles can shoot quite a few different straight walled cartridges in various lengths, again depending....
 
OH yeah, Nagant Revolvers can handle 1 or 2 different types of .32 ammo along with the 7.62x38R, you don't get a gas seal, but they work and shoot.
 
If you had a .327 mag revolver, you could also shoot .32 H&R mag, .32 S&W Long, and .32 S&W. Some folks would put .32 ACP in it as well.

If you had a big X frame in .460 S&W mag, you could load .454 Casull, .45 Colt, and .45 Schofield (if you could find some).

I quit that practice awhile back. Now I practice with what I intend to shoot.
 
Essentially, there are two different classes. The is "what can work" and there is "what the gun is made for".

Straight wall, rimmed cases, generally all work in the longest chamber. As long as the base and body diameter are the right size, shorter rounds will shoot in the longer chamber. They will often work in the same mechanism, but not all designs will.

For example, the .22 rimfire rounds, the Short, Long, & Long Rifle (LR) can all fire though the LR chamber. SOME guns will feed them all, some will not.

With semi auto pistols, there are some that can fire rounds shorter than the chambered one, BUT they are not designed to, the way a revolver or .22 is.

They rely on the extractor to hold the case in place for firing, and in some guns this does work somewhat reliably. Now whether you should do this, in these guns, is a different matter.
 
It seems if a round is a lengthened version of an existing round then the revolver can fire all the rounds with the same basic dimensions-44 Magnum firing 44 Specials, Russian, American. 357 Maximum can fire anything in the357.38 Special family-38 Long and Short Col, e.g.
With semiautos chamber length and rim size are more critical. I recall one of the gun writers installed a 9MMP barrel on his Colt 38 Super and got good accuracy and reliability-with the correct magazine of course. All the 22LR bolt rifle I have seen-and quite a few of the semiautos-are stamped 22s, L, LR.
 
Based on what I've read, it seems to be only revolvers and possibly straight-walled rimmed cartridge lever actions that qualify for the "unaltered, out of the box" criterion.
This is largely what I was expecting. (Hadn't considered lever actions)

Very useful, folks. Thanks!
 
In the 1960s there were a lot of Astra Model 400 pistols sold surplus as "any 9mm" guns. They were made for 9mm Largo (9mm Bergman-Bayard) for which there was little ammunition available, so the vendors did a little semi-fictional advertising.

They would usually shoot 9mm Steyr and also .38 ACP if the breechface happened to be wide enough for the semirim. (Stars and Llamas were often marked 9mm/.38 to indicate suitability for 9mm Largo and .38 ACP, but I don't think the Astras were.)

But what people REALLY wanted to do was to shoot common 9mm Parabellum in them, in spite of the 4mm shorter case.
That would sort of work, as long as the 9mm P round fed up under the extractor. But if it push-fed ahead of the extractor, fireworks were likely. Maj. George C. Nonte was a prolific writer of the day and he did a report on it.
The firing pin had unrestricted protrusion, like a 1911, and would reach the primer even if the cartridge were ahead of the extractor. The round would go off, the primer would blow out of the unsupported casehead, and the case would slam back against it and the breechface. Hard on the gun and alarming to the shooter.
 
It seems to me that the two revolvers that most often turn up in these threads are those chambered for the .460 S&W Magnum and the .327 Federal Magnum. And while I agree that it is an interesting point of discussion (and fact, at that...!) I also think we are best served to dig deeper!

With the .460 Mag, I think that .454 Casull is a viable alternative... as long as we consider -why- we might want to do that. If you are a long time .454 Casull guy and you are flush with the ammo, there you go. If it happens that you are NOT, then this "fantastic option!" doesn't seem to make a heap of sense unless you simply cannot get your hands on .460 ammo or components to craft it.

Using .45 Colt in a .460 Mag revolver is going to mean almost ONE THIRD the bullet velocity. So get very much on board with major sight elevation adjustments for your "convenience" of shooting .45 Colt. Certainly less if it is HEAVY .45 Colt.

And with the .327 Federal... slightly different but similar. .32 H&R Mag is a fine round but it, and .32 S&W Long for that matter, are perhaps even less popular and in-stock at gun stores. And frankly, no cheaper in price.

Now .32 ACP tends to be more available and lower in cost but I would submit that folks who suggest .32 ACP in .327 Federal have thought about it far more than have actually DONE it. What a royal, horrendous annoyance it is to eject that brass from a cylinder. It shoots fine from my GP-100 and if I had brass that needed to be emptied, this method is definitely more enjoyable than a kinetic bullet puller... but for the joy of shooting? .32 ACP in my GP-100 pretty much sucks.
 
I heard something about GI's using 7.7mm Jap. During WWII in their Springfield or Garands, however that was only if .30-06 was extremely scarce or unavailable and it would be kind of silly to do it now considering the availability of surplus/commercial.30-06. Its probably borderline dangerous too. Plus .30-06= .308 bore and 7.7= .311-.312 bore.
 
I don't mean "I can buy a Lone Wolf .357Sig pipe for my G17" etc, as this is not out of the box.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain that wouldn't work anyway. A 357 Sig barrel in a G22 or G23 is fairly simple, but the barrel is too large to fit the 9mm slide.

No one recommends it, but a lot of guys shoot 40 S&W in 10mm pistols. I've tried it in my G20 and G29 just enough to confirm it will work. So far reliability has been perfect with good accuracy and no POI changes. Just a little less recoil. Not something I plan to do on a regular basis, but nice to know that you could make do in an emergency.

You can also fire 300 H&H magnum in a 300 Weatheby magnum. The 300 WBY is based on the H&H round with the shoulder moved forward a bit. After firing you convert the brass to 300 WBY.

Same can be said, and for the same reason, with any AI cartridge, (Ackley Improved). Regular 30-06, 280, 223, 30-30, etc. rounds can be fired in a gun with an AI chamber.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.O._Ackley
 
The Medusa 47 could fire something on the order of 25 different cartridges. It's a 357 bore and has "fingers" in the cylinder that will hold the 32 and 380 families plus all the straight wall 38s. So basically 32 ACP to 357 mag/38 super. I'm not saying it will shoot any of them well but it will fire them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top