Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Nice. I keep thinking about getting a .45 again 'just because'.

Well, I bought heavier recoil springs for three of my four 45s with the idea of shooting 45 Super out of them. 45 Super for those who don't know is a magnum powered cartridge based on the 45 acp. It uses a thicker case but will fire in 45 acp chambers.

It should have been the natural evolution of the 45 acp but It never really caught on because the guy who developed it copyrighted the name. A few companies make very expensive ammo for it but Starline makes brass and it will reload on regular 45 acp dies.

The idea is to have a cartridge for dangerous animals (bears) without having to invest in a 10 mm and with a higher capacity than a revolver.

I've been traveling lately so I haven't ordered the brass yet but probably will when I get home. The winter project will be to develop loads suitable for my ruger p97, s&w 645 and my 1911 to see which one is most suitable for conversion.

So far all I've done is switch out the recoil springs. I went from 16lb springs in the 645 and 1911 to 24 lb and 12lb to 17lb in the p97. The recoil springs from Wolfe came with heavier hammer springs so I swapped them as well. Heavier mag springs are also suggested so I will probably order those as well. Then it's just a matter of working up the loads.

Mac66 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 8:54 am Well, I bought heavier recoil springs for three of my four 45s with the idea of shooting 45 Super out of them. 45 Super for those who don't know is a magnum powered cartridge based on the 45 acp. It uses a thicker case but will fire in 45 acp barrels.

It should have been the natural evolution of the 45 acp but It never really caught on because the guy who developed it copyrighted the name. A few companies make very expensive ammo for it but Starline makes brass and it will reload on regular 45 acp dies.

The idea is to have a cartridge for dangerous animals (bears) without having to invest in a 10 mm and with a higher capacity than a revolver.

I've been traveling lately so I haven't ordered the brass yet but probably will when I get home. The winter project will be to develop loads suitable for my ruger p97, s&w 645 and my 1911 to see which one is most suitable for conversion.

So far all I've done is switch out the recoil springs. I went from 16lb springs in the 645 and 1911 to 24 lb and 12lb to 17lb in the p97. The recoil springs from Wolfe came with heavier hammer springs so I swapped them as well. Heavier mag springs are also suggested so I will probably order those as well. Then it's just a matter of working up the loads.

10mm seems to have a strong fan-base for a woods carry pistol. How does the 45 Super compare to the 10mm?

The 45 super has the same velocities as the 10 but with heavier bullets. That means a bit more power. It is also a relatively low pressure round. The 45 acp is around 18-22 cups (copper units of pressure), the 10 is around 33, the 45 super is about 28. Which means it can be used in existing 45 acp barrels. Need to beef up the guns with recoil springs, muzzle comps etc to lesson the recoil or the gun takes a beating.

Needless to say that it was originally developed in the 1911. These days it is most popular in the Glock 21 platform but most 45s can be upgraded to handle it. I've read that the S&W M&P 45 is a good candidate and the HK usp 45 reportedly can shoot it without modification. You need a stout, full sized gun with a fully supported chamber. You also need heavier mag springs to keep up with the increased slide velocity and muzzle comps help tame the increased recoil/blast.

The advantages of the 45 super is that it has magnum velocities and power and can be used in some existing 45 autos with about $20 worth of spring changes. That's a lot cheaper than investing in a 10mm if you already have a 45. It uses a wide variety of 45 cal bullets and is as easy and cheap to reload as the 45 acp. You can also shoot standard 45 acp ammo in a converted gun.

The disadvantage is the cost of and availability of factory ammo. 45 super may not work in some guns. There is always some tweaking that needs to be done to get it to work in a gun not designed for it. Mag capacity isn't as high as the some 10mms. It tends to have heavy recoil so isn't good for extended use.

I toyed around with 45Super in my 625s and my Glock 21. I always thought they would be great guns for bear defense or hog hunting. The hard cast lead options would offer plenty of penetration for big, solid animals.
Buffalo Bore pushes their 255gr hard cast to 1075fps.

I'm thinking standard 230 gr ball ammo in a 45 super would give good penetration. I have a couple hundred 230 gr cast lead bullets with copper coatings on them I plan to develop loads with. I just recently saw an article of someone using a 45 auto for black bear defense which is my intention.

Just ordered a Dissipator upper from PSA to go on a completed lower I've had sitting in the closet for the past 3 years.

Two words, or one word and one number; Polymer 80. I'm building my handguns now. I recommend it now while it's still legal especially in light of current anti gun legislation efforts

Just traded my Shield 2.0 9mm for a NIB/unfired Shield 380 EZ plus 250 rounds of ammo. I had traded a Ruger SR22 even up for the 9mm Shield a couple months ago. The Shield had a built in laser and came with a IWB holster. I have a Ruger LC9 I carry EDC so I didn't need another pocket gun. Even though the Shield was a nice gun with a much better trigger I couldn't get used to the built in laser so never carried it. It was just a trifle bit heavier than the LC9.

Anyway...my wife uses the other SR22 I had as her primary HD gun and I wanted to get her something a little better. Been looking closely at the EZ since it came out.

It is actually a pretty nice gun. Nice size. The slide is easy to pull back, the mags are easy to load. It is larger than a typical Shield or LC9 but much lighter. It holds 8 in the mag, has a decent trigger pull and the one I traded for came with a thumb safety as well as the standard grip safety. I can see why they've become so popular. It is really a nice package.

Photos later.

The Dissipator upper arrived today. It is now joined with a completed lower. I will probably go to a local indoor range on Wednesday to function test it and do a quick zero at 25 yards. Right now it'll be wearing irons-- a detachable carry handle as a matter of fact.