test of photo posting

[RCS]

45 ACP wildcats

sometimes it even works !

[RCS]

Left is the 38/45 cartridge which was once popular with target shooters and easy to convert with the barrel installation in the 1911A1 pistols. Sometimes difficult to neck down the 45 ACP.

middle is a 40 cal wildcat with the old 38-40 WCF bullet

[Garanditis]

Wild contraptions. I'll have to look around YouTube to see if there are any demos of that 38/45 conversion, maybe that guy Hickok45. He likes the play with all kind of firearms, typical and unusual. Great post!

[RCS]

The old 38/45 ACP was well liked, very accurate and never a feeding problem - but difficult to forum, certain brands were better than others and some cases were always damaged.

When you bought the 38/45 barrel (which was a drop in) you also got the forming dies too

[m14brian]

I don't know much about these at all, were they loaded for pretty good performance like +P or hotter? Or just about typical contemporary performance of the bullet at the time?
m14brian

[RCS]

The 38/45 was designed as target cartridge firing the 148 gr lead wadcutter but could also be used with the 130 gr jacket with 7.5grs of Unique with 1275 fps.

Other designs of this wildcat were the 45-38 Auto Pistol and 45-38 Clerke.

The 38-45 Hard Head used a 45 Winchester magnum case because of the stronger thicker case head which allowed hotter loads (124 gr bullet at 1511 fps and 130 gr bullet at 1476 fps)

The 38- 45 Hard Head was just an attempt to improve the ballistics of the standard cartridges used in the Colt 1911 while the 38-45 was designed as a accurate target cartridge that would feed any type of bullet design