Jim Taylor
45 ACP cases as a projectile in the .475 Linebaugh
Monday, November 01, 2021, 13:50

It actually began as an experiment in barrel cleaning. I had leaded the barrel heavily with some cast bullets I was testing and was looking around for an easy way to clean the barrel when it came to me. The outside diameter of the .45 ACP case is the correct size to fire down the barrel of the .475 Linebaugh!! I grabbed an empty .45 ACP and shoved it into a .475 case that had 10 gr. of Unique in it. Firing the .45 cartridge base-first as sort of a large all-metal wadcutter did not work. Halfway down the barrel the primer blew out of the .45 case leaving it stuck in the middle of bore.

Not to be undone, I drove it out of the barrel and reloaded, this time with the .45 ACP base-down in the .475 case. Success! It blew a nice hole in an oak door that I had laying in my shop. I spent the afternoon loading various powders and charges and blowing holes in things. It was wonderful. On the range they proved fairly accurate. I have not shot them over 30 or 40 yards but others have taken the idea to new heights and is doing some (fairly) long-range shooting with them at velocities approaching 2000 fps.

I never ran them over 1700 fps. They would take the chickens down on the Hunters Pistol Range. Penetrated about 6" into a telephone pole.

I think I was the first one to demonstrate it to Lee Jurras some years ago. I was visiting him and we got to talking about so we loaded some up and had fun with them. They work fine at 400 fps ... just make sure they get out of the barrel. And you can run them pretty fast if you desire.