Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots 45 ACP in an Unconventional Precision Platform

Hello guys!

Just a bit of an update on a project I have underway. I thought you might like to see what I have dreamed up LOL!

I am taking a Savage Model 112, Series-J rifle that was originally chambered in .222Remington, and converting it to a 45 ACP rifle that should give me the opportunity to squeeze as much accuracy out of the 45 ACP as I can. Just to see what it is capable of.

Why? Because I enjoy shooting big, slow bullets like this, and would like to create a great 100 yard gopher/plate/rock etc. smacker!
The trajectory should be close to the 22lr, and would be more fun to see hits with a 230 grain bullet than a 40 grain bullet.

I may even try to shoot a deer or two with it sometime.


The barrel I am using is a custom job that I am still waiting for. It should be complete and on it's way in about a month +/- a week. The wait is unbelievably painful! LOL!

The barrel is going to be 20.5" long, and a full 1" bull contour.
- .451" diameter
- Stainless
- 1:16" Twist

So far I have completed the following:

- Obtained another bolt head for .308win case head size, and fitted it yesterday to the bolt.
the pin protrusion is at .053", so that is fine.
Switched the old extractor to the new bolt head, and removed the new bolt heads ejector plunger. No need to fling these cases out on the ground.

- The trigger was set to around 10-12 ounces (safely) when shooting bench rest with the .222 Remington barrel. So that will help wring out the smallest groups.
- I have set up a Bushnell Forge 2.5-15x50mm scope with Burris 30mm Signature rings.
- Installed a +.010" shell in the bottom rear ring and a -.010" shell in the front bottom ring to bias the scope alignment vertically.
- Installed a .015" Brass shim under the rear scope base to further give me scope bias for the vertical plain. This should allow me to site the rifle in at around 80 yards, and leave me nearly all the vertical adjustment of the scope available for longer shots. (100-200 yards LOL!). Small adjustments may need to be made to fine tune this bias value.
"If the developed loads are accurate enough to take advantage of this option".

I am hoping to shoot 230+ grain bullets primarily, but will try most traditional bullet types and weights in time.
I will attempt to develop some high performance loads with the Hornady 225 grain FTX bullets as well.

Note: The barrel presently on the action is still the original .222 Remington barrel. The barrel was left on for sake of the pictures.

here is the google link to my photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8h75oYA36SK3KuzH9

And I thought I was looney.

Good luck with it. Maybe think about heavier bullets.

Should be a fun project. I know a guy up here who have a contender barrel made for 45 sit rim, 18” and runs a can on it all the time. It seems to be the only gun he ever shoots. Always has a smile on his face

Gil Sengel (IIRC) did a project like that with an 1891 Belgian Mauser beater. New barrel, wooden single-shot loading block, red dot sight. Dandy little plinker.

Thread it. Would make a nice suppressed rifle.

DF

I cannot put a suppressor on this rifle. I live in Canada, where the government believes that "ALL" suppressors are designed to hide the signature of a firearm to shoot people! If you have a suppressor, your automatically a murderous minded criminal by default. LOL! This country has such childish ways of governing people!

I am just thankful they haven't banned firearms yet!

Well it was a decent idea. Sorry to hear that.

Not quite that bad down here. Not yet, at least.

DF

Sounds interesting - keep us posted.

I've got a single shot 9mm Bergara (18 inch barrel with a 1 in 10 twist). I've been focussing on 147gn loads. It's a hard thing to get to shoot accurate reliably. It will typically do 2.5MOA at both 50 and 100yards. I've only shot 2 groups at 200yards and it did 2.25MOA. I have shot 1MOA groups with it at 50 and 100 but it's not he norm. I'm currently playing around with different length muzzle brakes and adjustable weights, using them as stabilisers. I've just bought a Limbsaver X-ring barrel dampener and tried it out today with the brakes. It does make a difference but there's still a ton of experimentation to do. With such a small case capacity I think the barrel stabilisers are still needed in addition to load development, but I tend to just buy off the shelf 147gn Winchester BEB because I find it hard to find the time to reload and this factory ammo shoots very good anyway.

when I was in business I converted several 98 mausers to 45 acp that used a 1911 magazines. the clients liked them and claimed that they were accurate. it was nice the bolt face was already set up for the proper case head size. I believe that you might be surprised how accurate you can make it shoot.

I am really hoping it will shoot tight groups out to at least 100.

The bolt head I had to replaceand refit a new one. The original was a .222 Remington. I wanted to save the old bolt head in case I decide to go to that bolt head size again in the future.
I also plan to get an additional .222 Remington bolt head and bore it out to the 7.62 x 39 case head dimension. Really make this rifle platform versatile.

Is there a prime barrel length for a.45 ACP rifle or carbine that promotes the best speed without friction loss? I've heard the .45ACP gets up to speed fast and doesn't really need a long barrel to get to top velocity, and a barrel that's too long will actually slow it down. Is this true or myth?.

Winchester 9mm 147gn BEB factory is advertised as 1,080fps but does 1,140fps out of my 18 inch barrel. Might start to drop off if the barrel got much longer - I'd suspect the 45ACP might have similar trend.

Did that on my Ruger 77 Mark II switch barrel. 25” Green Mtn bull barrel. I hoped for minimal muzzle report in the long 25” barrel but it was still loud enough to wear hearing protection SO I cut it to 17”. Fun to tinker when one has a reamer, a lathe, tooling, inexpensive barrel blank, etc, etc, etc.........

according to most of the research I have read, after 14" of barrel length the velocity return starts to "diminish". Thats not to say that the extra inch or two doesn't help at all.

I plan on trying some slower powders like 2400 or lil'gun to boost the performance a bit. With slightly larger powder charges of slower powders, you will get more gas production over a longer time frame, thus make better use of the extra inches of barrel for the additional acceleration over the extra distance.
My guess is that 20.5" is a little much, but I can cut it back any time I choose. Gonna be funnnnnn!

What kind of velocities, powders, and accuracy did you use/ achieve out of your project?

Although I would love to have experimented with handloads, especially heavier than ‘normal’ cast 45ACP bullets, I have been overwhelmed with my business and other projects and have not. I HAVE shot some factory ammo and surprisingly found lead bullet ammo more accurate than FMJ ball ammo.
I got 3”-4” groups at 100 yards.

Dthunter, you’re on a good track, don’t cut your barrel. The twist you have chosen will stabilize a lead bullet around 500 gr or a bit more. You don’t have to shoot that heavy of of course, when you start getting in that neighborhood with a tapered RN flat base bullet at subsonic velocity you might be amazed at the BC that results.

I want to say member Bullshooter built a .45ACP rifle, you might touch base with him.

Make an "Extra Webley".

Could you get enough [bleep] out of a 45 case to pop a 500+gr cast
bullet out the muzzle?

That can be a thing with light loaded revolver rounds,
is it less so in higher pressure smaller cartridges?
I suppose the barrel length vs gas production question
would be key.

Dunno the .45 ACP case capacity but I run 180 gr bullets out of my .30/.357 wildcat at 1050 or so without trying. Roughly the same capacity as the .300 BO. It takes 5-6 gr of powder in a case that could handle twice that.