Pistol Caliber Lever Action Carbine?

[adirondakjack]

In my head I can see it working with a 73. Still wouldn't WANT one, but it could work. My 24" 73 in Cowboy .45 Special holds 17+1. Unless I'm fighting a hoard of zombies, stick mag reloads don't impress me.

[Buck Elliott]

The biggest problem I see in using a '73 with 1911 magazines is the feed angle.. That might doom the project from the get-go, if memory serves.. What was that .45 ACP carbine that used straight stick mags ? Something like that might work.. Or the thompson sub-gun magazine configuration.. Either way, I remember that it seemed to be much more trouble than it would be worth, even though it could be done...

[Palmtreee]

Our favorite, tradtional leverguns were designed around rimmed cartridges, and still work best that way.. Lots of non-traditional alterations can be made to them, to allow them to accept rimless rounds, for example, but there isn't enough interest in the process to make it commercially viable..

Traditionally again, short-action leverguns have been paired with revolvers of the same chambering.. Both types of firearms seem to work best with the rimmed ammo.. Semi-auto pistols chambered for rimless rounds have a number of semi-auto carbines to pair up with as compaions..

I know that tradition means little or nothing to a lot of shooters, who have their own little niche in this world.. Just my 2¢...

My old man laughed when I told him what I was going to do to a 45 Colt 1894 Marlin.
I feel the same way as you do Buck about tradition. Life is short. I love the 45ACP and leverguns.

[Palmtreee]

David Clay of DRC can make you a 45 ACP lever, mine loves 200 grain SWC just like my 1911's.

Hey, Palmtree, very cool looking rifle there! Is the steel really green like it looks in the picture?

Deep royal blue. Just cellphone pic.

[El Mac]

I can easily push 250 grain hard-cast .45 Colt bullets out of my 7 1/2" Beretta Stampede (or a Colt SAA) at 1200 fps.. All it takes is a load of H-4198 powder.. The same load gives me just over 1500 fps in a Uberti '73 rifle, so I guess you could say I just ain't too impressed..

In my old .45 Colt Ruger Vaquero, 1450 fps was easy , using a 300, 315, or 325 grain cast bullet, and a stiff charge of H-110. Those loads run about 1750 - 1800 fps in a '92 Winchester, Browning or Rossi...

A .454 Casull will give 1700 fps with those heavier bullets, from a 7 1/2" Freedom Arms revolver, and 2100 fps from a 24" rifle barrel..

You just don't have enough cubic inches in the .45 ACP case to allow you to do anywhere near what even the .45 Colt will do, without blowing something up, or bending it pretty bad...

I wish you luck in finding someone to build your new, stick-mag levergun.. Be prepared to spend upwards of $200,000 for the finished product...

Note, I never said anything about a stick mag lever gun. Nor did I say a .45 acp was superior in any sense of the word to a .45 Colt round out of a levergun. I do like .45 acp and .45 Colt. Plenty of both, just don't have a levergun in .45 acp. Yet. And I guarantee I can get it done for a lot less than $200k.

[adirondakjack]

Not for nothing, but the ACP-length Cowboy .45 Special used in a toggle link is also an odd ball, but in CAS circles draws lots of interest. Since we designed the Cowboy Carrier to allow it's use, our biggest problem has been getting enough factory replacement carriers to convert. We literally depleted all known US stocks twice, and sell out pretty quick with each batch. Granted you won't push .45 ACP as fast as a hot loaded .45 Colt, but the idea of having a whole pile of them little bitty .45s on tap does resonate with lots of folks I talk to. We've sold around 200 carriers, most for C45S, and the balance for .44 Russian use. We even have a version for .38 short Colt!

The additional work to make the rimless case function is not impossible, but since the advent of C45S, the hand loading crowd just runs with C45S instead.

My Marlins converted to C45S can be loaded to .460 Rowland velocity, and the 16" rifle with 11+1 rounds of 230 grain XTPs at 1400 fps is nothing to sneeze at.

[Buck Elliott]

I can easily push 250 grain hard-cast .45 Colt bullets out of my 7 1/2" Beretta Stampede (or a Colt SAA) at 1200 fps.. All it takes is a load of H-4198 powder.. The same load gives me just over 1500 fps in a Uberti '73 rifle, so I guess you could say I just ain't too impressed..

In my old .45 Colt Ruger Vaquero, 1450 fps was easy , using a 300, 315, or 325 grain cast bullet, and a stiff charge of H-110. Those loads run about 1750 - 1800 fps in a '92 Winchester, Browning or Rossi...

A .454 Casull will give 1700 fps with those heavier bullets, from a 7 1/2" Freedom Arms revolver, and 2100 fps from a 24" rifle barrel..

You just don't have enough cubic inches in the .45 ACP case to allow you to do anywhere near what even the .45 Colt will do, without blowing something up, or bending it pretty bad...

I wish you luck in finding someone to build your new, stick-mag levergun.. Be prepared to spend upwards of $200,000 for the finished product...

Note, I never said anything about a stick mag lever gun. Nor did I say a .45 acp was superior in any sense of the word to a .45 Colt round out of a levergun. I do like .45 acp and .45 Colt. Plenty of both, just don't have a levergun in .45 acp. Yet. And I guarantee I can get it done for a lot less than $200k.

I was attempting to answer several posts at once, so some parts of the comment may seem a bit disconnected.. I do this all from my phone, and did that little missive in the wee hours, when I wanted to be sleeping...

I still contend that if you were to start with a basically clean sheet of paper, the engineering, tooling and machining would run in the neighborhood of $200K, unless you can find a 'smith with a heart of gold, and a brain of iron...

[El Mac]

No worries Buck...