I thought .45-70 and .45 GOVT were the same round?

[jfwlb]

Somebody posted in another forum I frequent about finding some .45 GOVT in his garage. He posted pictures of them next to a .45-70 round and they are not the same.

I told the op that I knew where somebody could id them for sure:

So here you are folks, What is this "Mystery" round marked .45 GOVT.

Looks the same here

From the side, hmmm wth?

.45-70 bullet dia.

.45 GOVT dia.

.45-70 above, .45 GOVT below.


John

[Thunder50]

Looks like someone took some 45-70 Govt cases and reformed them to 38-56.

[AJMD429]

Looks like someone took some 45-70 Govt cases and reformed them to 38-56.

Yep.

Think about it - even though cartridge names are not exactly 'logical', any round starting with "45" ought to have a bullet diameter somewhere around that caliber...

[jfwlb]

I thought the same thing, but I wasn't sure you could do that with .45-70 brass.

That's why I asked

Thanks guys, I'll go let him know. btw, do either of you want these? he told me he would like to get them to someone who could use them.

John

[Hawkeye2]

You can take them all the way down to .33 Winchester. There are a number of cases that can be formed from .45-70 (.45 govt.) brass.