Here’s an idea.
Not sure if it would fly
So, the other day I’m out running some slugs through a .410 with an old buddy of mine trying to get some reasonable accuracy out of them at 100 yards. When we had run through the very few .410 shells I had in my collection we switched to his stuff which was some kind of metal cased .410 stuff probably of Russian origin.
That’s when it hit me: Why can’t you take the Saiga in .410 and rechamber it into .45 Long Colt? That’d be kind of sweet, and probably a damned smight better for this task, and many others, than what we’re doing right now, and…
I woke up.
Is it weird that I think of stuff like this in my dreams? Don’t answer that.
The problem, at least the first one that most people would note, with putting .45LC into an autoloader is that it’s a rimmed case. This makes it less than optimal but the Saiga shotguns seem to deal with this just fine. There’s also the M1 Carbine that deals with the .30 Carbine rimmed case.
So, presuming that that won’t be a problem in the .410 Saiga what else could there be?
Well, getting a rifled barrel chambered for .45LC. That would be costly. If they were actually produced commercially I’d expect them to be about $300, but they’re not, so it’s anybody’s guess.
Magazines would also be a problem. Perhaps the Saiga .410 mags could be used, perhaps not. You’d definately want a greater capacity than they currently offer here in the US for it to be useful.
If, somehow, it were all made to work what would it get you?
Well, the brass cased .45LC should be more readily available than brass cased .410 slug ammo. A brass case means more heat can be removed from the chamber upon ejection. Slight advantage there, I guess.
Now a .410 slug is about 86 grains in the 1800fps area. A .45LC should be closer to 250 grains running far slower, but still above 1000fps I guess.
Can you same home defensive carbine? I thought you could.
Big heavy bullet, not going that fast, and coming off of a Kalishanakov platform.
Meh, the thought entertained me for a while. As I flush it out more and more it becomes less and less viable.
However, there’s got to be some kind of market for this. As I said, as I flesh this out I realize that there are actual projects going down this path. One of them is the 45 Bushmaster and in the comments there The Heartless Libertarian opines:
Do I hear a bid for .45 LC?
Guess I’m not the only one that thinks the old cartridge still has some modern uses.
It also might be marketable in the same vein as the 300 Whisper sans that whole downrange accuracy and efficient bullet coefficient thing.
I guess this would be more of a big bore version of the M1 Carbine than anything else, and if sold that way, it might have some appeal.