Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45long Colt Barrel

  

Back about a decade ago when Taurus/Rossi brought out its Circuit Judge rifle, it really turned me on. I mean, not enough to go out and buy one, but for some reason I’ve been enamored of rifles with revolving cylinders for as long as I can remember. Heck, I like them so much that the very first new gun I ever bought was a Uberti black powder revolver, featured in an article on 5 black powder guns that mean a lot to me, and which I used to take a buck as related in an article called “The Cap and Ball Buck.”

Can you shoot 410 out of 45 long colt barrel for sale

As you can see, the 45 Colt rim is only 0.512' in diameter, while the case body below the rim of the 45/70 is 0.505'. Zaxwerks 3d flag 2.0 rapidshare. Depending on how tight your chamber is, 45 Colt, and 454 Casull, might - just might - catch the lip and chamber. If you fire one, though, you are sending a.452 bullet down a.458 barrel. Accuracy should suck. Even when you compare the Henry lever-action.410 to a pump-action.410, the Henry falls short (no pun intended), because the pump-action Mossberg HS410 is 3.25″ shorter, 1.8 lb lighter, can take 3″ shells instead of only 2.5″, and despite being 3.25” shorter and having only an 18.5” barrel can hold six 3” shells instead of just.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45long Colt BarrelOut

So anyway, back to the Circuit Judge, which is a rifle with a revolving cylinder, designed to fire 45 Colt (no, it’s not “long colt”) cartridges and/or 410 shotgun shells. Paul Harrell recently posted a video in which he test & reviews the ol’ CJ.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45long Colt Barrel

Although you can safely fire 2-1/2″ and 3″ 410 shells in the CJ, it has a rifled barrel.

Paul starts out with an accuracy test at 25 yards with 45 Colt ammo. He’s surprised to find that the most-common bullet weight for 45 Colt ammo (250 grains) doesn’t group very well from his rifle.

With 410 slugs, he discovers that a smoothbore 410 shotgun shoots his flavor of slugs (Winchester 1/5-ounce rifled slugs) more accurately than the Rossi does. And to me, this makes sense — because he’s firing slugs which were meant to be fired through a smoothbore barrel. So this is not really a fair comparison, in my opinion. When it comes to shotgun slugs, rifled bores generally do better with sabot slugs which actually engage the rifling in the bore. Rifled slugs, on the other hand, have “rifling” molded into the slug itself and they’re sized & shaped to perform best in a smooth bore. So paul’s comparison here is more or less an “apples and oranges” scenario.

Barrel

Next he moves on to buckshot, and he claims each shell contains 5 pellets, which is what Federal says about the 3″ 000 buckshot ammo he’s firing. But since each shot actually caused 3 hits on target, viewers might begin to wonder what sort of mistake has been made (and by whom). But then he demonstrates the difference by shooting the same ammo at the same range with a smoothbore 410 shotgun. And this time, three shots produce 15 impacts on target. Yikes!

Clearly, the Circuit Judge ain’t much when it comes to shooting 410 ammo.

But wait, there’s more! Now Paul deigns to follow the instructions by changing the “choke tube” at the muzzle, installing the one with straight grooves that’s intended to be used with shotgun shells with shot payloads, meaning buckshot or birdshot. That should have been in place during all of the buckshot shooting, if you ask me (which he didn’t).

Sadly, the buckshot pattern didn’t change much with the “rotation stopper” screwed into the barrel. But with birdshot, it made a huge improvement in how the smaller pellets pattern.

Even more sadly, the smoothbore 410 he uses for comparison produces much better results. Sigh. My dreams of a revolving everything-gun are withering.

Next, he compares velocity of Federal American Eagle 225-grain 45 Colt ammo from a Taurus Judge revolver with a 3″ barrel, then the Circuit Judge which has an 18.5-inch barrel.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel Liner

Paul’s results? 812 FPS with the 3″ barrel and 1079 FPS with the 18.5″ barrel. Pretty good improvement.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel Gun

Moving right along, we have that perennial favorite: The meat target! He attacks this with Winchester Silvertip 225-grain JHP ammo at 5 yards. This is a good test to demonstrate how velocity can dramatically affect a bullet’s terminal performance; the handgun doesn’t shoot them fast enough to produce good expansion, but the rifle certainly does.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrels

As for the actual operation of the Circuit Judge itself, Paul touches on some of that:

  • Escaping gas from cylinder gap (not a problem)
  • Ejecting empty cases/shells (sometimes sucks)

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel Liner

Check out the video and see if you agree with his results. Me? I’m probably going to have to remain Judge-less, especially considering the MSRP of $737.86.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel Pistol

What’s your take on it?