45 ACP Once Fired Brass | Red Dragon Brass

We currently stock 45 ACP Once Fired Brass as well as 9mm, 40 S&W, and 223/5.56mm

45 Auto Brass
40 S&W Auto Brass
357 Magnum Brass
9mm once fired brass
[wpsc_products category_id=’77’]


Short History Of the 45 ACP Cartridge

The .45 ACP (11.43×23mm) (Automatic Colt Pistol), also known as the .45 Auto by C.I.P. or 45 Auto by SAAMI, is a cartridge designed by John Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic .45 pistol and eventually the M1911 pistol adopted by the United States Army in 1911.[2]
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Colt had been working with Browning on a .41 caliber cartridge in 1904, and in 1905 when the Cavalry asked for a .45 caliber equivalent Colt modified the pistol design to fire an enlarged version of the prototype .41 round. The result from Colt was the Model 1905 and the new .45 ACP cartridge. The original round that passed the testing fired a 200 grain (13 g) bullet at 900 ft/s (275 m/s), but after a number of rounds of revisions between Winchester Repeating Arms, Frankford Arsenal, and Union Metallic Cartridge, it ended up using a 230 grain (15 g) bullet fired at about 850 ft/s (260 m/s). The resulting .45-caliber cartridge, named the .45 ACP, was similar in performance to the .45 Schofield cartridge, and only slightly less powerful (but significantly shorter) than the .45 Colt cartridges the Cavalry was using.

By 1906, bids from six makers were submitted, among them Browning’s design, submitted by Colt. Only DWM, Savage, and Colt made the first cut. DWM, which submitted two Parabellum P08s chambered in .45 ACP, withdrew from testing after the first round of tests, for unspecified reasons.[4] One of the DWM pistols, serial number 1, was destroyed in testing; the remaining example, serial number 2, is one of the most desirable collectors’ handguns in existence.[5]

In the second round of evaluations in 1910, the Colt design passed the extensive testing with no failures, while the Savage design suffered 37 stoppages or parts failures.[4] The resulting weapon was adopted as the Model 1911.

The cartridge/pistol combination was quite successful but not satisfactory for U.S. military purposes. Over the next few years a series of improved designs were offered, culminating in the adoption in 1911 of the “Cal. .45 Automatic Pistol Ball Cartridge, Model of 1911”, a 1.273 in (32.3 mm)-long round with a bullet weight of 230 grains. The very first production, at Frankford Arsenal, was marked “F A 8 11”, for the August 1911 date.

The cartridge was designed by John Browning of Colt, but the most influential person in selecting the cartridge was Army Ordnance member Gen. John T. Thompson. Thompson insisted on a real “man stopper” pistol, following the poor showing of the Army’s .38 Long Colt pistols during the Philippine-American War (1899–1902).

.45 ACP