Stareline 45 Cowboy Special Brass.

djh1765

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Subject: 45 Cowboy Special brass.

Hard subject to find any information on. I understand this brass is the same specs as 45ACP brass but with the 45Long Colt rim.

A brass with the same specs as the 45ACP with the exception it has a .060 thick 45 LC rim.

The question is will this ammo work in my Taurus 455, 45ACP revolver?
 
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No not the Auto Rim. The 45 Auto Rim has a rim thickness of 0.082. That is to thick to go in some revolvers.
This was a special run of brass they called the 45 Cowboy Special. It is supposed to have the same specs as the 45ACP brass except with a .060 thick 45LC rim.
It was developed to work in 45 ACP revolvers so you can do away with the Moon Clips required by the 45ACP brass.

I have been trying to confim these specs before I try to buy some.
 
Yes that is correct, it is essentially a shortened .45 Colt. When making your own, you just trim down a .45LC to .45 ACP length.
 
IMG_20131027_140530_209.jpg


Does this help you? Same rim thickness as .45 Colt.
 
It was developed to work in 45 ACP revolvers so you can do away with the Moon Clips required by the 45ACP brass.

That's .45 Auto Rim, not .45 Cowboy Special, that is designed to get around the necessity of clips.

.45 Cowboy Special is a short .45 Colt, so you can use .45 ACP data in your .45 Colt loads. .45 CS has rims that are too thin to use in my .45 ACP 625-3, whereas I use .45 AR all the time. .45 CS works great in my .45 Colt revolvers and leverguns.


45C45Sc45CowboySP45AR45ACP.jpg

Colt, Schofield, Cowboy Special, Auto Rim, ACP

Read more here, if you'd like:
.45 auto rim in .45 colt chamber - SASS Wire - SASS Wire Forum
 
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Yes that is correct, it is essentially a shortened .45 Colt. When making your own, you just trim down a .45LC to .45 ACP length.


If you plan on doing this, you should invest in a neck turning tool in order to thin the necks of the shortened brass. Trimming 45 long Colt brass this much puts you down to where the brass is thicker, enough to deform lead bullets when loaded.

Kevin
 
Adirondak Jack was the originator of this cartridge and contracted with Starline to produce it. He sold over 500,00 of the cases. When his health failed he got out of the business and sold the rights to another shooter. That company failed and the rights were sold to someone else. I lost the trail at this point but I hear you can purchase loaded ammunition and so far that is the only way to get new cases for reloading.

It is popular cartridge in CAS.

Kevin
 
I have not used 45 CS, but have used 45 Schofield (S&W) in my cowboy action firearms. If you have a limited to 10 Magazine, 45 S&W will give you 12.

Before WWI the Army had Frankfort Arsenal load cases with the Schofield length and the Colt rim diameter, a 230 grain bullet at 810 fps and called it 45 US, many cases sold as Schofield are in truth 45 US.

I'll have to make a few dozen and try them in both my 92 and my 1894 Marlin CB, I should get around 14 or 15 in that mag tube.

Ivan
 
I came across this on-line about the Starline Cowboy Special and Starline sent me an email telling me it was now making the brass for "American Cowboy" and a telephone number who ever that is.. I may call them but it sounds like you can only buy loaded ammo of which I am not interested in doing.
I would just like to have a few of the brass to load and try..

The .45 Cowboy Special was developed for Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS). The goal was to have a case capacity appropriate for the loaded power level used in .45 Colt cartridges for CAS competition. The shorter loaded cartridge also allows Marlin 1894 rifles to be modified to a "short stroke" action.

This cartridge is essentially a .45 Auto case with a .45 Colt rim (.060). Not to be confused with the .45 Auto Rim whose rim is .090" for revolvers designed to fire .45 Auto cartridges loaded in moon clips. .45 Auto loading data may be used as well as .45 Auto reloading dies.
 
Since the 45 colt chamber is longer than the AR case it would seem
that in the absence of CS brass, AR brass could be used if the rim was
shaved on the front of the rim to the same thickness as the CS and
45 Colt brass. AR brass isn't exactly common but it surely is easier to
find than the CS brass. Shaved AR brass should also be ok for use in
the 45 Colt conversion cylinders for the Ruger Old Army revolvers.
Any body have any experience with one of these cylinders in an Old
Army?
 
Since the 45 colt chamber is longer than the AR case it would seem
that in the absence of CS brass, AR brass could be used if the rim was
shaved on the front of the rim to the same thickness as the CS and
45 Colt brass. AR brass isn't exactly common but it surely is easier to
find than the CS brass. Shaved AR brass should also be ok for use in
the 45 Colt conversion cylinders for the Ruger Old Army revolvers.
Any body have any experience with one of these cylinders in an Old
Army?

I do.

photobucket-27101-1345850654207.jpg


The Cowboy Special and .45 Colt ammo work great in it. I can't imagine anyone having the time or patience to shave .45 AR brass in the manner you describe. :)
 
Well Erich time and patience are things that are relative to the
observer. For instance if someone had a small metal lathe, good sharp
lathe tools and a little experience it would be a simple fairly quick job
to thin the rims of a quantity of brass. Another possibility I thought of would be to use common acp brass with hardened steel washers of
.011 thickness to shim the .049 thickness of the acp rim to the .060
thickness of the 45 Colt brass. Just something to think about. I see
the conversion cyls for the Old Armys for sale from time to time and
have thought about buying one. Maybe.
 
"Before WWI the Army had Frankfort Arsenal load cases with the Schofield length and the Colt rim diameter, a 230 grain bullet at 810 fps and called it 45 US, many cases sold as Schofield are in truth 45 US."


That is not exactly what happened. This is what did. For the Army pistol trials of 1906-07, the Army came up with a special revolver cartridge having a rimmed .45 case having a 0.533" diameter rim and a length of 0.92" using a 230 grain cupro-nickel jacketed bullet and 7.2 grains of Bullseye smokeless powder giving a MV of 800 ft/sec. It was officially called the Model of 1906, not the .45 US, and there are several slight variations of it known. Only 10,000 rounds were loaded at Frankford Arsenal in 1906, and the only known headstamp is F A 4 06. There was (probably) an unknown but small number of such cartridges made by UMC, without headstamps, also for use in those trials. The Model of 1906 cartridge is commonly called the .45 Special by ammunition collectors, but that's not what the Army called it. It was never manufactured for commercial sale, but there are a few S&W N-frame revolvers shipped in that period with boxes labeled showing the caliber to be ".45 Special," thought to mean the Model of 1906 cartridge. It is slightly shorter than the much more common military standard .45 Schofield/.45 S&W cartridge, as used by the Army in both Schofield and Colt SAA revolvers, which has a case length of 1.11". You can think of the Model of 1906 .45 cartridge as being essentially a slightly elongated .45 ACP cartridge with the rim of a .45 Colt. BTW, the "winner" of the 1906-07 Army trials was the Colt New Service, not the S&W Triple Lock. That led to the later adoption by the Army of the Colt Model 1909 revolver and the Model of 1909 .45 cartridge, which is basically a .45 Colt with a larger diameter rim.
 
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Amigo, Kenny Howell makes a ridiculously accurate cylinder: you will not be disappointed. :)

6mar11ROA003.jpg


photobucket-5935-1333151697651.jpg

The Howell cylinders seem to be pretty popular and are sold
by several different companies. Reviews seem to be mostly
positive but some guns do not accept the cylinders without
some fitting. The good news is that they are now also being
made in .45 acp. I haven't been able to find any details
about them yet but the answers could surely be found by
contacting the company. Has to be a good thing though
because I hit the link above and saw the price for the CS
brass. Ouch!
 
Is the 45CS a .451 or .454 bullet dia. cartridge? or doesn't it matter?

The case sounds real close to the .455 Webley (MkI). The Webley has the very thin rim though.
 
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